Episode 5: Carl Reiner 

At the age of 28, Carl Reiner co-wrote and acted on Your Show of Shows with Sid Caesar. One night, driving home on the East River Drive in Manhattan, Reiner decided to write a situation comedy based on his own family life. The series, which became the Dick Van Dyke show, ran for 5 years and won 15 Emmys. In the 60s, Reiner teamed up with Mel Brooks. They began doing a comedy sketch at parties. Reiner was the straight man and Brooks was the 2000 Year Old Man who had 42,000 children and not one of them ever came to visit. Reiner also directed Steve Martin in “The Jerk” and “Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid.” Now, at 94 he’s writing two books. I spent an afternoon with Carl Reiner at his Beverly Hills home where he told me he always wanted to be an Irish tenor and then burst into song.