He Chucked a Future in Sewing Machines to Keep Us in Stitches

Jerry Seinfeld, Dick Van Dyke, Mary Tyler Moore, Steve Martin, Mel Brooks, Richard Belzer, Joy Behar, Ray Romano and Rob Reiner pay tribute to legendary funny man Carl Reiner on the two-hour PBS special “The Kennedy Center Presents: The Mark Twain Prize,” which airs Wednesday night on KCET and KVCR.

Taped last October at a black-tie event in Washington, D.C., the special features clips from Reiner’s work on Sid Caesar’s classic ‘50s series “Your Show of Shows” and “Caesar’s Hour”; “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” the seminal comedy series he created and in which he appeared as the pompous TV star Alan Brady; as well as from the numerous films he directed, including “The Jerk,” “Oh, God” and “Where’s Poppa?”

Reiner, 78, was just 16 when his older brother Charlie told him about a free acting class being sponsored by the Works Progress Administration in New York. During the ‘40s, Reiner appeared in Broadway musicals and revues and then got his big break working on “Your Show of Shows” and “Caesar’s Hour.” He went on to win five Emmys for “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” which aired on CBS during 1961-66.

When not directing and writing, Reiner has played straight man to Mel Brooks’ hilarious “2,000-Year-Old-Man.” A winner of 12 Emmys in all, Reiner has also written two novels and a book of short stories. He’s currently acting in Steven Soderbergh’s remake of “Ocean’s Eleven,” with George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Julia Roberts.

Recently, Reiner talked about receiving the Mark Twain Prize.

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Question: I loved your acceptance speech, in which you single out your older brother Charlie as the person who got you into acting.

Answer: I can’t write speeches because I hate them when they sound [rehearsed]. I never came prepared to any emceeing job I ever did. I’ll just use whatever’s there, and if you don’t have anything, just go straight. There was so much emotion with my brother being there, that’s all I could think about.

He was responsible for my being there. There was no way in God’s earth I would have become an actor because I had no ambition to go out and do anything about it. I was a machinist’s helper and that was what I was going to be. I was going to be a good machinist ultimately and fix sewing machines. But he told me about the WPA’s free dramatic class. He saw this tiny little article about [the class] in the New York Daily News.

Q: Who made you laugh when you were growing up--Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd?

A: I loved all of those three guys. I loved when the talkies came in. I couldn’t wait for the Marx Brothers. They made me roar. Then radio was a big influence because we listened to Jack Benny, Fred Allen and Bob Hope. There were a bunch of situation-comedy things on the air, but during the heyday [of radio], there were a couple of these variety shows that always had comedians and impersonators. There was a thing called “Hollywood Hotel” that Dick Powell would host. There was always a great baritone or tenor [on it]. I loved operatic tenors and baritones. I would have loved to have been an opera singer! I have a wonderfully big voice and no ear. I used to tell my wife if I had rhythm and could sing on key, I would have been a tremendous star! I have everything else to make a singer. I could behave like a singer and move like a singer.

Q: Is it true that when you did “Your Show of Shows” and “Caesar’s Hour” with Caesar in the ‘50s, that you didn’t rehearse?

A: After we were getting a little older [we didn’t rehearse completely]. When we started we were all 28 years old. We had to do the show four times on the day of the show. You had to block it for the cameras, the second time was cleaner camera block and the third time was a dress rehearsal with costumes and everything because the show had to be timed. We rehearsed full-out. I guess as we got older we realized if we rehearsed full-out four times we would have nothing left for the show.

Q: The ratings for the first season of “The Dick Van Dyke Show” weren’t good. Do you think in this day and age, the networks would have stuck with the show for a second season?

A: Probably not. The first year was a difficult one because we were opposite “The Perry Como Show.” And it [“Dick Van Dyke”] was a situation comedy, and there was a wife and a husband and a kid. The thing that was very special about it, you had to watch it to [understand what made it different], and people weren’t watching. “Perry Como” had the airwaves tied up at that time until we had a summer rerun. We were tested during the summer, and so by the time we got back on the air [in the fall], we had built a little bit of an audience. The network had another show in the wings that they owned, so it was very possible it might have fallen. By the skin of our teeth, we got through.

I wrote that show based on my years with “Your Show of Shows.” It was really the home life of a guy who lived in New Rochelle who worked in New York. That is how I was.

Q: Were you your first choice to play Alan Brady?

A: I figured I couldn’t get a big enough star to play Alan Brady. We only needed him once every 10 weeks or so. I knew exactly how to play him and I could afford me. I kept my head turned for the first year because [I thought] people would say, “That is not a big star. That’s Carl Reiner.” But after the material got a little more completed, we decided it was not fair to the writing of the show not to see the face of the actor doing those lines because you are losing facial expression.

Q: After “The Dick Van Dyke Show” went off the air you began directing films. Was it just a natural progression for you to go from TV to movies?

A: I really wasn’t thinking of directing movies. When “Enter Laughing,” which was a book I had written and became a Broadway show, was being sold [as a movie], I just wanted a director to keep close to my feelings about my own life at that time. I directed that, and I just slipped into directing.

Q: And now your son Rob has become one of the biggest directors in Hollywood.

A: He’s turned into a force of nature.

Q: Are you still directing movies?

A: Directing is out now. There is just too much energy [to put out] at my age. I am 78.

Q: You don’t act 78.

A: I hope not. Now, I am [playing] a member of the scam team in “Ocean’s Eleven.” It is a long schedule. I hope I am well enough. We go first to Tampa [Fla.] for a couple of days and Palm Springs for a couple of days and Las Vegas for about six weeks and Los Angeles for a week. It’s not an easy schedule.

Q: What do you think of today’s comedians?

A: Comedians always reflect the times. And right now, the Jon Stewarts, the Bill Mahers and the Dennis Millers are making fun of the times and they are doing it in the language of today that was given to them by Richie Pryor and Lenny Bruce. They are doing very good jobs at it for the most part.

Q: Since you are the recipient of the Mark Twain Prize, what are you feeling about the writer?

A: Mark Twain was the most important, influential writer of mores and comedy in our century. I have been [doing the narration for] books on tape of him. I have already done “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” and “The Prince and the Pauper.”

As a kid I only read “Pudd’nhead Wilson.” But when I was doing “Your Show of Shows,” I read “Connecticut Yankee” and thought it was the best novel ever written. I went crazy. It is not only a social commentary, it’s funny.

* “The Kennedy Center Presents: The Mark Twain Prize” on Wednesday at 8 p.m. on KVCR and 9 p.m. on KCET. The network has rated it TV-G (suitable for all ages).