I did two fun things on Friday. I'll tell you about one now and one later. The one for now was a luncheon in honor of Carl Reiner. It was a function of the Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters, a group that salutes folks who've been in TV and/or radio for a few decades. Speaking about their friend and comrade Reiner were Dick Van Dyke, Rose Marie, Aaron Ruben, Louis Nye, Nanette Fabray, Dick Martin, Howard Morris, Sid Caesar and Hal Kanter, and I guess it won't surprise anyone when I say that all of them were wonderfully entertaining.
Van Dyke spoke with great sincerity about how he'd be nothing without Reiner, and urged Carl to write another great part for himself he was wrong for. Rose Marie told the moving story of how she was hired to play Sally Rogers on The Dick Van Dyke Show. Louis Nye told a long story about a Spanish proctologist that had nothing to do with Reiner but no one cared because it was so funny. Sid Caesar delivered his entire speech in double-talk French, German, Italian, Spanish and Japanese. And so on. Carl hugged everyone after they spoke, then got up at the end to rebut things they said. I hope I'm half as sharp and funny when I'm 81. (Hell, I'd settle for one-quarter as charming right now.) A fair amount of time was spent plugging Carl's new book, My Anecdotal Life, which is not exactly an autobiography; more like a collection of funny things that happened to him.
He signed copies for everyone who bought one and as I purchased mine and told him it was way too short, he said everyone was telling him that, and he was going to run home and start on the sequel. If you'd like to purchase a copy of this one, you can click here and be whisked to Amazon where they'll take your money and send me a tiny commission. It's probably not as much fun as listening to these people talk but it's close.