← The History of Literature
The History of Literature
773 The Films of Rob Reiner (with Mike Palindrome) | My Last Book with Matt Abrahams
01:17:01
Loading summary
Transcript193 lines
- [00:02]
A
The History of Literature podcast is a member of the podglomerate Network and Lit Hub Radio. Hey, folks, it's Jack with some exciting news. Are you someone who loves books and loves to travel? We have teamed up with a travel agency to present to you the opportunity to travel through the literary landscape with me, Jack Wilson and Emma, the show's producer and your fellow podcast listeners, meeting some of your favorite History of Literature podcast guests along the way. That's right, we're going to England. Eight days of travel in literary London, Oxford and Bath, where we'll follow in the footsteps of Shakespeare, Dickens, Jane Austen and more. This is the last few weeks when you can sign up, so go to John Shores Travel, that's John S H O R S with no e, or to historyofliterature.com and find the itinerary that way. We would love to have you join us for this very special event in May, but you must sign up now. We have to close the signups on March 1st. I hope to see you soon. Hello, Mike Palindrome and the films of Rob Reiner today on the History of Literature. Hello, everyone. I'm Jack Wilson, your host. Well, the news was as sad as it was shocking. Film director Rob Reiner and his wife Michelle Singer Reiner were found dead in their home, murdered, as it turned out, and by their mentally disturbed son. It appeared it led to many tributes to the man introduced to the world as Meathead, Archie Bunker's nickname for his son in law, played by Rob Reiner in the smash hit television show all in the Family, which was the number one show in America during a tumultuous period, 1971 to 1976, five years in a row, that show was number one, the Norman Lear classic. Rob Reiner was familiar with celebrity already, having grown up in a famous family. His father, Carl Reiner, was the running mate of Mel Brooks and a member of the famed writing room of the Sid Caesar of show of shows, Sid Caesar's show of shows. And Carl Reiner was also the creator of the Dick Van Dyke show, one of my old favorites, and the director of Steve Martin's first movie, the Jerk. After setting acting to the side, Rob Reiner became a director himself with this Is Spinal Tap. He has an incredible record of not being quite an absolute critical darling. He's not known as an auteur at the level of a Scorsese or, or one of the giants of the French new wave. And not quite the smash hit mastery of a Steven Spielberg or a George Lucas, but as Someone who made smart, thoughtful, popular movies with heart and who left an imprint across multiple genres in a short amount of time. It's hard to compete with his record. We've gone through this run of his before, but it's worth repeating. This is truly miraculous. Okay, 1984. This is spinal Tap, a landmark, pioneering movie in the mockumentary category. Still hilarious, still watchable. The sequel is good, too. Christopher Guest, probably my favorite comedian of all time, and Michael McKeon, who's perfect along with him. So, ah, Christopher Guest. He likes me, as my Italian friend once said about Cormac McCarthy, then an hour later came up to me and said, you know, I meant to say I like him. And I said, I know, don't worry. My Italian is worse than your English. I've said worse, I'm sure. 1985. The sure thing. An underrated teen romance in an era when John Hughes was dominating that kind of movie. Well, Rob Reiner did it better. John Cusack's breakout film, the sure Thing. Check that one out, too. 1986. Stand by Me. Based on a Stephen King work. This is the the one where four kids find a body. A graceful, indelible film. 1987. Here we go. The Princess Bride. My goodness, is this a good movie. It's a princessy love story with sword fighting and giants and tales of vengeance and rescue and derring do. A movie that manages to be funny and entertaining and heartwarming without falling into the many pitfalls of gooeyness or predictability. Maybe the most rewatchable film of my lifetime. 1989. If you're keeping track, this is now the fourth movie in five years. When Harry Met Sally, the OG romantic comedy of the modern era. I'm going to talk about this one a bit more in a moment. Amazing movie. 1990. Misery. Maybe the best Stephen King adaptation ever. A psychological. Well, I guess the Shining is knocking on the door here, but very good psychological horror movie. 1992. A Few Good Men. Probably a top five courtroom drama of all time, and some might say the best. Okay, again, 12 Angry Men is probably knocking on the door of that one. Okay. You would think with a run like that we'd have Rob Reiner as a brooding, mysterious cultural figure, maybe with an eye patch, someone who agonizes over his films, but who gets the job done? No, what we had was a large, generous, smiling figure. The good guy. The guy whose heart is in the right place. He always seems in his interviews, so decent and warm and giving. I've never seen a Rob Reiner interview Where I thought, oh, well, this guy is kind of full of himself, or this guy is full of shit. I've always thought this guy is full of humor, been full of light and full of life. Well, it's hard to. To see a light like that go out, to see a life like that ended in such a tragic way. But his spirit and his humor lives on in clips and, of course, in his films. Now, as you probably know about me, I am from the 1980s as much as I'm from Wisconsin. I would say maybe even more. I'm from the 1980s. I turned 9 in 1980, and I graduated from high school in 1989. Those are formative years, people. Archie Bunker and that show. Well, that's a little early for me. I remember the show being on, but I was little. I didn't really feel the impact of Vietnam as it was happening and the show's political hot topics and all of that. I was too busy dressing up in the Superman costume I got for Christmas. But in that decade of the 1980s, these Rob Reiner films were forming me. Maybe When Harry Met Sally was the most memorable of these in the theater. Anyway, the others, I think I caught them all on video. But When Harry Met Sally. So I went to a small town high school in rural Wisconsin. About half of the kids I graduated with went to work on farms and factories after graduation. And about a quarter of the kids in my graduating class joined the military. And then the rest of us, a quarter, the final quarter, went to college. Not a whole lot of us finished college, but about a quarter of us went. I was the only one in my class who went to college out of state. And that was not all that far. The University of Chicago only a couple hours away. It was an impossible dream to go out of state or to go to a school like that. Because of the finances, it was considered a waste of an application fee even to apply. Nobody did back then. This was before the Internet. You had to send away for materials. You had to write your application longhand or. Or get to a typewriter or get to a computer. Or maybe you had access to a computer, but then you had to find a computer that was also hooked up to a printer where you could print on it. That's not. It was not easy. All this is to say my school was not so unusual in having people apply close to home in state. But even so, it was. It was, you know, that was a thing. It was an anomaly. Anyway, all that's another story. My point is that in 1989, when Harry met Sally came out the summer after I graduated from high school. And it starts out with the couple meeting cute on the campus of the University of Chicago in a place their car pulls up in, a place that no cars are ever allowed to go. But it's very scenic, right on the quad, surrounded by the gargoyles, the gothic architecture. And then Harry and Sally, Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan are then going to drive to New York City together. I had no idea when I went to the movie that this was going to be part of the movie. So there I was at the mall, in the theater, watching the movie with my three best high school friends, and the University of Chicago suddenly flashes on the screen with a label that says University of Chicago. Otherwise we probably wouldn't have recognized it back then. But it says University of Chicago. And my friends started to cheer. They were cheering for the school because I was going there and they were cheering for me. It still gives me goosebumps to think that I was surrounded by that much love and support from three guys who I had grown up with a spontaneous cheer. Hey, yeah, there it is. Go get it, Jack Wilson. Boy, find someone who loves you as much as high school friends love you. Then I got to college, where I met kids from New York City who were also attending my school and who lived in my dorm. And they loved the movie, too. But for them, this was not yet. Mike Palindrome. By the way, if you're wondering, he didn't show up for another year. Youngin. But for these New York kids who were there, the movie made them miss home. The autumn leaves in Manhattan, the walks through Central park, the city streets, the brownstones, the whole feel, the vibe of it. Man, this movie hit hard. We all wanted to fall in love somehow with someone, but in the meantime, we could listen to Harry Connick Jr. And the old standards that Nora Ephron and Rob Reiner loved so much and put so lovingly into the soundtrack. And we could hang out with our friends and listen to music like that, just like they do in the movie. And we could be in love with New York, a place I had not yet been, but where I would eventually live for a while. That's what that movie was all about. Love for a person, for a place, for a vibe, a kind of sensibility, a humanity. And that's what Rob Reiner was all about, too. It comes through all of his films. That's why I wanted to do an episode about him and his films. So I invited my fellow 80s resident Mike Palindrome. To join me for that, we do a draft of the best lines from Rob Reiner films. Now let me tell you a little bit about that. Why the best lines? Why not just choose movies? Well, I can't remember if I explained this too much during the talk with Mike, so if I do, please forgive the repetition, but this was the, the genesis of the idea. I was watching a documentary on Albert Brooks and he had a line that stuck with me. If you don't know Albert Brooks, he is very funny, a completely idiosyncratic guy. If you do know Albert Brooks, this will all be familiar, the contours of his life. He was Rob Reiner's high school friend. Boy, there it is again. High school friends. And at one point, Johnny Carson asked Carl Reiner who the funniest person in America was. And Rob Reiner said, well, he's a 16 year old kid named Albert Einstein. He's my son Rob's friend. And Albert Einstein, that's Albert Brooks's real name. His father was a comic. I'm talking about Albert Brooks's father now, his comic. He was a comic who died after performing at a Friars Club dinner. Anyway, that's more in the weeds than we need to get about Albert Brooks. I'll get to the point. Albert Brooks is incredibly funny. He's a kind of restless innovator of humor. He does things no one else did or does. You could tell that he would get bored with something like doing the same routine over and over. He was constantly in search of the original. He branched out from his television appearances into making films, and those are great too. But he never had a kind of box office smash. There's no character or catchphrase that broke through. He's respected and loved by comedians and true comedy fans, true film fans, but also the kind of guy who spent his career having to beg for funding to get projects financed and so on. It was a lifelong struggle. And in this documentary, which tells the story of his life and his career, he's sitting across from Rob Reiner and he's telling this anecdote where late in his career, a man said to him, well, boy, Albert, you always like taking the hard road, don't you? And Albert Brooks said it was like an epiphany for him. And he said, you think I see two roads? I don't see two roads. I only see one road. And then he said, if I saw an easy road, I'd have a house there. And I immediately thought, oh, this is me. This speaks for me. I've never heard it put like that. But I totally identify with that. Looking back, I think, why did I do things that way? Why did I make things so hard for myself? And why was it so easy for this guy or that guy or that other guy? But at the time, I didn't see an easy road. I only see one road. And the way Albert Brooks described it made me laugh, and it kind of stuck me in the heart at the same time. And I knew immediately I'm going to be thinking about that line for the rest of my life. I only saw one road. Thank you, Albert Brooks, for that line. But guess what? Without Rob Reiner, I never would have heard that line. In fact, it probably never would have been spoken. It's Rob Reiner's documentary. He financed it and directed it. It's his question to Albert Brooks that provoked it. It's his comfort level with Albert Brooks, his old friend, the atmosphere that Rob Reiner created, the trust that he had developed. It's all those skills. I've seen Albert Brooks interviews where he's kind of pinched and closed off. He's not. He's not necessarily digging deep into his life. He skims the surface. But here with Rob Reiner, he gets to the heart of things. And then, of course, Rob Reiner chose to include it in the movie. There's so many lines in Rob Reiner films that you can remember, but you have to attribute them to Rob Reiner in a kind of indirect way. He's not the one who says the words. He's not the one who even wrote the words, but he's the one who presides over all of it and delivers those words to us. He creates the atmosphere that makes it happen. He works with writers like Stephen King and Nora Ephron and William Goldman and Aaron Sorkin. He gets the best from them, or he takes the best from them, selects the best, locates it, knows what to highlight, knows who, knows who to have say the line and how and when and why. He frames the line in the right way, and then he stays totally out of the way. So that's what we're going to do today. Talk about some of these lines in these movies. Mike and I are going to choose our 10 favorites, five each, which we will do right now. Okay. Joining me once again is our old friend Mike Palindrome, who's been a fan of at least one Rob Reiner film since 1990. And I know this because he used to quote from it heavily. Mike, welcome back to the history of literature.
- [17:25]
B
Thanks, Jack.
- [17:26]
A
So how many Rob Reiner films. Have you seen.
- [17:30]
B
Yeah, I guess I should say this up front.
- [17:35]
A
Not too many.
- [17:36]
B
I'm pretty sure I've only seen four.
- [17:38]
A
Okay.
- [17:38]
B
When Harry Met Sally, Princess Bride, Misery and the sure Thing.
- [17:42]
A
Okay, so you haven't seen Spinal Tap?
- [17:46]
B
I've never seen it from start to finish.
- [17:48]
A
Okay.
- [17:48]
B
I've just seen, like, scenes.
- [17:49]
A
Scenes. Right, right. Which.
- [17:51]
B
Probably Stone.
- [17:52]
A
Yeah. And of those others, did you count up the number of times or can you estimate the number of times you've seen the other four?
- [18:03]
B
I did. I get. Well, I, I. You know this about me. I keep track of everything.
- [18:07]
A
I keep track of it. Okay.
- [18:08]
B
I've seen When Harry met Sally 21 times and. Yeah, I've seen Princess Bride over 10 times.
- [18:18]
A
Yeah.
- [18:19]
B
And the sure Thing three times, but all as a teenager. It's been like 30 years since I've seen it.
- [18:26]
A
And Misery.
- [18:29]
B
Just the once.
- [18:30]
A
Just the ones. Okay. So, yeah, I estimated. I don't have a nice notebook that will tell me like that. But before I give you my counts, I'm wondering, is When Harry Met Sally, Is that because of the New York connection or the dialogue, or what is it that drove you to that one? 21 times?
- [18:53]
B
I think it's probably how much it reminded me of Woody Allen films like Annie hall and Manhattan. But it was sort of brought up to date because, you know, by the time I watched Woody Allen films, it did seem out of date. And so there was something very fresh and current about When Harry Met Sally. And I also think the dialogue. I remember when I first few times I watched it, I tried to transcribe certain scenes into a notebook.
- [19:27]
A
Yeah.
- [19:28]
B
So I would. Back then, you had to pause. There were no subtitles, so you had to pause and rewind.
- [19:34]
A
Yeah. Right. Okay. So I've seen Spinal Tap, I would say, five or six times all the way through. And then I've seen certain scenes, you know, like a hundred times. I've seen Spinal Tap 2 once, which is going to end up being, I believe, Rob Reiner's last film. Sadly, I've seen the Princess Bride all the way through at least six times, maybe more. There was a stretch where my kids were watching a lot, so it was sort of on in the background. And I might have. I might be up higher than 6 at this point. Harry Met Sally, same thing. Close to 10 times, probably. Misery I've seen only once in the theater, and I haven't seen it since then. Once in a while I see a clip from it. The sure Thing, I actually never saw until I watched It a week or two ago kind of in preparation for this. So I think I had always confused it with some of those other summer films, say Anything and Better Off Dead.
- [20:35]
B
It's no say Anything.
- [20:39]
A
But it's kind of similar in the sense of say Anything is Cameron Crowe, right?
- [20:45]
B
Yeah.
- [20:46]
A
So Cameron Crowe and Rob Reiner are kind of similar in the sense of they were doing Teenage romance that was kind of on John Hughes's corner, but ultimately, I think better than John Hughes, or in a way that maybe it wasn't as popular to me at the time, and maybe it's not as popular with. With the public at the time, but I think it has aged better. I felt like the sure thing was I was worried I was going to cringe my way through it the way I cringe my way through Sixteen Candles, for example. But instead I ended up thinking, oh, actually, this is better than that. This has held up a little better than that. So that was my take on the sure thing. I've seen A Few Good Men a couple of times. Stand By Me, I saw Once and I barely remember it. And I saw the American President once and barely remember it. And then I saw something recently which is a good one to go to if you're feeling kind of nostalgic and kind of miss Rob Reiner. And that is the film about Albert Brooks that he made called Defending My Life. And the two of them had been high school friends and lifelong friends, and they sit in a. A coffee shop and talk about Albert Brooks's career. And then it's interwoven with clips from it. And that's pretty good. And that's a real. It's kind of Rob Reiner at his best. He's so likable in. In those kinds of conversations. So the movies I haven't seen north, which. Are you familiar with the Roger Ebert review of North?
- [22:32]
B
No.
- [22:33]
A
So Rob Reiner had been on this tear. All of his first movies were incredibly successful. Spinal Tap and the Princess Bride and Harry Met Sally and Misery and the sure Thing. And it was like he made six or seven good movies in a row. And then he made north, and it just flopped. And I saw this great clip. Roger Ebert wrote this famous review of it, and I'm gonna read part of it to you because I saw this great clip on YouTube where Richard Belzer is on stage. I think they're at an awards show. And he brings up Rob Reiner and he makes him read this review, this excerpt from the review. And this was Roger Ebert's review of Rob Reiner's film North. And I know it must have just been devastating to Reiner, who, when he read this review, but I'll, I'll read the section of the review and then I'll, I'll tell you what Rob Reiner's response was. So the review is, I hated this movie. Hated, hated, hated, hated, hated this movie. Hated it. Hated every simpering, stupid, vacant audience, insulting moment of it. Hated the sensibility that thought anyone would like it. Hated the implied insult to the audience by its belief that anyone would be entertained by it. And the audience listening to Rob Reiner quote from that review was, you know, they were laughing. And Rob Reiner, he's playing along, he's very game. And then after he finishes reading that, he says, you know, if you read between the lines, it's not that bad. Which to me kind of summed up who he was. And what I always liked about him when I saw him in interviews or when he showed up in movies, is that he feels like such a good guy and so he's so in on the joke. He's so clever and quick, but he's self effacing. He doesn't come across as somebody with a, an out of control ego. He just seems like a guy who kind of gets his role and is comfortable in it and just would like to make the world a bit of a better place.
- [24:59]
B
I think it makes me think of the way his movies are so different and he doesn't try to impose the way certain directors do with like this one unique style onto all his films.
- [25:18]
A
Like Scorsese is a brilliant filmmaker, probably a better filmmaker or a more artistic filmmaker, but he's got his go tos, you know, he's got the, well, here's gonna be the montage with the Rolling Stones playing in the background or here's gonna be the, the violence or Francis Ford Coppola. Here's going to be the religious ceremony montage that's interwoven with these mass killings happening somewhere else montage. And Ron Breiner, I mean, it's like he says, okay, I'm going to make a romantic comedy and I'm going to do that and then I'm going to make a horror film and I'll do that. And he works within those genres without making it seem like, oh, this is a Rob Reiner joint, so to speak.
- [26:03]
B
Yeah, yeah, I agree.
- [26:06]
A
One other thing I wanted to mention, and this is why I thought it would be good for us to do the top 10 lines from his movies as a way of Kind of paying tribute to him. And I heard once this about Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals that a critic said something like, well, I don't know what the artistic merit of. I think it was Phantom of the Opera. I don't know if this has much artistic merit, but I do know that everybody comes out of there humming the main tune, you know, And Rob Reiner films seem a little bit like that for some reason. They're really quotable. There are lines in these movies that are almost more famous than the films themselves. And he maybe didn't write them. I mean, he was helped by William Goldman and Stephen King and his collaborators on these movies. And all the Spinal Tap guys, you know, are improvising. And Nora Ephron in When Harry Met Sally. It's not as if he's writing these lines, but maybe he's doing something to set up the lines, or he recognizes how good those lines are, and he's able to kind of bring the film around to frame the line in the right way. So let's celebrate his life and career by celebrating the top 10 lines in a Rob Reiner film. And as always, I'll let you make the first pick.
- [27:35]
B
I went with. Well, some of these picks are kind of lines of dialogue and phrasing, so it's from Princess Bride. Inigo Montego. You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. And I just want to say that I don't even remember the scene and what the word is. But the quotation is so good that I was noting that a lot of the quotes in this Princess Bride can be said in or out of context.
- [28:12]
A
I just watched the Princess Bride with my kids because we went through a bit of a Rob Reiner little phase when he was in the news. And I wish I could remember. I can't remember either what he's referring to there, and I would look it up. But maybe the important thing is, like you say, it almost doesn't matter. That has passed into our lexicon. I think it's from this movie. I don't think it was something people said before that, but it is something that you read all the time on Twitter or X or whatever. You see this where people will say, I don't think that word means what you think it means. That's a great pick. I didn't have it on my list. I just missed it. Okay, great pick. It was not in my top 10, but it probably should have been. I just missed it. Okay, so I'll take my number one, which is I'll have what she's having, which is that famous, famous line from that famous scene. And when Harry Met Sally or Meg Ryan is faking an orgasm in a diner and she's demonstrating to Billy Crystal that women sometimes fake it without men being aware. And apparently this line was devised by Billy Crystal. And, yeah, he mentioned it on the set where he. So it wasn't even. They weren't even planning. Or maybe not. Maybe not on the set because Rob Reiner ends up casting his mother as the woman who delivers the line. And that sent me down a rabbit hole of Rob Reiner's mother. She was in a couple of other movies, but this was really her biggest and most notable screen performance. She's kind of immortalized by giving that line. And she had been a singer and then married Carl Reiner and then stopped her career to have kids and raise them and so on. And it's kind of nice that Rob Reiner let her give that line and, you know, put her on millions of anthologies and. And clip shows and. And that kind of thing. I. I put it at number one because I suspect Rob Reiner would have liked that. That it may have been his favorite line because he had cast his mother in the role and it was probably kind of important to him. So I'll have what she's having. So let's go to your number two. So.
- [30:43]
B
So, like I was saying this. This is more like a rambling series of sentences, but I do remember the first time I saw When Harry Matsai and I heard these lines said by Sally and just thinking, I don't know of another film with a scene like this. I'm trying to understand why it's so good. And so here's the. Here are the lines. I'd like the pie heated, and I don't want the ice cream on top. I want it on the side. And I'd like strawberry instead of vanilla if you have it. If not, then no ice cream, just whipped cream. But only if it's real. If it's out of the can, then nothing. So I think the whole east coast stereotype and charming Midwest, and I think it was probably one of the first movies to really kind of make fun of neurotic behavior. I think there were a lot of films that did it afterwards, but.
- [31:44]
A
Yeah. And in a way that isn't. The point of it, is not that she's annoying. The point of it is that she's. At one point she says, I get what I want. You know, I like ordering what I want. And. And it's redeemed when Billy Crystal at the end says, I love that you do this, and you know that I love this about you. And it is an important part of the romance between them. I will say, I think it's got some roots in the Jack Nicholson scene in Five Easy Pieces where he goes in and he orders from the waitress and he gets the chicken salad sandwich that he wants. Do you remember that scene?
- [32:24]
B
Oh, yeah, you're right.
- [32:28]
A
But a totally different purpose. You know, this one is. Is more for the. The character building. Jack Nicholson, I think it was kind of, here's a character who will get what he wants, but he's. He's in combat with everyone else, and, you know, he's pushed to his limit, and so he's got to come up with that. So. Okay, well, that's a great pick. I will go to my number two. Oh, which is. This one goes to 11 and. Or these go to 11, I guess is the quote. So, again, that's something that has entered into our lexicon. People will say it all the time. I'm going to go to 11. It is the funniest. I remember watching it for the first time. It's still almost as funny now, even though when I know it's coming as it was the first time. It obviously wasn't. Spinal Tap was famously improvised, but obviously it wasn't exactly improvised on the spot because they had the equipment made with the numbers going up to 11, so they must have foreseen it that way. But I've heard in an interview that Christopher Guest didn't know that Rob Reiner was going to ask him about it, ask his character about it, and point out that, well, why didn't you just make 10 the loudest and make the others a little bit. Each of the other numbers a little bit louder and do it that way. And just the way Christopher Guest pauses and then delivers that line of, well, these go to 11. It's a great scene. It's obviously Christopher Guest. He's probably my favorite comic actor and director. But what I love about the scene from Rob Reiner's perspective is that he's the perfect straight man, that he's like his father with Mel Brooks. You know, he sets these guys up in a way that is not easy, but he makes it look easy. Okay, so that takes us through our first four picks. Let's take a quick break and come back with more from Mike Paladro.
- [34:55]
C
Ready to relax in your dream bath retreat without the stress of figuring out every detail yourself at the Home Depot. Your bath upgrade is covered shop fully designed rooms and curated bath collections to go from inspiration to transformation fast. Savings of up to 40% will make it easier on your budget. And find everything you need from tubs to toilets and all the tile in between to bring your vision to life. The Home Depot Dream Baths built here.
- [35:25]
D
Kids, they grow up so fast. One day they're taking their first steps and the next they don't fit into the tiny sneakers they took them in. You blink your eyes and their princess dress is two sizes too small. And their dinosaur backpack isn't cool anymore. But don't cry because they're growing up. Smile because you can profit off of it for real. There are a bunch of parents on Depop looking for the stuff your kid just grew out of. Download Depop to start selling.
- [35:55]
A
We heard you. Nine years of bring back the snack.
- [35:58]
B
Wrap and you've won.
- [35:59]
A
But maybe you should have asked for more. Say hello to the hot honey snack wrap. Now you've reached. Go to McDonald's and get it while you can. Okay, we're back. So, Mike, let's pause a bit from Rob Reiner and talk about films and great lines in general. I've got a quiz for you. And these are some of the most iconic and frequently quoted lines in the movies, according to AFI American Film Institute. And I thought I'd give you. Well, we could do this two ways. Do you want me to name the film and you guess what the line is? Or I can name the line and you can tell me the film.
- [36:58]
B
What's harder?
- [36:59]
A
I think it's going to be harder if I name the film and you guess the line.
- [37:05]
B
Okay, I guess do the line then.
- [37:07]
A
Yeah, but the first couple. Well, actually, just the first one is so easy. I think that I'll name the film and see if you can guess the line.
- [37:20]
B
Okay.
- [37:20]
A
Okay. The thing that's hard about it is a lot of these films have more than one great line, so they kind of jump out at me. Right.
- [37:28]
B
Well, that's what I was going to say. Like, some of the lines that I remember from films are not people's favorite lines, but I just have a personal attachment to them.
- [37:36]
A
Right. Okay, so we'll do the first one with the film and then we'll do the rest where I give you the line and you tell me the film.
- [37:41]
B
Okay.
- [37:43]
A
Gone with the Wind.
- [37:48]
B
I have only seen it once, so I don't know.
- [37:52]
A
This is the number one most iconic.
- [37:57]
B
It's with her name. Right. Okay.
- [38:01]
A
See, this is. This is one where I Might have guessed I'll never be hungry again. Which kind of closes the first act of the movie, I think. But the line is, frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.
- [38:15]
B
Oh, okay. That's. That. Yeah, that's. I guess I thought her name was Said I. That was floating in my head.
- [38:21]
A
Right. Frankly, Scarlet, I don't give a damn.
- [38:24]
B
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [38:25]
A
Okay, so I'll give you the lines and see if you can guess the film.
- [38:29]
B
Okay.
- [38:29]
A
I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse.
- [38:34]
B
Oh, man. It's an old film. I don't know.
- [38:40]
A
It's. It's Marlon Brando.
- [38:45]
B
It's Marlon Brando.
- [38:47]
A
It says, I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse.
- [38:51]
B
Oh, Godfather One.
- [38:52]
A
Godfather One. You're gonna need a bigger boat.
- [39:03]
B
I don't know. I'm terrible at this.
- [39:05]
A
That's from Jaws.
- [39:07]
B
Oh, right. I just rewatched that.
- [39:11]
A
Okay, the next two, I would bet money that you're gonna get. May the Force be with you.
- [39:17]
B
Star Wars.
- [39:18]
A
Okay, I'll be back.
- [39:21]
B
Terminator.
- [39:22]
A
Yeah.
- [39:22]
B
First one.
- [39:23]
A
You talking to me?
- [39:26]
B
Taxi Driver. Yep.
- [39:28]
A
There's no place like home.
- [39:31]
B
Wizard. Voz.
- [39:32]
A
I see dead people.
- [39:36]
B
Six cents.
- [39:37]
A
Nobody puts Baby in a corner.
- [39:40]
B
Dirty Dancing.
- [39:41]
A
Show Me the Money.
- [39:50]
B
Oh, Jerry Maguire.
- [39:51]
A
Yep. So you got. You got numbers 4 through 10. 1, 2, and 3. You were blanking on.
- [40:03]
B
Well, this is. What I mean is that I remember lines. Maybe this is because I think they're more useful in conversation. I remember lines nobody remembers.
- [40:12]
A
So do you remember one from Jaws?
- [40:16]
B
There is a pretty funny line about not being able to close the beach.
- [40:20]
A
Yeah, yeah, yeah. The mayor.
- [40:22]
B
Yeah, I forget the line.
- [40:24]
A
Yeah, I know, but that's kind of my favorite one, too.
- [40:28]
B
But, like, on the Waterfront. Like, I remember, like, he's a canary. He could sing, but he couldn't fly. When they throw the. They throw the informant off the roof.
- [40:36]
A
Right. And everybody else remembers, you could have. Could have been a contender.
- [40:43]
B
Yeah, I was. I was your brother, you know?
- [40:45]
A
Yeah.
- [40:46]
B
Like Top Gun. The one. The line I remember is. And this is a podcast, so you can't see the visual, but Maverick goes, I was in a Ford. He explains some encounter with a MiG. And Kelly McGillis goes, you were in a 4G negative dive with a MiG 28. If. How could you. How could you see him? And Tom Cruise goes, because we were inverted. And with his hands. He crosses his hands like.
- [41:15]
A
Like, I remember that.
- [41:17]
B
Yeah. And he shows the inverted nature.
- [41:21]
A
Right. You know the one that. I'm surprised. Oh, actually, I think I just skipped over it there. Actually. This was supposed to be somewhere in the top five, but it's from Casablanca and it's here's looking at your kid. But Casablanca is one of those. You could have five or six lines from that movie.
- [41:41]
B
Yeah, I always. I. I don't really cry much, but I. I was moved when he says, we'll always have Paris. We didn't have it. We lost it until you. To Casablanca. We got it back last night when he. When he's hatching the plans for her to go with Laszlo.
- [41:59]
A
Yeah. Okay, so let's get back to Rob Reiner. We are up to number three. Mike, what is your number three pick?
- [42:08]
B
So I was afraid that it was going to be like One of those 1990s NCAA basketball drafts where all the draft picks are from Duke. So it's all going to be Harriet, Sally. But I just have to say this one because this is such a great exchange. Harry goes, there are two kinds of women, high maintenance and low maintenance. And Sally goes, which one am I? And Harry goes, you're the worst kind. You're high maintenance, but you think you're low maintenance. Yeah, So I. Yeah, I mean, I think the movie was for adults. I think a lot of teenagers watch this and felt. I don't want to say challenged, but sort of like it kind of expose them to intellectual banter and, you know, generalizations and kind of challenging your stereotypes and assumptions.
- [43:00]
A
Right, yeah. That. It is very good at that. And Nora Ephron, I think a lot of it comes from her script, and that's kind of how she writes in her books and her other films as well. It's. It's kind of. It's not meant to be provocative, exactly, but it ends up being kind of provocative. And I've got a line in here. I don't know if I'll end up taking it because I don't think I'll get down that low, but maybe you will, so I won't wreck it. But there's one that kind of summarizes the whole movie, and it's like it would be a dinner table conversation. It opens up the idea. And the line you just quoted, it's kind of like, this might help us see people in a different way and. But a way that's totally recognizable and it's not so unusual. It's just maybe something that we need pointed out to us. I wouldn't have thought of it if I hadn't seen this movie.
- [43:58]
B
Yeah, I mean, it's such an elegant. It's actually a very handy way to describe people. Low maintenance. High maintenance.
- [44:05]
A
Yeah. So I will take my number three. And that is as you wish. Which is from Princess Bride. I think Princess Bride and Spinal Tap and Harry Met Sally could all have their own top 10. Like you're saying about the NCAA draft. I chose as you wish because I ranked it this high because it, it serves so many functions in the movie. It. It sets things up. It shows us how the farmhand Wesley loves Buttercup and he's willing to make her life better in whatever way she wants. And then it advances the plot when he shouts it when he's disguised as the Dread Pirate Roberts and he rolls down the hill and it's what tells her that he's really Wesley. And so she jumps after him and rolls down the hill herself. And then it closes the movie when Peter Fox says it to his grandson with a twinkle in his eye of, you know, yes, I'll be here. I can read this book again to you tomorrow. I can give you this favor, which is such a lovely moment and maybe my favorite moment in the whole movie, because I feel like I'd like to think that I'm Wesley or the giant or one of the heroes, but I'm not a swashbuckler. But I can be generous and selfless and I could help a co worker prepare a presentation in the way that she wants it done. Or. Or I could read to a child and be there for them. I can be helpful. You know, I can be egoless the way the grandfather character is. So it's, It's. It made me think it's just three words, but in some ways it kind of does more than three words, like I love you. Where. As you wish. It really is kind of almost telling a little story there of I am going to. I'm going to make your dreams come true. I'm going to do what I can to fulfill whatever you desire. Which is really a nice thing to say.
- [46:08]
B
Yeah. And if I remember the setup correctly, Wesley is telling he's been captured by Wallace Shawn and he's telling Wallace Shawn the story of Romancing the Princess Bride. And so I think they. They're. They're sort of like getting a little testy about the pace of the story. And so I love the fact that it has repetition and it's like, very tender hearted because, like, you know, he's being held prisoner by Wallacean. So. Yeah, it's a good frame.
- [46:46]
A
Yeah. Well, that. I'm not sure that you might be misremembering that.
- [46:50]
B
No, that's not. It isn't. He held by. They're about to kill him and he's telling them why. Maybe I missed that part. Yeah.
- [47:02]
A
Either way, it's definitely in the movie. We know that. As you wish. Okay, so what is your number four?
- [47:15]
B
So it's, it's really a couple of lines from the scene where. Such a great scene in Princess Bride when Vizzini, Wallace. Sean.
- [47:25]
A
Yeah.
- [47:25]
B
Is challenging him to this game with the two goblets, one of which has a poison, and he puts it behind his back and says, like, am I the kind of man who put the poison in front of me? And he starts. Just goes on a tangent and says these lines. Never get involved in a land war in Asia and never go in against the Sicilian when death is on the line.
- [47:49]
A
Yeah. That's another one that has passed into our lexicon. People will quote that all the time. And that scene is such a good scene. Wallace Shawn is so perfectly cast in that. And then, and then in the movie he delivers that line and then he laughs in that Wallace Shawn way and then he falls over. Like it's so punctuated by that. That's a great pick. I had another pick on here that was from Vizzini, but I'll wait and see if I. If I get to that. It sounds like we're gonna have a bunch of honorable mentions because so far you haven't taken anything. That was in my top five.
- [48:38]
B
Yeah, I was reading on Reddit, the Princess Bride, the entire movie is pretty quotable. Like some of these lines I read. And then I was thinking, like, oh, that's kind of a clever line. And then I started to remember the scene and it's hilarious.
- [48:53]
A
Yeah, right. Like, here's one I didn't pick. Hopefully I'm not stepping on one of yours, but where he says, like, I'm left handed too, you know, like, it's so memorable when that happens. And it's, you know, but it's, it's like delivered with the line that tells you exactly what's happening. Okay. So my number four is you can't handle the truth. And I guess this is a movie you haven't seen, but my guess is you're familiar with this line.
- [49:20]
B
Yeah, I was thinking I should see it because I love that kind of important person gets taken down narrative.
- [49:29]
A
Yeah. It's Jack Nicholson on the stand. He's barking this out. You can't handle the truth. It kind of reminded me of everything going on in America after 9 11. And I knew a Guy who said, you know, well, you know, I'm a liberal, but sometimes you kind of like to know that you got Cheney in there. And it's sort of. It's an abhorrent view to me. It's a feeling that I would resist or push back against. But I recognize that there's a lot of people who think this way, and a lot of people like Jack Nicholson who think that that's what they're doing. You know, I'm willing to do the dirty work, whether I'm in the CIA or the military or policeman or, you know, I'm doing this so you can all live your pretty lives back home. It's kind of like the end of the Heart of Darkness as that theme in it as well. And Jack Nicholson was just perfect to deliver the line. He was the perfect age, the perfect gravitas. He was a movie star, but he also could still be an actor. He wasn't somebody you always saw only as Jack Nicholson. You saw him as different characters. And I heard Rob Reiner talk about this, where he said he gave Nicholson the choice, and he said, I'll shoot you first if you want me to. You know, this is your big speech. I can shoot you first if you want to have the freshest take on it. But if you want to work your way up to it, I can go around the room and shoot all the reaction shots, and I'll shoot, you know, all the other actors responding to your speech, and you can work your way up. And Nicholson said, okay, why don't you shoot all the reaction shots first? So he went around the room with a camera. He had to position it differently and everything. And Nicholson is giving the speech, and they shot Tom Cruise and Demi Moore and Kevin Bacon and the judge and so on. And Rob Reiner said, every time Nicholson was giving the speech the same way in this incredible performance. You know, he was going to 11 every time. And after a couple of them, Reiner went up to Nicholson and said, hey, Jack, you know, why don't you save some? I want you to have something left in the tank when you deliver the line, when we have the camera on you. And Jack Nicholson said, rob, you don't understand. I love to act. So I had one other little note here, one other piece of trivia, which probably won't mean as much to you if you haven't seen the movie, but I noted the person who played Colonel Jessup, which is the Nicholson character on Broadway, because I wondered, well, who was doing this on Broadway? Obviously, it wasn't Nicholson. And do you happen to know who it was?
- [52:24]
B
No.
- [52:25]
A
So it was Tom Hulse, who's the guy who played Mozart in Amadeus.
- [52:33]
B
Oh, wow.
- [52:34]
A
Yeah. Which, I mean, he's a great actor, but I can't imagine him having the same kind of effect on the viewer as Jack Nicholson. So somehow, whether it was Rob Reiner's idea or if Nicholson heard about the part and put himself forward for it or something, somehow they made it into the kind of thing. I mean, it's got to be one of the most famous scenes Nicholson was ever in.
- [53:03]
B
Yeah, it's really. I think it's been parodied and then just probably used in real political context.
- [53:13]
A
Yeah. Yeah.
- [53:14]
B
It's become like. It's become so weighted and sincere. Actually, it's gone past the cliche back to originality.
- [53:23]
A
It's almost like it's. It's taken the whole word. It's like the word assume, where it's like you can't really say the word assume anymore without someone saying, oh, you know what they say about assume? It makes an ass of you and me. It's almost like you can't say something like, I want the truth, without somebody snickering and saying, oh, you can't handle the truth. Okay, so we are up to your last pick, Number five.
- [53:52]
B
It's got to be Wallacean again with. I want us to read the line and then read the lines leading up to it. So the line is, stop that rhyming. And I mean it. And just people. I mean, this is on par with, like, the best of Monty Python. The lines are, Andre the Giant and Iniga Montaya are in the backdrop, and they're kind of fixing the ship, I think. And they're kind of quietly speaking. And they go, probably he means no harm. He's very, very short on charm. They go back and forth. You have a great gift for rhyme. Yes, yes, some of the time. And then Walashan goes, enough of that. And then they go, are there. Rocks ahead. If there are, we will be dead. And Walashan then delivers, no more rhyming now. I mean it. And then someone goes, does anybody want a peanut? Yeah.
- [54:46]
A
Andre the Giant.
- [54:47]
B
Yeah.
- [54:48]
A
Anybody want a peanut? I had that as my number seven. Does anybody want a peanut? And I wrote down. My first note was, mike will probably take this number one. Because I can remember when I said at the beginning, I remember you quoting from a movie. This was what I was thinking of. You used to imitate Andre the Giant delivering this line.
- [55:12]
B
Anybody want to pin it?
- [55:13]
A
Anybody want to Peanut.
- [55:14]
B
I may have written that in someone's, like, philosophy text as some quote in the back just to drive him crazy.
- [55:24]
A
Yeah.
- [55:25]
B
In college, like, you know, I took somebody's, like, you know, Hegel and wrote, anybody want a peanut?
- [55:31]
A
There was another line you used to quote all the time. Do you remember what it was?
- [55:36]
B
No.
- [55:36]
A
It was. You do it in an Andre the Giant voice. It's where Inigo Montoya says, I saw the prince's stables. And there they. No, it's. It's Andre the Giant is saying it, and he's. He's at the bottom when they're all up in the castle, and Andre the Giant says, inigo, I saw the prince's stables, and there they were, four white horses. And I thought, there are four of us if we ever find the lady. And then Buttercup appears at the window, and Andre the Giant says, hello, lady. And it's such a. It's such a Rob Reiner moment because she, played by Robin Wright, looks down and she smiles, and she has such affection in her eyes for Andre the Giant, for getting the horses. And there's so much warmth. And it's like, we all want to be in this world with heroes on quests and working together with giants and sword fighting and all of this exciting obstacles to overcome and true love wins. But it's done with such gentleness and warmth and affection. It's so much fun. That feels like the spirit of Rob Reiner kind of infused the movie.
- [56:52]
B
Yeah, yeah. There's so many. We're talking about the comic lines, but there's so many, like, half comic lines like that.
- [57:01]
A
Yeah, right, right. Okay, so here's my. I'm up to my number five pick, and then we can go through some honorable mentions, including a bunch from the Princess Bride. But I wanted to choose five lines from five different movies, so the fifth one I chose was from Misery, and the line is, I'm your number one fan. Which is. It's an amazing line, but it's so creepy. Misery is like. It's like a movie I almost don't want to rewatch because I'm not a big fan of horror, but I do remember Kathy Bates face and those close ups of her and James Caan as he's just tormented by her. And that line, I'm your number one fan. It's such a Stephen King thing to. To kind of drill that home, you know, with the repetition of it that makes it so creepy. And you feel like. Like, who is this person who's doing this? But also, who is this actress that she almost seemed like she was crazy. You know, we didn't know her before this movie and she was unfamiliar and it just seemed like, where did they find her? It seemed like they pulled her out of a prison or an asylum or something. And she'd say, you know, I know that, Mr. Man, she's so good. And the direction in those scenes is so good. It's like the. The camera zooms in on her slowly, but it makes it seem like her face is expanding and that she's intruding on our personal space as audience members too. So.
- [58:45]
B
Yeah, that movie really makes you uncomfortable as a viewer. Yeah, yeah. And we probably saw it in the theater, which is.
- [58:59]
A
Yeah, yep, I definitely did.
- [59:02]
B
Yeah.
- [59:04]
A
Okay. So do you have any other lines that were near misses?
- [59:09]
B
I mean, there's so many from Princess Bride. I really like this one. Let me explain. No, there's too much. Let me sum up. Like the Billy Crystal. You think that she probably ad libbed a lot of these lines.
- [59:26]
A
Yeah, yeah, the Billy Crystal. And Carol Kane is really good in that scene. Oh, yeah, there's a really famous one that we didn't take. A lot of people had this as their number one quote from Princess Bride, which is, my name is Inigo Montoya. My father prepare to die. And he repeats it until Christopher Guest in his account Rugen part says, stop saying that. And I saw an interview with Mandy Patinkin, who played Inigo Montoya, and he said that was not his favorite line in the movie and it was kind of interesting. And he said, well, first of all, he talked about the line and he said that he had lost his own father in 1972, and it just hit a chord with him that he wanted his father back, just like an ego Montoya does. And he said, as we were making the movie, I began to feel like I was going to get the cancer that killed my father. He said, I remember we were outside that castle and I took a walk in this beautiful moat. And I just kept talking to my dad saying, I'm going to right it. I'm going to right this wrong. And in my mind I feel that when I killed that six fingered man, I killed the cancer that killed my father. And for a moment, he was alive and my fairy tale came true. Wow. Yeah. So it does feel like. I mean, it's. You feel the momentousness of that. I think it's with the music in the background and just that the whole movie is kind of built up to it. It's kind of incredible that this movie is obviously this love story between Westley and Buttercup. But a lot of people's favorite character is Inigo Montoya. And his. His revenge seeking becomes this side plot that kind of carries a big chunk of the movie.
- [61:26]
B
Yeah, the Six Fingered man is so evil. I think that's. I really enjoyed that, just how evil he was.
- [61:33]
A
Yeah. The torture he was ordering and everything. Right then the. Oh. So I mentioned that that was not his favorite line in the movie. And he said in this interview, he said my favorite line in the movie was one that I didn't even really hear when I delivered it at the age of 30. He had only heard it, he said, when he was in his 50s, when his wife was watching the movie and he happened to enter the room. And as he entered the room, his character on screen was saying, I have been in the revenge business so long now that it's over, I do not know what to do with the rest of my life. And Patinkin said he loves it because revenge, he's come to believe, is pointless. That our purpose as human beings is to turn our darkness into light. And so living your life for something like revenge is, in a way, wasting your life. And so he sort of. He felt like he was. He felt bad that his character was so identified with kind of living your life for revenge. But then that line kind of redeems that by saying, this isn't necessarily the best thing to do. You'll be lost at the end of it because you'll feel empty. Okay. Oh, I thought maybe you were going to take this line from Vizzini. Inconceivable. Truly.
- [63:04]
B
You have a dizzying intellectual. Yeah, the lines directed at Wallacean and also his lines are great.
- [63:10]
A
Yeah, yeah, yeah. In that whole exchange with the Poisons, you could almost quote every. Every part of that one other. I guess I'll. I'll throw in here. I thought maybe you would take this. I kind of alluded to it when we were talking about When Harry Met Sally is when I said this could trigger dinner table conversations is where the line men and women can't be friends because the sex part always gets in the way.
- [63:42]
B
Yeah.
- [63:44]
A
Someone recently said something like that debate that used to feel so essential or something. I don't know that this is something that men and women are so preoccupied by now. Like, hopefully we've moved on from that a little bit, but it is provocative without being too in your face. And it's kind of an interesting thing to talk about. And it definitely. What the movie ended up being about. You know, it's what. What everybody who watches When Harry Met Sally comes away from thinking about is, you know, could they. Could they have just been friends as adults or like. Like Harry and Sis? They can't because the sex part always gets in the way.
- [64:28]
B
Yeah. And I think it's also. It's clever in the movie, the way they. It spans a decade or 20 years. And you have that scene in the airport where Sally's with her current boyfriend, the Ken doll, who's, I think, Gerald Ford's son.
- [64:44]
A
Oh, really? In real life?
- [64:46]
B
Yeah. I didn't know that. Yeah. She quotes that line about men and women can't be friends. And then she turns to him and says, do you have any female friends? And he. He goes, no, I don't, but I'll get one if it's important to you.
- [65:05]
A
It's. It's like this.
- [65:07]
B
Yeah.
- [65:07]
A
Yeah.
- [65:08]
B
I mean, it's a serious topic that's turned into comedy. And I think the film has a good way of kind of circling the theme without. Yeah. Clunking you over the head. Yeah.
- [65:20]
A
And it kind of gives. It's like you were talking about Harry Met Sally being a bit more elevated. It becomes about something a little bit more than just, are these two going to get together? But it's got these elements where it becomes like, well, who are we in 1989 and what kind of lives are we living and how are men and women getting along? And what does it mean to be Carrie Fisher's character and constantly falling in love with men who are already married? And it's things like that where it's. Has more sociological thoughts behind it.
- [65:57]
B
Yeah. I mean, and then we. We do have to. While we're talking about this more seriously, we do have to comment on the age difference between Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal. At the time, he was 12 years older than Meg Ryan.
- [66:14]
A
Yeah. Which is.
- [66:16]
B
It's a pretty big gap back then. I mean, even now it's. But probably a little less now, I think, you know?
- [66:24]
A
Yeah, yeah. The stigma too offensive. But one thing. I just watched it with my kids, and one thing that jumped out to them is when Billy Crystal is supposed to be a college student and they're meeting for the first time and they're just saying, like, he does not look like a college student. He doesn't even look close.
- [66:47]
B
Right.
- [66:50]
A
Okay. They give him sideburns and sort of longer hair, but I don't think it really works. Okay. So I had seven lines from Spinal Tap that were tied for 10th on my list. I'll just kind of rattle them off here. It's such a fine line between stupid and clever. Actually, the line is. It's such a fine line between stupid and. He just trails off. And then the other one chimes in and says, clever. The one where the Stonehenge comes down and he says, I do not, for one, think that the problem was that the band was down. I think that the problem may have been that there was a Stonehenge monument on the stage that was in danger of being crushed by a dwarf. All right, that tended to understate the hugeness of the object. So I had danger of being trampled by a dwarf as one that had stood out to me. The lick. My love Pumpkin. And that whole exchange with Marty Deburge, Rob Reiner's character, and where he's playing the classical music piece. Great line where he says. The manager says, the Boston gig has been canceled. But I wouldn't worry about it, though. It's not a big college town. Then another one that's entered into the public's consciousness and the lexicon is hello, Cleveland. Where they're backstage and they can't find their way to the stage and they're going through those hallways saying, rock and roll. Hello, Cleveland. Hello, Cleveland. This is a good one. Used to watch WKRP in Cincinnati, right?
- [68:20]
B
From time to time. Yeah, yeah.
- [68:21]
A
So you know the guy that plays Dr. Johnny Fever? He's in the movie as, like, an established star, and he's playing stadiums while Spinal Tap is playing these smaller venues and stuff. And. And at one point his manager says, yeah, listen, we'd love to stand around and chat, but we've got to sit down in the lobby and wait for the limo. And then my final one was the sign that says puppet show and Spinal Tap. Janine, the girlfriend who's taken over as the new manager, says, if I told them once, I told them 100 times, put spinal Tap once first and puppet show last. And then they talk about. Then she says, your dressing room is bigger. And her boyfriend Nigel responds, or not Nigel, but David St. Hubbins says, oh, bigger than the one for the puppets. Okay, so that's all I had. Anything else about Rob Reiner? Before we log off here, we should.
- [69:27]
B
Probably mention that he was meathead and.
- [69:29]
A
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I had a whole thing about the ways that I knew him even outside of being a director. All in the Family was one. I actually didn't watch that a lot because it was just not on in reruns and I wasn't quite old enough to stay up and watch it. And for some reason that wasn't on in reruns as much as the Dick Van Dyke show, which was where I knew Carl Reiner. So I kind of knew Carl Reiner more than I knew Rob from just that show. But I've seen him acting in Curb youb Enthusiasm and Sleepless in Seattle and Bullets Over Broadway, but I don't really remember him in that. And Wolf of Wall street is the one that my kids know him best from where he plays Leonardo DiCaprio's father.
- [70:16]
B
Oh, right.
- [70:17]
A
I also listened to his podcast about the assassination of JFK and his theory. He did this with the journalist Soledad o' Brien and. And they had some information about who they believe was was behind the assassination, which was a pretty interesting podcast. And then his work with Castle Rock, the company that he co founded, and they brought out the television show Seinfeld and also these Rob Reiner movies, a bunch of them that we've been talking about and a bunch that we didn't. And Shawshank Redemption was another Castle Rock production, so quite successful bringing out these movies. It was a company he started, he said, so that creative people could be creative and be left alone. I think Waiting for Guffman and all those Christopher Guest movies came out of Castle Rock and he entertained a lot of people for a lot of years. And it's a shame that his life ended so tragically. But let's leave things there. Rest in peace. Rob Reiner and his wife Michelle. What a loss. But this was a fun way to remember his legacy. Mike, as always, thank you for joining me on the history of literature.
- [71:36]
B
Thanks, Jack.
- [71:45]
D
Ordinary Checking Just a place to park your money. Our checking a $300 head start. As a member of Oregon State Credit Union, you'll feel the benefits from day one. Open a new checking account, set up direct deposit, and we'll add 300 bucks to get you going. Oregon State Credit Union Human to Human banking insured by NCUA equal housing lender. $25 minimum balance required. Subject to change terms and conditions.
- [72:23]
A
And finally today we hear from Matt Abrams, who joined us back in episode 626 for a discussion of storytelling for fun and profit. After he and I discussed that, I asked him a special Foreigning me now is Matt Abrahams, host of the Think Fast, Talk Smart podcast and author of the book Think Faster, Talk Smarter. Matt, this question comes from a listener who asks, what do you want your last book to be? This will be the last book you will ever read. You can either choose one that exists or. Or describe one that has not yet been written.
- [73:10]
E
What a fantastic question. The last book I ever read. I am going to assume that this will be towards the end of my life when I hope I've lived a very fulfilling life that has been helpful to other people. One of the things that has always been helpful to me has been to laugh, to have a moment of presence in laughing. And so the last book I read is going to be something that's very humorous but also poignant. If he were still alive, I would love the book to be written. Co written actually between George Carlin and Robin Williams. And I would love to just be chuckling the entire time that I read that book. That, to me, would be a great last book to read.
- [73:55]
B
Yeah.
- [73:56]
A
George Carlin. Well, let me suggest this, that you would want that book to be kind of current, Right. Because part of what's so wonderful about George Carlin is that everybody today thinks, oh, I wish George Carlin was here to talk about this. Or I wish he was here to talk about that.
- [74:18]
B
Exactly.
- [74:19]
A
So let's imagine that somewhere George Carlin is actually saving this up for us and that when we. It might not be the last book we read here, but maybe it'll be the first book we get to read on the other side.
- [74:33]
E
That could very well be. And while I'm not wishing that day comes sooner for anybody, I think that would be a great thing to happen upon arrival.
- [74:42]
A
Okay, Matt Abraham, thank you so much for joining me on the History of Literature.
- [74:47]
E
Thank you so much. This was a lovely conversation.
- [74:53]
A
Okay, that's going to do it for this episode of the History of Literature. I'm glad you could join us for it. My thanks to Matt Abraham's fun and laughter. How appropriate. It's what Rob Reiner was all about. And Carl Reiner, too, and making the world a better place. May they rest in peace. And my thanks to Mike Palindrome, of course. We'll be back soon with Robert Louis Stevenson, a brand new biography by a master biographer who will be our guest. And Chekhov is going to tell us all about writing and Ruskin will tell us all about genius. Those episodes are coming up, too. Time to reclaim an old Ernest Hemingway episode and to look at food writer MFK Fisher and what it means to say no in Regency novels. It's going to be an eclectic spring. And get ready. There's a whole lot of Shakespeare coming up in 2026. As if last week's double episode Shakespeare wasn't enough for fans of the Bard. This year is going to be a feast. East I'm Jack Wilson. Thank you for listening and we'll see you next time.
- [76:26]
F
Curious about the future of Healthcare Tomorrow's Cure, the chart topping and Ambi Award finalist podcast from Mayo Clinic brings it to you today. I'm Kathy Werzer and in this new season I sit down with researchers, doctors and industry experts who are leading the way in medical innovation. From cutting edge technology to breakthrough treatments will explore how new solutions are improving and even saving lives. Follow Tomorrow's Cure wherever you listen to podcasts. What is healthy spirituality and how does it help us thrive? We explore these questions on the new season of Within Four, hosted by me, Dr. Pam King. Within Four bridges psychology and spiritual wisdom to help you thrive, featuring conversations with experts like Self Compassion pioneer Kristin Neff and author activist Parker Palmer. So go ahead, follow within four, hosted by Dr. Pam King wherever you get your podcasts.