Already, I am upset to be living in a world without Carl Reiner and I only know the man his public work and essence. But I have one small remembrance of a random encounter that makes me laugh and I'm gonna share: Long time ago I was a newspaper reporter and I had the chance...
...to write a TV script with another newspaperman and college friend, the late David Mills. Having been partially rewritten by a couple guys who actually knew their business (Thanks, Yosh & Tom) it got an award nom in Hollywood. And so Mills and I rented monkey suits and flew...
...out to LA to attend the ceremony. Carl Reiner was there, as I recall, for a lifetime achievement award and was pretty much the main attraction and I was as awed as any civilian can be. Mills, too. At some point before our category, some elfin, 95-pound female writer...
...wins in her category and comes charging down the ballroom aisle at the Hilton where the aisle dead-ends into a four-foot raised stage. Only the center aisle had stairs. No matter, she's too excited and she raises a hand and is lifted onto the stage to get her award...
...to the cheers and laughter of fellow writers. A few categories later, Mills and I win and we make the same fucking mistake. I follow David down the bad aisle and we confront the four-foot barrier. At that time, Mills and I both weigh 210 if we are lucky and only I was lucky...
...No way. Mills and I retreat back up the path and around to the center aisle to the louder laughter and applause of the gathered. Last up is Reiner, who acts dazed and confused about why he is being honored, or what the awards are about, or...
...who is doing what -- his whole acceptance speech is that nothing makes sense anymore if he has a lifetime of achievement -- and in the middle of it he shakes his head at the vision of a tiny lady leaping to the stage in heels and two Teamster-looking writers running away...
Big, big laugh. Mills and I are secretly delighted. If you are going to be the butt of a joke, make sure it is Carl Reiner's joke. At the end of the night, we are in the parking garage and as we come up the stairs onto our level, who is walking beside us but Carl Reiner....
And Dave Mills gets this impish look and I know he can't resist. "Okay funny man," he says to Reiner, with mock thuggishness, "Let's see how that joke plays in a dark garage." Reiner just winks and laughs: "Great stuff, fellas. You guys made my speech."
When we got into David's car, he turned over the motor and looked at me and said with straight-up pride. "Whatever else happens, I'm now a part of Carl fucking Reiner's life of achievement. Whatever else happens, no one can take that from me."
