Carl Reiner puts a spotlight on active senior-citizen friends in HBO special
Retirement never has entered Carl Reiner’s plans, and he’s not the only older entertainer who feels that way.
The veteran actor-writer-director helps showcase others – including his longtime friend Mel Brooks, Kirk Douglas, Betty White, producer Norman Lear (“All in the Family”), Marvel Comics icon Stan Lee and Dick Van Dyke, whose classic 1960s sitcom Reiner created – in “If You’re Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast,” an HBO special premiering Monday, June 5. Also in the program to forecast his professional future is Jerry Seinfeld, whose 1990s comedy series was executive-produced by George Shapiro, Reiner’s nephew (as well as the producer of the new special).
Since his latest book is titled “Too Busy to Die,” the 95-yearold Reiner (the father of fellow filmmaker and performer Rob) clearly believes in staying active. “My nephew got the idea for the special from watching me work,” Reiner explains, “and he knew a lot of other people who are still active at 90. I was just one of the people he interviewed, and I invited him to meet with some of my other nonagenarian friends.”
Still, Reiner became the source of the show’s name: “He came up with the idea for something ‘Vital at 90,’ and one of the phrases I use is that in the morning, if I read the obits and I’m not in them, I’ll have breakfast. Somebody decided that would be a good title, but the rest of it is all his idea.”
“If You’re Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast” also features lessfamous friends of Reiner, such as a harmonica player and a portrait painter with whom Reiner served in World War II. Of those who are household names, Reiner allows that “we are a thinning group,” but projects such as the “Ocean’s” movie crime capers with George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon have kept him in the public eye.