![]() They quizzed him on his voting habits, the fact he’d compered shows for known political activists, then they hit him with the big question: “Do you know any communists?” “I’m sure I do,” he replied. ![]() How do you guys feel about coffee?” “We’d love some.” “No, I was asking if you had any.” He answered the door in his boxer shorts and decided to give them nothing but charm. One morning in 1954, he found himself embroiled in Hollywood’s communist witch-hunt, as two men in black came knocking. Something suddenly makes Reiner remember the blacklist days. Still every inch the charmers … at home with Carl Reiner and Dick Van Dyke. The two were married for 65 years: “She was brilliant,” he says. On the wall, there’s a jokey clock she bought him. By the window is a sculpture of a horse made for him by Estelle. There are photo albums and a set of letters he exchanged with his wife during the second world war, when he was serving as a radio operator and French translator, before joining an entertainment unit that toured the Pacific. Beside his nine Emmys sits the typewriter he banged out all those award-winning shows on. “There are very few satirical shows on now,” agrees Reiner, leading me upstairs to his office. “They watch our show and say, ‘What happened to comedy?’ Our show makes them really laugh, unlike what they are seeing now.” Van Dyke, now 90, says he still gets letters from young kids. “We’ll get someone better to play you.” Van Dyke was that person and the rest is TV history. Producer Sheldon Leonard asked Reiner to give it another go, but he was reluctant – he didn’t want to fail twice. When he first wrote it, he was meant to be the star. But as far as he’s concerned, The Dick Van Dyke Show will always be his best work. Reiner went on to direct films such as The Jerk and The Man with Two Brains, later popping up on shows and films such as Two and a Half Men and Ocean’s Eleven. Photograph: CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images ‘We were not allowed to sleep in the same bed’ … The Dick Van Dyke Show, 1963. “Start talking, something will come” – that’s his philosophy on creativity, and he has spent his latter years knocking out an impressive number of books, with titles such as What I Forgot to Remember and I Just Remembered. Every few minutes, he stops to scribble down notes as he thinks of something that tickles him. Reiner, now 94, is still every inch the charmer. He’s sharp, thoughtful and jovial as he chats with his old friend. When the actor stands up, I feel very short. On the sofa beside Reiner sits Dick Van Dyke, dressed in a dapper beige blazer and navy slacks. Everywhere I look, there are stacks of books and DVDs, not to mention a prominent bust of Shakespeare, and a chair where comedian Mel Brooks, Reiner’s best friend, sits every night as the two watch Jeopardy! and exchange quips over dinner. It was one of the last things Estelle – the late wife of the writer, actor and director – ordered from a catalogue. A statue of a cartoon dog greets me as I enter Carl Reiner’s home in Beverly Hills.
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