Carl Reiner, who passed away a few days ago at 98, was one of the towering comedic talents of our age. I am grateful to him for many original creations, including The 2000 Year Old Man, the best part of Steve Martin’s film career and, of course, Rob Reiner (in collaboration with Estelle Reiner).
But more than anything I appreciate his waking up my consciousness about meta-level art at an early age. Like everyone, I loved The Dick Van Dyke Show.
Everybody loved Rob and Laura Petrie. The nation’s weekly visits to their world was a high water mark for TV comedy that in many ways has never been matched.
I can still recall my gradual awareness of the importance of Alan Brady, the raging narcissistic boss on the show. That character was played by Carl Reiner, the actual creator of the show.
In a sense, he was the real Rob Petrie, since the entire series was based on the real-life experience of Carl Reiner as a comedy writer on Sid Caesar’s Your Show of Shows in the previous decade.
As a child, I was fascinated by this dichotomy. I would wait for the occasional appearances of Alan Brady. Whenever he appeared, part of me wanted to shout at the TV screen “That’s the real guy!”
We are now in an age where meta-level art is simply taken for granted. Everything in pop culture is self-referential, and twists back on itself.
None of this might seem so radical if you came of age in these more self-referential times. But for me, Alan Brady was a revelation.