LEGENDS: Carl Reiner And Mel Brooks - "The 2000 Year Old Man"

From Follow Your Dream - Music And Much More! · 00:11:16

Show by Robert Miller

This LEGENDS episode spotlights Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks - two of the greatest comedians this country has ever produced. Individually, they created remarkable bodies of work.Carl Reiner created, wrote and frequently appeared in The Dick Van Dyke Show, one of the defining television comedies of the 1960s. He later became an acclaimed film director, with movies including Where’s Poppa?, Oh, God!, The Jerk, Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid and All of Me.Mel Brooks began as a comic in the Catskill Mountains’ famed Borscht Belt before becoming a writer on Sid Caesar’s Your Show of Shows. He then launched one of the great comedy-film careers, beginning with The Producers in 1968, starring Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder, and continuing with Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, High Anxiety, Spaceballs and others. He would eventually become one of the rare entertainers to win an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony.But before many of those achievements, Reiner and Brooks created something completely different: The 2000 Year Old Man. One of the greatest characters and comedy act ever created, which evolved into records and films.----------------------------**Excerpts Heard**- The 2000 Year Old Man — first routine (3:55) — the plane lands at Idlewild Airport; the secret of longevity: never touch fried food, never run for a bus; transportation in his day was "mostly fear"- The 2000 Year Old Man — the 2013-year-old man (6:05) — kept alive by "Dr. Will to Live"; breastfed for 200 years; knew Jesus, "a nice boy," who made him a cabinet for four drachmas**Discussion Segments**- 0:07 — Legends intro: Reiner and Brooks, two of the greatest comedians America ever produced- 0:30 — Carl Reiner: created, wrote and appeared in *The Dick Van Dyke Show*, then directed *Where's Papa*, *Oh God!*, *The Jerk*, *Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid* and *All of Me*- 0:55 — Mel Brooks: the Catskills Borscht Belt, writing on Sid Caesar's *Your Show of Shows*, then *The Producers* (1968), *Blazing Saddles*, *Young Frankenstein* — and eventually an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony- 1:37 — The 2000 Year Old Man is born: Reiner the straight man, Brooks improvising with no prepared answers, the character born from a tape recorder at a party- 2:47 — Steve Allen's push: access to a studio, two-plus hours improvised, edited down to the first record, *2000 Years with Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks*- 10:05 — Why it endures: Reiner asked exactly the right question, Brooks answered in a way no one could anticipate — two brilliant minds discovering the joke together

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