20/20 - The Rob Reiner Story: A Hollywood Tragedy (ABC News Special Podcast)

Episode Date: December 18, 2025

Exploring the latest developments in the deaths of legendary actor and director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, and the legacy they leave behind. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When you're flying Emirates business class, sipping your favorite cocktail at our onboard lounge, you'll see that your vacation isn't really over until your flight is over. Fly Emirates, fly better. We got word from producers in the control room that Air 7 was launching. I started to hear helicopters. not far from my house. One thing here in L.A. is when there are a lot of helicopters overhead, you know, there's either a chase going on or something really bad has gone on. The L.A. Fire Department, they got a 911 call for some sort of medical assistance at 3.38 p.m.

on Sunday afternoon. It was a call for medical assistance. We were able to confirm through property records that this is a home that belongs to Rob Reiner. And then we found that there were two bodies inside the home. Sources were telling me right away, they were saying we know it's a murder. We are following this breaking news. There is a death investigation at a home in Brentwood on Chadbourne Avenue. Right now we do know that there are two victims, we're told a 78-year-old man and a 68-year-old woman.

The LAPD homicide unit is on the scene. It's the first night of Hanukkah, so I was preparing the candles. And so as I was literally putting the candles in and getting ready to start the prayers and all of that, I get a text. Oh, man, this is at Rob's house. And all I could think was, oh, my God, there's no way this could have happened to my friend.

This is the one thing that we all hope and pray will never happen in our lives. So the chopper was hovering over this compact. found in this neighborhood in Brentwood for a good hour or so. And we weren't seeing a whole lot of activity, which almost seemed eerie, given that we knew two bodies were found inside the home. When this initially happened, the media was pushed way back. Down the street, there was crime scene tape up.

We couldn't see the home. When we heard from the LAPD on Sunday, they were a little bit cagey. We have not identified a suspect at this time. Well, then shouldn't you be looking for one? It was almost a combative news conference with LAPD, with reporters asking questions of what is happening inside this home. Are we safe in Brentwood, the neighbors of the community? Oh, are we safe in Brentwood? I'm sorry. Yeah, so we have officers here at the scene. We're not looking for anyone in the Brentwood area at this point.

Police were almost kind of coy about what they knew and wouldn't say that they were looking at Nick Reiner. And it seems that that was because they didn't want to spook them. They knew what was going on and they knew who they were going for. As we watched the news unfold, I was actually the first one who said, I think it was his son. It's awful. It's the worst thing I could imagine. We begin with breaking news from Hollywood. Actor and filmmaker Rob Reiner's son arrested for murder in the killing of his parents.

It was early Monday morning when we initially found out that Nick Reiner, the son of Robben Michelle, had been booked into jail and was being held on suspicion of, of murder. I was actually on the air in the middle of a report when the producer in my ear said Nick Reiner is in custody. Okay, I'm actually hearing just now from a producer that Nick Reiner, I believe is what you said, the son, I believe, of Rob Reiner is now in custody with the LAPD. I believe I'm hearing that correctly from the producer. So that's breaking news just in right now.

I think it leaves people stunned. The tragedy involved here, you have such a storied Hollywood couple. killed inside their own home. We're talking about Rob Reiner, a famous actor, director, somebody who's been just a Hollywood figure for my entire life, just everybody knows him, and his wife, Michelle Singer-Riner, a well-known photographer. You have neighbors seeing Larry David show up,

seeing Billy Crystal show up, noticing Billy Crystal looks like he's on the verge of tears. tears. Just accepting that fact that this could have happened in his home from his own son, it sent shivers and chills down all of us. Tonight the new and horrific details beginning to emerge and what we're now learning about the scene inside the home. This began when Rob Reiner's dog, came to the house and discovered that he and his wife Michelle were both dead. It is horrifying top to bottom, kind of beyond reason and beyond imagination. What the police are telling us is that they believe that Nick Reiner murdered his parents at home

and then at some point during the day took off. Resources from Robbery Homicide Division, working with gang and narcotics division, were able to locate our suspect Nick Reiner. Obviously this is a shotgun case, but it's not necessary. But it's not new that there were long-standing issues with the family, particularly surrounding the fact that Nick Reiner had a lot of troubles. The Reiner's had sort of a troubled relationship with Nick Reiner. I am, how are you? I'm not going here.

Ten seconds. I am joined today by the father and son duo, director and writer, respectively, of the new. film Being Charlie. Some of the Reiner's documentation of talking about addiction troubles in their own family was the 2015 film that they made called Being Charlie. Charlie, why don't you tell us what you want to thank God for? Being Charlie is very heavily inspired by Nick's struggles with drug abuse. Charlie, take a seat.

That, I'm not going to sit here and listen to you. Tell me what a drug addict I am. But also heavily inspired by his relationship with. his father because there is a strained relationship between father and son as the son is battling substance abuse problems here's how it's going to go you can either head back to treatment or live on the streets it's your choice i get asked this question all like why would you want to put your story out there and it was never that difficult for me to share what i struggled about it was just like i have a lot of experiences that might be valuable to other people nick had had gone into recovery

and treatment centers over and over again he said that it was was a difficult process and he didn't think it worked necessarily. It's usually like they get out and they go back several times and they think it's their fault rather than the program thinking it's their, it's, you know, they design it to make it feel like you're the one that's the problem, which you know you may be, but there's also more, it's more to it than that. He became homeless because he refused to get treatment. Which is incredible to think about, a kid from Hollywood royalty who grew up in a home

home in Brentwood homeless and struggling with drug addiction. I produce and host the Dopey podcast. It was not meant to become a recovery podcast, but it did. So when I heard Nick talking to his dad, I just knew it would be good for our show. Hey, what's up? There he is, Nick Reiner. How are you?

Pretty good. I think there's an unspoken bond between addicts in recovery or addicts in general. So when Nick came to my apartment, it was almost like we were in treatment or we were in a detox or we were in a rehab or an AA meeting or something. I wound up having a cocaine heart attack. I got totally spun out on uppers. I think it was Coke and something else and I was up for days on end and I started punching out different things in my guest house. The TV and then I went over to the lamp.

I think it got very scary for him. I had no idea how difficult it was for him. I think that when you grow up, living around drug addiction and alcoholism, it's a lot easier for you to accept it and process it when it comes to your own family. When we don't understand the plight of our friends and our family, and we don't understand what a slippery slope drug addiction is,

it's hard for us to have empathy for it. He would always describe his parents as very accepting and he always felt guilty for putting them through any kind of pain. Addiction is an hour by hour, day by day, decision on the addict's part. I think his mother really cared about him. I think his mother took his situation very hard

and I think he really cared about her. And I know that she meant so much to him. Rob was very open about the fact that he regretted taking the advice of counselors that they had seen over the years over the word of his own son. Just like it says in the movie, you know, anybody with a desk in the diploma,

I listened to because you don't know how to handle it. They told us, you have to be tough. It has to be tough now, which is not my nature. But I did, I'm an actor, so I have to act. I'll act like a guy who, you know, is tough. Being Charlie was an outlet for them to handle some of their family issues that they had experienced and to let people know that this is something that goes on even in families like theirs.

The father character initially was, it was harsh on him. And I, believe it or not, was not wanting the character to be that villainous. And it was hard for him for a while to think that I thought of him that way. to convince them that that's not how I felt. I did think that. And I thought, oh, God, that's what Nick thinks of me. And oh, my God. You know, I thought that was, you know.

But then he actually came about halfway through the process. He said, you know, the father should be a, it should be a little bit more dimensional. Oddly enough, I took that as to me, oh, he's feeling better about me now. I think that probably helped his son immensely. And I think it helped them immensely as a father and son to work through those. problems. There's a father's love and trying to help his son and get out the other side and live happily ever after, and I knew they weren't. Life is not white picket fences and happily ever afters. I can't tell you how they went from there 10 years ago to where we are

today. Nick is in county jail in Los Angeles. It was being held without bail. There are eyewitness accounts that we've received that Nick was acting erratically. There might have been some sort of an argument at Conan O'Brien's Christmas Party before this homicide occurred. These charges will be two counts of first-degree murder with a special circumstance of multiple murders. These charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole, or the death penalty.

Once he is medically cleared, he will be brought to court to be arraigned on these charges. At that point, he will enter a plea of guilty or not guilty. Ella McKay, now playing in theaters. Your father's here.

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Critics declare it's hilarious, smart, and with Emma Mackey's performance, a star is born. It's complicated when you come from our family. Stop trying to be normal and pick something easy. Ella McKay, Ritty PG-13. My name is Percy Jackson. Getting in trouble is like breathing for me. The hit series returns to Disney Plus and Hulu. The danger the camp is under is greater than you can possibly imagine.

For the key to our survival, three of you must quest to the C of. monsters. Let's go do the impossible. I'm not going to let some stupid monsters stand in my way. Percy Jackson and the Olympians, new season now on Disney Plus and Hulu. Ritted TV, PGV. Rob Reader Reader. Rydidded TV, PGV. Rob Reiner is sort of synonymous with Hollywood at this point and has been for decades. He's the son of the icon Carl Reiner.

Their stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame are right next to each other. Rob Reiner was really kind of born into storytelling. His father famously created the Dick Van Dyke Show. The Dick Van Dyke Show, starring Dick Van Dyke. Rob actually looked at. lived as a kid in New Rochelle.

And anybody who knows anything about the Dick Van Dyke show knows that Rob and Lori Petrie live in New Rochelle. His father was the host of the show within the show. Well, hear me out, Ellen, you're impatient. I'm not impatient and your time is up. You have the impatience of genius. You know, go ahead, finish your thought. From the time we met, we saw comedy

and what was funny eye to eye, he was the great human beings. I think he was probably the best human being as a father and a husband and as a producer and writer he was perfect God we got along so well it was five years of

looking forward to come on a work in the morning Carl Reiner is a superstar all in his own right Carl Reiner we begin with in the writer's room of your show of shows the number one show in the nation hello there's your only reporter Carl Reiner here at LaGuardia Airport It was the Sid-Cesar show, a sketch show, a variety show, with the greatest writers' room in the history of writers' rooms.

Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, Neil Simon, and Carl Reiner writing these fantastic sketches. One of his most famous routines is a 2,000-year-old man, where Carl Reiner is a straight man interviewing Mel Brooks, who was a man who claims he's 2,000 years old. Folks, this is my credo on how to live for 2,000 years. Be a friend to yourself. Shake your hand and pat yourself on the back. Take care of every part of your body as if it were your own. From the day you fall until the day you die, never leave the house. It might be raining and there's tough guys out there.

Rob, you know, growing up, would be seeing his father work with the greats here in New York like Sid Caesar, Imogene Koka, like Mel Brooks, who became his lifelong friend. These are comic giants. And these are all giants that are like in his house that are working with his father. And you cannot help but imagine how all of this rubs off on him. In a conversation with Terry Gross from Fresh Air on NPR, Rob Reiner told about growing up as the son of Carl Reiner. When I was a little boy, my parents said I came up to them and I said, you know, I want to change my name. I was about eight years old, I guess.

I said, I want to change my name. And they said they were, oh my God, this poor kid, he's worried about being in the shadow of a famous guy and living up to and all this and they said well what do you want to change your name to and i said carl i loved him so much i just wanted to be like him these days nepo babies get a bad rap but if anybody can point to a nepo baby really working out and being kind of the the uber nepo baby it would be rob reiner talk about a guy born into something and then making the most of it right People would come up to me and say, your father is the sweetest, nicest man.

And all I could think of was, ah, no, I'm not him. Why am I going to do? How do I follow that? How do I be this person that everybody regards us? Not only, is he nice, but he's talented. Everybody says he's the most talented man and he's the sweetest man. And all those things are true. And it was a very tough struggle for me to find myself and find out who I was.

and that I was different from him. On Howard Stern, he said that he felt his father did not think he was funny. What's interesting about that is that most of the laughs that Carl Reiner got was as the straight man. And if you fast forward to 1971, there's Mike Stivick in Archie Bunker's living room,

and it's mostly Archie getting the gags. Arch, you want to play? Nah, what is he? It's a new game. It's called group therapy. Is that anything like Monopoly? No, no, no, no. It's an adult game.

I ain't playing nothing dirty. So maybe they were both straight men down deep after all. When you were a little boy, your father didn't recognize you as funny. The guy who recognized you as funny was Norman Lear, who was a friend of your dad. That's exactly right. I was like nine, eight years old. I was playing Jacks with his daughter, explaining the rules to her. And apparently, I made Norman laugh.

He says to my father, you know what? kid. He's really funny. And my father said, what, are you crazy? That little, that guy. So he didn't see it at all. No, no. I was a brooding kid sitting in the corner. I mean, what, that's not funny. I mean, Carl Reiner went on and on as a historical piece of comedy forever, and he will always have that place, where Rob felt a little bit in that shadow, and it was always important for him to rise above it, rise above being Carl Reiner's son, and find his own identity. and niche his own place in history, which, of course, he did. And, God, I could only imagine the things that he still would have done.

Carl then moves his family from New York to Hollywood to try his hand in the movies. He graduates from Beverly Hills High School. Among his classmates are Albert Brooks, another comedian, another guy of his generation who becomes famous. If you're charting the different relationships in this, We have to remember the relationship between Rob Reiner and his ex-wife, Penny Marshall. Penny Marshall is the sister of Gary Marshall, who was a TV producer, again, involved in the Dick Van Dyke show, and ultimately in the odd couple, in the early 1970s. Penny Marshall had a role in the odd couple.

She was Merna, the secretary. Oh, Miss Donga, you should go to bed. Her character's name was Myrna Turner. He's got an ensemble. Oh, I didn't want to insult him and tell you how terrible you look, but now I can tell you. You look terrible. She goes on to become a global star in Laverne and Shirley. Just try to get to the door.

So Rob and Penny Marshall were basically neighbors while growing up in the Bronx. Well, we were both born in the Bronx. We lived across the street from each other in the Bronx, except his father was working more than my father. And he moved when he was seven. But you did not know each other. No, he was younger than me. But she knew a lot of the people that lived in my building. I knew his cousins, and I knew his father lived there because he gave good trick-a-treat on Halloween.

We go to Carl Rine and said, trick-a-treat. Robin Penny met just as his career was starting to flourish. She became a really, really beloved filmmaker. He became a really popular actor-slash-filmmaker very quickly. In what would later be seen as a remarkable power couple of communities, comedic talent, both in terms of being actors and in terms of eventually becoming directors. Rob Reiner and Penny Marshall were married from 1971 until about the end of that decade. She had a child from an earlier marriage named Tracy, who Rob would eventually adopt,

and Tracy Reiner would be a part of their family. Their relationship ended rather amicably. Penny was asked for the reasons behind their breakup, and she told people, I just had a conversation with them, and we asked, with him and we asked are we still happy in this and they both said basically no so they decided to end it they had probably the happiest divorce in Hollywood history no stress divorce and a sense as to what kind of guy Rob Reiner would become is that you know he had a pleasant divorce when does that happen hi how are you an unknown Reiner catapults to fame as part of the bantering and bickering bunkers of TVs all in the family

it's not a four-lock way to blow out a kid oh there he goes again and makes meathead for a household name. Boy, the way Glenn Miller played. Songs that made the hit parade. Guys like us we hadn't made, those were the day. That's Archie Bunker and Edith Bunker sitting at a little piano playing a song that's an ode to nostalgia

because their world was changing. And the person who was changing their world was sitting in their living room. It was Mike Stivik, and that character was played by Rob Reiter. He is the Sonocall Reiner, so he does get TV work, and he's in a lot of guest shots from a lot of shows back in the day. Gomer Pyle, Batman, the Andy Griffith show, but it's not until 1970 or so that he gets

cast in what becomes arguably the most kind of lightning rod show of the early 70s, and that's all in the family. Right, no dice there, no money, no boardwalk, no nothing. Some little card would write, mother. Oh yeah, that's right. I forgot to tell you, Arch, that's the hard part. You have to know how to read. It's a family that lives in Queens, a working-class family, headed by Archie Bunker. Did you? Did you? Did you? Archie Bunker was basically a blue-collar worker. He loved Richard Nixon, loved his wife, loved his daughter, and couldn't stand his son-in-law.

You are a meathead. A meathead. Dead from the neck of. One of the great engines of the show is the combativeness between Archie, very conservative, very stuck in his ways, and Mike, Meathead, who is lefty, liberal, and always challenging all of Archie's preconceived notions. Now, you, Meathead, turn off the garbage on that radio. Okay. And thought you'd be interested in hearing what King Richard was up to today?

Richard E.Nickson ain't in the rest of the... I grew up watching all in the family. We all did. So to me, he was that funny guy, meathead. This was based on what Norman Lear's father used to call him. He decided, why shouldn't somebody else benefit from having been called that and being stuck with that for the rest of your life? Thank you very much. Norman for that. Do you take cream and sugar in your eye?

The comedy was brilliant, but the truths were hard to resist too. And it was constantly talked about as a cultural landmark of the 1970s. The communists occupy Saigon. The complicated ruling on abortion. Vietnam War, the women's movement, the civil rights movement, sexuality. There was no subject that we wouldn't touch. In many countries, England, for instance, there is a law that says whatever two consenting adults do in private is their own business.

Listen, this ain't England. We threw England out of here a long time ago. thought there would be no way people would accept this show. CBS basically was very nervous about the show being on and put a disclaimer on, which essentially said, don't pay any attention to what you see here. If you like it, fine, but we don't, we don't know these people. We don't want to have anything to do with them. We wash our hands of the whole thing. But if you want to watch it, go ahead and watch it. Sammy Davis, Jr. is maybe the greatest credit to his race.

Well, thank you very much. I'm sure you've done good. for yours, too. I try. We were always able to get laughs along with touching on very serious subjects, and I think that's what made the show so good. It's hard to overstate how popular that show was and how dominating it was, not just as something that people watched every Monday night, but how it dominated the debate. There were no DVRs, no TiVo, so if you wanted to watch it, you had to watch it when

it was on the air. there was 40, 45 million people having a shared experience. The power of that is unimaginable. The winner is Rob Reiner, all the family. He wins two Emmys playing Mike Stibbitt. One of them beautifully is given to him by his father. Talk about parental approval. He was so proud, and he was like almost crying.

He gave me a hug, and he told me he loved me and I love him. This is for your mother. It's one of those great moments, you know, in Hollywood where one generation gives the other generation a recognition of what they've done. So All in the Family ends in like 1978. Oh, I, Arch. He wanted to become a filmmaker.

So he transitioned from being an actor. We all remember Rob Reiner's Meathead on television's All in the Family. Well, now he has completed his first feature film. It's called This. This is Spinal Tapp. We have Spinal Tapp from the U.K. You must be the USA. Tonight I'm going to rock it.

I've been working very hard. I mean, to make the transition from a TV actor to a director that took some doing. I mean, I had never directed a feature film before. What do you say? Let's boogie. rock rock doc. You've got to look at this is Spinal Tap. There's a flame on that one.

Yes. I mean, it's just, it's quite unbelievable. He made something that became a classic that was incredibly unexpected, which was this mockumentary, a term that did not exist at the time, about this kind of bloated, self-absorbed, hard rock band called Spinal Tap. No one had really ever done anything quite like this before. It was really, really clever. My goal in life was not to go back on television as Meathead becomes an invest.

Beathead becomes an investigative reporter. And to make the transition, because I wanted to direct. We went to movie studios, every major one, with a 20-minute demo of the film, Spinal Tap. This company here is telling us that we can't release the album in. What? Smell the glove. Smell the glove.

Which Rob had directed, and you've never seen Blanker Stairs in your life. The movie is absolutely hysterical. Everything from one of the band members trying to go through the metal detector at an airport with a tinfoil stuffed cucumber in his pants to show that he's better and doubt that he might really be. To the classic scene about the amp that goes to 11. If you can see, the numbers all go to 11. Why don't you just make 10 louder and make 10 be the top number and make that a little louder? These go to 11. The film is a very unusual film.

And we shot the film without a script. Everything you saw there was completely improvised. You know, just simple lines, intertwining. You know, very much like I'm really influenced by Mozart and Bach. It's sort of in between though. It's like a Mach piece, really. What do you call this? Well, this piece is called Lick My Love Pump.

Sometimes funny people don't like to not be the only funny person in the room. Rob wasn't like that at all. It's like being in a band, you know. You're passing the baton around and everybody gets a chance, and it was a sharing experience, and I think he reveled in that. It's a genius, genius piece of filmmaking. And if you watch The Office, or you watch Modern Family or Abbott Elementary, the kind of documentary motif that is absolutely straight out of spinal test.

Rob Reiner knew how to get the best at a particular actor. Jack Nicholson delivering that iconic line in a few good men. You can't handle the truth. Or you have Kathy Bates in Misery or Robin Wright and the Princess Bride. As a director, he built that trust. The way that he did that was like no other director. Maybe it's just a phase you're going through. You'll get over it.

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My theory about directing is put the audience in the best seat in the house. Give them the best vantage point to see what it is you want them to see at a given moment. Rob Reiner began as a writer and as a comic actor. But maybe his greatest contribution was being a film director. Is this what you're looking for? You worried about losing your job? Because this poll isn't talking about my presidency. This poll is talking about my life.

As you wish. A lot of filmmakers do a certain kind of movie, whether it's comedy or dark family dramas. He was incredibly eclectic with the kind of movies that he made. So he makes spinal taps, so you figure he's going to be a guy who makes, Comedy is the rest of his life. Then he makes Stand By Me, which is a very moving, kind of melancholy story about young men growing up.

I'm never going to get out of this town, now, my gory. You can do anything you want, man. I was working on Goonies at the time when I got the call from my agent, who said, you know, there's this movie, and it's very serious. It's going to be a very serious role. It's a very serious movie. It's a Stephen King novella. And Rob Reiner is directing it.

And I was like, you mean the guy from all in the family? And they were like, yeah, he's a director now. You little tin weasel, Pecklewood Looney, son. Did you call me? There was two things that he really wanted to prove to the world. One was that he was not meathead. And two was that he could stand up to his father's great work. This was something that my father never would have tried,

Never would have done, and this one really reflected me. So I said, if people like this, then they're going to like what I have to offer. And they did. I suppose this is fun for you. No, but this is. When I look back at Rob's career, specifically as a filmmaker, I'm really amazed at how he could hop across genres. Princess Bride, to this day, is, you know, so many people's. favorite film of all time.

I read this book 14 years ago when I was 26. I read it and I just flipped out. I mean, it was one of those experiences where somebody is writing just for you where they're like in your mind and you're reading every page and it's like, boy, this person knows exactly how I think.

13 years later, now I've become a filmmaker and I said, hey, don't they make movies out of books? Isn't that something they do? I can't compete with you physically and you're no match for my brains. You're that's Let me put it this way. Have you ever heard of Plato, Aristotle, Socrates?

Yes. Morons. Really? In that case, I challenge you to a battle of wits. Princess Bride. Like, imagine trying to pitch that. Well, it's a comic fantasy. It's got Andre the Giant in it.

It's got Wallace Sean in it. You know, Robin Wright's in it too, right? And Cariel is, you know, at the height of his Carielessness. Death cannot stop true love. all it can do is delay it for a while how can it possibly work how can it possibly work inconceivable

Rob had recently split from his wife Penny Marshall and he expressed that he was going through kind of a low point in his love life in his social life and he wanted to write something about love in the current world as it were

and so he reached out to Nora Ephron After I got divorced and I was thrown back into the dating world and making a complete and utter mess of my social life and being utterly confused about how to relate to the opposite sex, that's what became the fodder for this film. Perhaps his most popular movie is when Harry met Sally, which is the ultimate romantic comedy of the 1980s. I mean, it makes Meg Ryan bigger than the world. What I'm saying is, and this is not a come on in any way, shape, of all, is that men and women can't be friends because. because the sex part always gets in the way. That's not true.

I have a number of men, friends, and there is no sex involved. No, you don't. Yes, I do. No, you don't. You only think you do. You see clearly the echoes of what his father taught him, right? The comic timing, the perfect line. You know, the first time we met, I really didn't like you that much.

I didn't like you. Yeah, you did. You were just so uptight, then. You're much softer now. You know, I hate that kind of. remark it sounds like a compliment but really it's an insult okay you're still as hard as news and of course like a lot of his movies there's always one line and one thing that people have come to repeat yes yes yes oh oh yes in the last

line of the of the scene we have to Meg goes from this incredible orgasmic experience she finishes and they've cut to an elderly woman sitting at a table I'll have what she's having that is my mother saying that line. Rob Reiner met his wife, Michelle, on the set of when Harry met Sally. She was a set photographer, and he saw it and he said, ooh, you know, she looks like someone I would want to meet.

They fell in love. They fell in love so spectacularly that Rob Reiner had Nora Ephron changed the ending of when Harry met Sally because he was a newly born optimist about romance. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.

Rob Reiner knew how to get the best at a particular actors. In a few good men, you've got to meme more. Now, damn it, let's put Jessup on the stand and end this thing. You've got Tom Cruise, you've got Jack Nicholson. Now, in the hands of other directors, that might be a little too much to handle. This is a man who knew how to get performances out of people. Colonel Jessup, did you order the Code Ray? You don't have to answer that question.

I'll answer the question. You want answers? I think I'm entitled. You want answers. I want the truth. You can't handle the truth. Somebody tried to ask Nora Ephron to describe Rob Reiner as a director because he never won an Oscar.

He was never talked about the way Martin Scorsese or Stephen Spielberg. And she said, you know, it's like when a diver is in the Olympics. And a diver goes off the high board, and he doesn't do a jackknife, and he doesn't do a somersault. He just goes into the water, and there's a tiny splash, and it's perfect. That's a Rob Reiner movie Whether it's a pair of running shoes Or a new car

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Read the funds or ETF's prospectus before investing. Funds and ETFs are not guaranteed. Their values change, and past performance may not be repeated. Now streaming. Go behind the scenes with Taylor Swift. Disney Plus invites you to experience a streaming event for the eras. I wanted to give something to the fans that they didn't expect. And we're going to do everything in our power to blow your mind.

Don't miss the exclusive six-episode docu-series. This is the biggest challenge we've ever done. Tonight, we complete that challenge. The End of Anera. First two episodes now streaming, only on Disney Plus. In real life, he was a tireless activist on behalf of the Democratic Party. Mr. President, I really feel we need to close some. How are much coffee you drink. A passion he gave voice to in the film, The American President.

Mr. President, I really feel we need to slow to some. How much coffee you drink in the morning, I want you to reduce it by half. I had a drink coffee, sir. Hit yourself over the head with a basement. ball bash. Would you please? The American president, it's so much fun to watch. It's Michael Douglas. It's Annette Benning. It's Michael J. Fox. People want leadership, Mr. President. And in the absence of genuine leadership, they'll listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone. They want leadership.

They're so thirsty for it. They'll crawl through the desert toward a mirage. And when they discover there's no water, they'll drink the sand. All Sorkin's work has that romance about American democracy and the power of American democracy and what it means. And Rob Ryan buys into that wholeheartedly. And his politics in his real life is reflective of that. He's never one about tearing the system down.

He's about working within the system. Maybe it's about the need to make change. And if you go all the way back to Mike Stibbich, you can see that line in there. Hots, don't you see the party with the money can afford to buy TV and radio time to get their message across to the people? The other party doesn't stand a chance.

Before you know it, you've lost the two-party system. Gee, it's getting like politics in America's only for the rich. Who's been feeding you that commie crap all? He's someone who refuses to take note for an answer to some degree, but is moved by the righteousness of what he believes in. He was a joyful warrior in the world of politics. He becomes a huge democratic activist, huge democratic fundraiser. You're going for Al Gore?

When I say Howard, you say Dean. Howard, Howard! Howard! Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton! Now they're talking about governor of California in 2006. Is that true? Well, something I think about. And, you know, everybody likes the idea of the Terminator versus the Meathead, you know. Probably if it was a physical fight, he'd probably win.

But hopefully it'll be a fight of ideas. And then maybe I have a shot. Rob Reiner would not pursue a campaign for a governor of California. But he did pursue the issues that mattered to him most. He lent his voice to things that he very much felt passionately about, did not shy away from. We know that there's global warming, and that is man-made. We're the worst child care providers of any country in the industrialized world.

I think he saw that as a kind of seamless fabric, going back to his days on all in the family. I think the things he was saying back then were the things he believed in. We were the first people to put a federal lawsuit together to challenge Proposition 8, which led to marriage equality for the whole country. Do you know why I'm passionate about this? Because I know it's right. He was absolutely the example of a wealthy Hollywood person using his wealth and influence.

To get change, he thought that was necessary. He put himself out there, you know, and he knew there would be consequences. And he used his platform to become political to the point that he was actually parodied on South Park. These poor, innocent children have been seduced into smoking tobacco. So I said, we fight fly or we'll flyer. We're going to use these children. to bring the tobacco company down. Rob Reiner, as much as he was an advocate and as powerfully as he spoke,

believed in the power of what happens when two people talk. It was the kind of thing that animated so much of his work. Whether it's Lieutenant Kaffey going up against Colonel Jessup. Did you order the code red? I did the job. Did you order the code red? You're goddamn right, I did! Or whether it's Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal fighting because they found each other on a

plane. Eventually things move on and you don't take someone to the airport and I never wanted anyone to say to me, how come you never take me to the airport anymore? It's amazing. You look like a normal person but actually you are the angel of death. What happens when two people have dialogue is a very powerful thing and I think when you watched his movies you sense if we can talk, if we can hear each other, if I can hear your perspective and you can hear mine, maybe the world could be a better place. There is that sense of humanity, there is that sense of people rubbing against each other, learning things about each other, learning how to succeed, age-old stories about striving, about persevering. That's what the human experience is like. When you get to be a certain age, you learn to really love your life. And I want to make movies about people who are embracing life.

We've got to do our best to remember all the good times, all the joy, all the laughter, all the fun that rob, brought into our lives. Find the joy in your life. Find the things that are important to you. Find joy between, you know, in your relationships with your loved ones, your family and friends. That's ultimately where you're going to find joy in happiness. I think he's really going to leave a lasting legacy of just being one of the Hollywood good

guys. He is someone so loved in his community, so loved by fans. It kind of gives you a rob as he is, and he's impossible to not love. That's why I think this loss is. such a shocking and horrific one because we didn't really get a chance to say goodbye. Sometimes the happy endings are only in the movies. The world won't be as funny with Rob Brynard missing.

He had a way of telling a story that was so rich that we all felt something about ourselves. And that is such a gift to be missed. Friday, Avatar Fire and Dash arrives in theaters. I am the fire! Get your 3D tickets now for the greatest chapter of the biggest saga in history. Whatever happens, protect his family. Critics rave. It's by far the best Avatar movie.

If your father and I do not return, you go as far and as fast as you can. Movies don't get any bigger than this. Avatar Fire and Dash, rated PG-13. now.