Carl Reiner dies: The Dick Van Dyke Show creator and comedy icon was 98

TMZ

Reiner died last night at his home in Beverly Hills with his family by his side, reports TMZ. Reiner, the father of Rob Reiner, won nine Emmys, one Grammy and was honored with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2000. Reiner died two days after he was photographed with his daughter Annie, and best friend and former comedy partner Mel Brooks for his 94th birthday while they wore Black Lives Matter shirts. "Last night my dad passed away. As I write this my heart is hurting. He was my guiding light," tweeted Rob Reiner. After serving in World War II, performed in several musicals before teaming with Brooks (who celebrated his 94th birthday on Sunday). He co-wrote and acted with Sid Caesar on Your Show of Shows and Caesar's Hour. In 1961, he created The Dick Van Dyke Show starring Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore after CBS rejected his idea to be the star. Reiner played Alan Brady, the egocentric, demanding, high maintenance, toupee-wearing star of The Alan Brady Show. Reiner earned five Emmys for The Dick Van Dyke Show. He later earned an Emmy reprising his Alan Brady role on Mad About You in 1995. In recent years, Reiner became outspoken against President Trump via his Twitter feed. One of Reiner's final tweets, sent Monday afternoon, was targeted at Trump. After the last presidential election, Reiner vowed to live to vote in the 2020 election. In October 2018, he added: "My personal goal will be to stick around until 2020 and vote to make sure we have a decent, moral, law-abiding citizen in Washington who will make us all proud again to live in America."

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• Carl Reiner's death ends one of the most important and impactful careers in television history: "Few figures loom as large in pop culture history as Carl Reiner, the way he crafted jokes, scripts, films—everything he created was hilarious," says Brett White. "Of everything he accomplished in his 60 year career, A lot is going to be written about The Dick Van Dyke Show—and rightly so. What Carl Reiner contributed to television, just with that show alone, is immeasurable. The leap forward for television comedy, sitcoms in particular, that Reiner navigated and executed cannot be understated. When you watch a sitcom with multi-faceted characters, with natural dialogue, with jokes so sharp yet so real, you’re seeing writers adding bricks to the foundation that Reiner laid when he created The Dick Van Dyke Show in 1961. If I Love Lucy was Chuck Berry, then The Dick Van Dyke Show was The Beatles."
• Reiner was ahead of his time with female representation in his fictional writers' room: "A reminder that The Alan Brady Show had a writers' room that was one-third female," tweeted former Letterman writer Nell Scovell, creator of Sabrina the Teenage Witch. "It would take until 2017 for the rest of the TV industry to match this. Thank you for the representation, Carl Reiner. Sally was my the patron saint. And thank you to Rose Marie, too."
• Conan O'Brien on the huge impact Reiner had on his life: "Today, I defy anyone to capture the comedic impact of Carl Reiner using mere words. He simply did too much, too well, and all with life-giving good cheer," Conan wrote in a statement posted to Twitter. "Carl was funny about every facet of life, even death, and if he could be with us now he would give a eulogy for himself that would blow the roof off any synagogue, church, or mosque. In dark times Carl Reiner is lasting proof that life is wondrous, funny, and worth the trouble. Good bless you, Carl."
• Reiner's Twitter musings were essential and hilarious until the end: The comedy icon "reached a new generation of fans through his witticisms, amassing 6,520 messages and over 367,000 followers," says William Earl. "Adorably, he revealed that he first started his account to keep up with his grandson": "What a boon twitter is to me. I get to follow and enjoy the thoughtful, incisive comments my grandson Jake Reiner makes daily," Reiner tweeted in 2013.
• Celebrities pay tribute: Alan Alda, Jon Cryer, Sandra Bernhard and more remember Reiner