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Mel Brooks

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The art of funnyman Carl Reiner

Carl Reiner's comedy – from creating "The Dick Van Dyke Show," to directing films and sharing the stage with friend Mel Brooks – shaped our culture with humor that spanned generations. Now, two years after his death, the National Comedy Center, in Jamestown, New York, has named its extensive comedy archives in his honor. Correspondent Jim Axelrod talked with the funnyman's children – actor and director Rob Reiner, psychoanalyst Annie Reiner, and artist Lucas Reiner – about their dad's museum-quality legacy.

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Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner and George Takei on getting through a national crisis

For millions of Americans, these are challenging times. For some insight into resilience from a generation that survived a depression and world war, Turner Classic Movies host Ben Mankiewicz turns to funnymen Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner. Via cyberchat, the two comedy writers, who first met in the 1950s ("Call it laugh at first sight"), talk about enduring World War II and coming out on top. Mankiewicz also talks with "Star Trek" actor and activist George Takei (who as a child was detained in a Japanese-American internment camp in the 1940s) about what Americans look for when facing an uncertain future.

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