Rob Reiner made guest appearances on a variety of iconic shows before landing his breakout role as Michael “Meathead” Stivic on All in the Family in 1971. In those early days, you could’ve caught him on everything from the original Batman TV series to comedies like The Andy Griffith Show, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Gomer Pyle, USMC. He also appeared on a short-lived 1967 sitcom, The Mothers-in-Law, starring Eve Arden and Kaye Ballard, and executive produced by I Love Lucy star Desi Arnaz. Reiner played a nightclub director in an episode from the show’s first season and was on track to do a guest spot in another episode until things got physical between him and Arnaz.
In an interview from 1994, Reiner opened up about how things went wrong during a run-through for what was supposed to be his second appearance on the show. In the middle of one scene, Reiner started improvising a bit and, according to him, that was all it took for Arnaz to lose his temper. “I pay $10,000 a script, what are you doing?” Arnaz screamed. “I don’t like these improvisational actors!” he continued, before storming off the stage. Despite being warned not to, Reiner followed after him.
“I was shoved by him,” Reiner said. “Physically shoved by him.” “Maybe that’s the way they do it on the Van Dyke Show,” Arnaz barked at him, referencing Reiner’s father’s hit sitcom starring Dick Van Dyke. “But we don’t do that on this show,” he went on, while pushing Reiner up against the soundstage. At that point, Reiner suggested that Arnaz might want to get another actor to play the part. Arnaz apologized to him for the outburst and complimented him on his acting, but Reiner ultimately decided not to go on with the show under the circumstances.
Arnaz’s negative attitude toward The Dick Van Dyke Show is especially odd to hear, since that series was filmed at Desilu Studios, which Arnaz co-owned with Lucille Ball, and it did very well during its five-year run regardless of any improvisation. Interestingly, Reiner’s dad, Carl, didn’t have the highest opinion of Arnaz’s earlier sitcom, I Love Lucy, either. “I didn’t like the show because it wasn’t reflective of what I know about love and marriage,” the elder Reiner told PBS in 2015. “I wrote about two against the world. They wrote about two against each other.” It’s probably for the better, then, that he didn’t tell Arnaz that while they were filming at his studio.
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