Reverse Angle on Reiner

His forgotten role in People for Norman Lear’s Way

Actor-director Rob Reiner, stabbed to death by his son Nick on December 14, was recalled for his role as Michael Stivik in Norman Lear’s “All in the Family,” prime-time liberal agit-prop. Lear’s influence is also evident in God & Country, a documentary produced by Reiner. As Mark Tapson explained at Frontpage, it was all about:

the specter of a fundamentalist theocracy on the rise. They envision America becoming a Handmaid’s Tale dystopia in which white male Christian mullahs hang homosexuals and imprison women for seeking abortions. The left’s vision of the separation of church and state, therefore, is one in which Christian patriots and their values are best excluded from the halls of government power entirely.

And so on, in time-honored Hollywood tradition. As this writer explained in Hollywood Party, Ronald Reagan teamed with fellow Democrat Roy Brewer to run the Communist Party out of town. That earned the everlasting hatred of the Hollywood left and when Reagan ran for president in 1980, the left duly exploded. Reagan drew support from conservative Christians, the group most hated by the left. The wealthy entertainers seemed unaware that, as Richard John Neuhaus (The Naked Public Square) noted, if not for Christians there would have been no anti-slavery movement, no women’s suffrage movement, and no civil-rights movement.

Conservative Christians exercising their constitutional rights were smeared as the “religious right,” reminiscent of – what else? – “the rise of Nazi Germany” and so forth. Lear launched People for the American Way, wrapping his bigotries in populist pieties, another leftist tradition. When Reagan tapped Robert Bork for the Supreme Court, Lear produced a television ad, narrated by Gregory Peck, packed with false charges against the judge.

God & Country is Lear’s stank wafting strong, and the producer is “all in the family” in another sense. Rob Reiner is the son of comedian and television writer Carl Reiner, who played Al Brady on “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” launched in 1961. Rob Reiner was a talented guy, but he probably would not have landed the sitcom role without daddy. Reiner made the best of it, becoming a director of the first rank.

Stabbed to death by your own son is a tough way to go, which raises an issue about the broader crime scene, the state of California. Under state Senate Bill 1391, signed in 2018 by Gov. Jerry Brown, anyone under age 16 could murder the entire cast and crew of “Georgie and Mandy’s First Marriage,” be tried only in juvenile court, and gain release at age 25. In 2026 moving forward, actors and directors should be sure to stay safe.

Steve adds: I always thought you could trace out the cultural rollercoaster of America through the observation that TV sitcoms went from “Father Knows Best” in the 1950s and early 1960s to “All in the Family,” which could have been called “Father Knows Least.” Except Archie Bunker actually became the hero of the show (much to the chagrin of Norman Lear)—Archie was the person who had the job (sometimes more than one) that put food on the table. Then in the 1980s, we had “Family Ties,” which might be understood as Mike and Gloria Stivic becoming parents, except that their son Alex became the Milton Friedman- and Reagan-loving anti-Meathead.