Like many, I was stunned and heartbroken at the news of the deaths of Rob and Michele Reiner. (Much attention has been given to the President’s cruel and undignified response, but that has gotten far more attention than it deserves, so let’s get into sharing our favorite memories of the art Rob Reiner created, shall we?)

I was a young kid when All in the Family was on the air, but it loomed large in the life of my family. My parents weren’t much for tv, certainly not sitcoms, but they were devoted watchers of that show. Much of it felt like it ran parallel to our lives – my dad was thankfully not a bigot like Archie, but he had an adult daughter, my sister, married to a radical leftist. I don’t think my dad ever called him “Meathead,” but he might have thought it! And so there was a part of me that always felt like Rob Reiner was a part of the family, an older brother of sorts.

This is Spinal Tap was one of those evergreen movies constantly being rediscovered by new generations and that included Generation X, discovering it in college and finding it as relevant to the early 90s as it had been to the early 80s. “Put it up to eleven” is still our way to talk about amplifying something.

It seems that whenever a group is together and looking for a movie to stream, the default is always The Princess Bride. It’s perfect for that. Entertaining for all ages, and with many memorable lines (that will often be shouted in unison by whatever crowd is watching it). No, I have never begun a wedding ceremony with, “Mawwiage. Mawwiage is what bwings us togethew today. Mawwiage, that bwessed awwangement, that dweam within a dweam” – but it has been joked about at many a wedding rehearsal.

And then there was When Harry Met Sally. The guy who would become my spouse saw it with me when we were both “just friends.” Well, let’s just say that one of the songs from the soundtrack (Harry Connick doing “It Had to Be You,” became our song.

A friend of mine said of Rob Reiner, “We loved him because he made us happy.” Yes, he paired that with working for the betterment of our country, whether through making movies like The American President or activism for marriage equality, environmental justice, and support for democracy. In an interview, he said, “The most important thing is that you be a good person and you live by the golden rule of do unto others. If you live by that, that’s all I care about.” 

Right now, making art that makes people happy and being a good person living by the golden rule sound pretty good to me. These are some of my recollections of the work and life of Rob Reiner. What are yours?