Editing Carl Reiner (section)

===1960–1969: ''The Dick Van Dyke Show'' and acclaim ===
[[File:Carl Reiner 1962.JPG|thumb|left|Reiner in a 1962 publicity photo for ''[[The Dick Van Dyke Show]]'']]
Starting in 1960, Reiner teamed with Brooks as a [[Double act|comedy duo]] on ''[[The Steve Allen Show]]''. Their performances on television and stage included Reiner playing the straight man in ''[[2000 Year Old Man|The 2000 Year Old Man]]''.<ref name=pop>{{cite web |url=https://www.popmatters.com/119312-the-2000-year-old-man-the-complete-history-2496153798.html|title=The 2000 Year Old Man: The Complete History|first=Bill|last=Holmes|date=February 3, 2010|access-date=July 1, 2020|work=[[PopMatters]]}}</ref> Eventually the routine expanded into a series of five comedy albums and a 1975 animated television special, with the last album in the series winning a [[Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album|Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Comedy Album]].<ref name=pop/><ref>{{cite web|title=41st Annual Grammy Awards winners|url=http://www.grammy.com/nominees/search?artist=&title=The+2000+Year+Old+Man&year=1998|publisher=National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, Inc|access-date=April 17, 2011}}</ref> The act gave Brooks "an identity as a comic performer for the first time", said Reiner.<ref name=Nachman>Nachman, Gerald. ''Seriously Funny:  The Rebel Comedians of the 1950s and 1960s'', Knopf Doubleday (2003) p. 474</ref> Brooks's biographer William Holtzman called their 12-minute act "an ingenious jazz improvisation..."<ref name=Nachman/> while [[Gerald Nachman]] described Reiner's part in guiding the act:
{{blockquote|The routine relies totally on the team's mental agility and chemistry. It's almost heresy to imagine Brooks performing it with any other straight man. Reiner was a solid straight man to Caesar, but with Brooks he is the second-banana supreme... guiding his partner's churning comic mind.<ref name=Nachman/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DmA81BI6oc|title=2000 Year Old Man Mel Brooks Carl Reiner Hollywood Palace 1966|last=iCandy TV|date=April 24, 2015|via=YouTube}}</ref>}}

[[File:Carl Reiner without toupee 1964.jpg|thumb|upright|Reiner in 1964, one of the few photos taken of him without his [[toupée]].]]
In 1958, he wrote the initial 13 episodes of a television series titled ''Head of the Family'', based on his own personal and professional life. However, the network disliked Reiner in the lead role for unknown reasons.<ref name=Horace/> In 1961, the series was recast and re-titled ''[[The Dick Van Dyke Show]]'' and became a popular series, making stars of his lead actors [[Dick Van Dyke]] and [[Mary Tyler Moore]]. In addition to writing many of the episodes, Reiner occasionally appeared as show host Alan Brady.<ref name=Horace/> The series ran from 1961 to 1966 and thereafter entered a long run of syndication.<ref name=Horace/> In 1966, Reiner co-starred in ''[[The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming]]''.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming (1965)|url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6b4c8ff6|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171115015303/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6b4c8ff6|url-status=dead|archive-date=November 15, 2017|access-date=June 30, 2020|website=[[British Film Institute]]|language=en}}</ref>

From April 5, 1964, to September 9, 1965, Reiner hosted ''[[The Celebrity Game]]'', a CBS prime time game show that was a precursor to the long-running ''[[Hollywood Squares]]''.<ref>Schwartz, David, Steve Ryan and Fred Wostbrock.  ''The Encyclopedia of TV Game Shows 3rd ed. New York City: Checkmark Books, 1999, pp. 37-38.''</ref> His first film directorial effort was an adaptation of [[Joseph Stein]]'s play ''[[Enter Laughing]]'' (1967), which, in turn, was based on his semi-autobiographical 1958 novel of the same name.<ref name="nyt 2020"/>