Mel Brooks coined the title for Carl Reiner’s book, “Too Busy To Die.” We were feverishly working on getting a few other books out, and Carl told Mel he didn’t feel well and, because he was ninety-four years old, that he might be ready to shuffle off to Buffalo, to which Mel loudly replied, “You can’t go yet, Carl, you’re too busy to die!”

This Carl Reiner biography has a foreword by Judd Apatow. Below I’ve included Judd’s very sweet and heartfelt sentiment. During production I was so stoked to be on calls with Judd, who made me feel good and included with jokes about our casual setup like, “You’re lockin’ down all the big Hollywood meetings today, Aaron.”

Foreword

I was born in 1967 and have never known a moment on Earth when Carl Reiner was not giving me some sort of comedic gift. It started with “The Dick Van Dyke Show.” It was warm and hilarious and introduced me to a world I dreamed of entering, that of the comedy writer. I am going to tell you a secret: my entire life has been a sad attempt at replicating Carl Reiner’s life. He performed, so I started performing. He worked at a sketch show, so I worked at a sketch show. He wrote movies, so I wrote movies. He directed, so I directed. He was married to an incredibly talented woman who was also in show business, so I did the same. His son is a great actor, so I forced my two daughters to be actresses against their will. He fought in World War Two. I was not able to copy him there. He is creative well into his nineties. I am quickly losing my touch before hitting fifty. 

So it has been a lifetime of wanting to be Carl. In addition to being a brilliant comedic mind, he is a wonderful person who I feel honored to have gotten to know a little bit over the years. Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner are best friends and see each other almost every night and watch TV. Sometimes I fantasize about sitting watching TV with them. 

I may never get to fulfill that dream but I am honored to have had a great time reading this book and here’s to a dozen more.

–Judd Apatow
Los Angeles

Personally autographed copies of Carl’s books are available at RandomContent.com. See a bunch of other books I worked on with Carl there too. Here are links to a few books I have on this site: “What I Forgot to Remember” and “I Just Remembered”.

See all the books that Carl Reiner & I made together