Norman Lear Saved Original ‘Spinal Tap’
Rob Reiner and the gang dropped a trailer earlier this week for Spinal Tap 2, a sequel to the influential mockumentary they made decades ago.
It’s a typical teaser trailer, not saying much of anything and trying to drum up excitement without killing the drummer. The dials on a guitar amp are slowly turned to 11 before the final control is cranked to the symbol for infinity. Cue the crunchy guitars of “Stonehenge” while the iconic prop is added to the Spinal Tap logo to form a Roman numeral II. We also get a new tagline: “The end continues.”
No new details about the sequel since Cracked shared some Reiner nuggets last fall, but MeTV reports a little-known fact about the original: Spinal Tap never would have been made without the moral (and financial) support of Reiner’s All in the Family boss, Norman Lear.
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It’s not hard to understand why Reiner had a hard time convincing movie studios that his fake rockumentary was a good idea. He had never directed a feature film before, and as proof of concept, he only offered a four-page outline of what the final product would be. No dialogue, no storyboards — just a loose assembly of scenes that would be brought to life through the improvisation of funny guys Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer, none of whom were household names.
Reiner was confident it would work, though. “Chris and Michael, for years, had been improvising with these characters, these British rock and rollers, at parties and stuff like that,” he told the Television Academy Foundation. “It wasn’t a typical first-time director experience. We were kind of flying by the seat of our pants and improvising as we went along.”
The studios all said no, leaving Reiner with no way to make his film. Enter Lear. He believed Reiner’s project had merit, and more importantly, he believed that the guy who played Meathead had a real future as a director. So he decided to back the project, fronting $2 million for a crew so Reiner could begin filming.
“Norman was the first guy to recognize that I had a sense of humor, and he’s been my champion for a long time,” Reiner told The Today Show. “He got me started in my directing career. I’ve said many times he’s like a second father to me. I’ve been very lucky to have him as a role model, along with my own father.”
Reiner’s father, of course, was Carl Reiner, creator of The Dick Van Dyke Show and a prolific director of comedy movies like The Jerk and All of Me.
“What I got from them was just being around them and seeing how they conducted their lives,” Reiner said about his dual influences. “That’s the best advice I got. I saw how my dad conducted his career, how he treated other people. I saw how Norman used what he had and his strength that he had of his convictions, to stick to his guns and not back down from what he believed. Those are the pieces of advice that I got from both of them.”
