- 7 minutes ago
At 78, Billy Crystal is looking back on a life filled with love, friendship and laughter — while facing losses he never imagined after losing his family home of 46 years in the 2025 Palisades fire and the death of his longtime close friend Rob Reiner.
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00:00I'm 78 years old now. I'm about to do seven, eight shows a week.
00:03How much longer can you do other things?
00:05So you start thinking of all the things you want to do.
00:11This is still fresh.
00:15When you saw the whole neighborhood, all gone, it was beyond belief.
00:22All you could see were skeletons of trees and chimneys, the ones that hadn't fallen.
00:34Very sporadic. It was this apocalyptic landscape.
00:38One second life is great, and the next second everything you own is in four plastic bags.
00:43We're awakened early with low-flying helicopters.
00:46That's never a good sign there.
00:49And then a lot of fire trucks, sirens, and just, what's going on?
00:56And then looking up from the front of the house, looking up, there's already a lot of smoke in the
01:01sky.
01:02And then turning on the TV and seeing friends abandoning their cars and running for their lives.
01:08If anybody has a car and they leave their car, leave the keys in the car so that we can
01:14move your car,
01:15so that these fire trucks can get up Palisades Drive.
01:17Steve Guttenberg is a friend, helping people, and it's, oh my God, what is happening there?
01:23Our canter from our synagogue, helping people.
01:26And, you know, he's got ash on his shoulder, and then we, my God, that's when I started running outside
01:31and photographing and the video and the planes going overhead.
01:37Then it became really real.
01:40Then it became, what are we going to do here?
01:44Then you see the coverage.
01:46It went from 20 acres to 200 acres in 15 minutes.
01:53Let's, let's get out of here.
01:55We took photo albums, wedding albums, photographs of our parents' weddings, just like, look, let's take that.
02:05And we were going to take more, and then the alarm went off to leave.
02:08So that's all we had and the clothes that we were wearing.
02:12And thinking, we'll be back in a day.
02:14We got to what, to my daughter Jenny's house, and it got real.
02:23It got real there when you started seeing the coverage.
02:27And then we saw security cameras we had, and all you could see were the flying embers every place.
02:39Those are the scariest things, because they're little balls of fire, and if they hit a wooden structure,
02:47they get inside the vents of a house, that's all it takes.
02:52And so we saw those, and then the cameras went out.
02:57Power was cut at 6 o'clock.
03:01And then you started watching the coverage from the Palisades itself, from the town.
03:08Your life there for 46 years, the stores you go into, where you eat, where you pick up your prescriptions,
03:16the pharmacy, the supermarkets, it's disappearing in a violent-looking, this storm was angry.
03:27And I call it a storm, because that's what the fireman who I spoke to said.
03:30These were tornadoes.
03:32Fire tornadoes, winds were 120 miles an hour gusting sometimes.
03:37So the spinning of the thing would hit a house, and things would explode.
03:41That's when it got really serious, was, oh boy, it's blocks from the house.
03:48And then you sort of know you're doomed.
03:50And the beautiful part about it was, being with my daughters and their great husbands,
03:56and my grandchildren, and my brother and sister-in-law over there, and everyone else around the country,
04:01who we're related to, texting, watching where they were.
04:06It was a vigil for the entire family just trying to get us through the night.
04:12We went to sleep, having been warned at midnight that the smoke detector had gone off in the kitchen.
04:21And, all right, okay, maybe it's just a smoke detector.
04:27You try to take the optimistic side, you know.
04:30And then in the morning, we still didn't know, except that the National Guard had moved in.
04:36It was a war zone.
04:38There were tanks that looked like there were army vehicles every place and coverage,
04:42and no one's getting in, and you can't get near it.
04:46And then our neighbor called, hysterical crying.
04:53We were 10 of us around the table.
04:56We were just all speechless and stunned.
05:00And, anyway, and glazed over what we had watched that night.
05:06And then she called to say, it's gone.
05:14And then you're just left with, all right, what?
05:18What?
05:20What's the, she just kept saying, it's, it's all gone.
05:25We retrieved a few little things.
05:29And the first thing is this rock that I got when, right, shortly after we moved in 40-something years,
05:3946 years ago.
05:41And they all had one word engraved in them, and I would place them around the garden.
05:45I would move them around over the years.
05:47It was, oh, maybe, but the welcome was welcome, dream, patience, and laughter.
05:57And my daughter, Lindsay, found a little laughter rock.
06:00So the fact that that was the first thing, we'll be okay.
06:05This was a little three-bedroom stucco ranch house.
06:09We didn't buy a mansion.
06:12And, you know, and it took us 46 years to get it right.
06:16And that's the evolution of a family, because the grandchildren, where are they going to sleep?
06:21We only have two other bandits.
06:22So it became, over time, it became, you know, our oasis.
06:31So we don't need that much more.
06:34This is a time to scale down a little bit.
06:37And that's what we're debating about, where this goes, that goes.
06:42But we're close to doing it, and the Palisades is coming back.
06:46And, you know, we loved it there, so, well, hopefully we'll love it again.
06:57It sort of emerged to me, I can tell the story and link it up to all the videos that
07:05I had already done.
07:06And then I started thinking about this in a way that I think was separating me from the pain of
07:12what was happening.
07:13It wasn't just, oh, I'm going to make a play out of this.
07:15No, it was healing me at the same time.
07:18I'm so excited to be back on Broadway with my new one-man play, 860.
07:22I'm the one man.
07:23There's stories about my career from New York to L.A. to Mastropolis and all the stuff in between.
07:28This is a story not of the fire.
07:31This is a story about resilience.
07:33This is a story about family.
07:36This is a story about laughing, loving, support, moving forward, facing things you never thought were possible beyond the house
07:47and coming to grips with them and letting it in and then turning it into something that feels beautiful to
07:56do every time I do it.
07:57Long Beach back then was a sleepy little beach down, about 10,000 people in the winter and four or
08:01five million in the summer.
08:03I felt the same thing with 700 Sundays, except the pain of those moments were a little further removed.
08:09Comparing the two, 700 was very much about a young boy discovering comedy and discovering laughter, discovering performing.
08:19And then growing up, losing his dad early, then utilizing the fact that that performing can heal.
08:29It can, as I say on the show, keep it at bay.
08:34And then 860, all those dreams of 700 Sunday come true in, in 860, in that house, in that lifetime.
08:44The title of the show was difficult to come to.
08:48I had different versions of it, and they all felt obvious.
08:52Forever House, things like that.
08:55It felt like, oh, it's a Hallmark, Hall of Fame, you know, Christmas special.
09:00And then I said, we always used to say, are you going, are you going, are you going, are you
09:03going back to 860?
09:05Yeah, I'll see you there.
09:05It had a character.
09:07It was our place.
09:10So I, so I said, I'm going to call it 860 because a home is more than a street address.
09:15It gave it a character.
09:17I feel really comfortable with it.
09:18It's provocative, I think, you know, for people.
09:20It's more personal.
09:27It's still tough.
09:28There are obviously certain things that are beyond explanation.
09:33But otherwise, I feel good because I'm still standing.
09:37They're laughing, and they're getting moved.
09:40And it's working on a lot of levels for me.
09:44Do me if ever, when you come to the show, please, would you dress up?
09:48I don't want to see anybody in the front row wearing tank top and shorts.
09:51Unless you're Jalen Brunson.
09:53All right?
09:54So, come.
09:55Come, catch my show.
09:56There's a lot of joy in this show.
09:58There's a lot of, it's very funny.
10:00And then, you know, and then, I take you through what we went through.
10:07But yet, you know, it's not just about that for audiences.
10:11It's about whatever problems they've had, whatever losses they've had and overcome.
10:18This, you know, that's what this is about.
10:20We're no different than you.
10:22There's a lot of themes in this show about luck and fate.
10:27The difference between the two, luck is a random, fantastic occurrence, and this fate is something
10:33that was predetermined by some divine force.
10:37Young comedian came out to California to play at some place in San Francisco and then ended up at the
10:44comedy store, which was the hot club then.
10:47And I did 20 minutes, like all the others, vying for stage time.
10:51And it went pretty well.
10:53And Norman Lear happened to be in the audience.
10:57The dressing room at the comedy store was the street.
11:00You're out on the street.
11:01That's where everybody makes.
11:02And he made his way outside and just introduced himself.
11:05He had to introduce him, hi, I'm Norman Lear.
11:08I'd love, okay, of course you are.
11:13And Carl Reiner happened to be there that night, too.
11:16And two weeks later, I got a call that Norman wanted me to play Rob Reiner's best friend in this
11:26episode of All in the Family.
11:27Where's the bedroom?
11:28When you're in love, any room is the bedroom.
11:33Good boy.
11:35And he got on the phone with me, which I, when does that ever happen?
11:39And said, listen, the script's not there yet, but it will be.
11:43It's always like that.
11:44But I think you and Robbie will be great together.
11:47He kept calling him Robbie, I remember.
11:48And then I flew out from, you know, Long Island to be on, to me, still the greatest half hour
11:58of all time.
11:59And that's how we met.
12:01It just continued, and we moved out to California.
12:04He basically took us, and it was Janice and I and Jenny, three of us originally.
12:11Lindsay came in 79.
12:14We were just inseparable.
12:16But that's what I remember most, was how he knew what he was doing, and he was so funny.
12:23And at the same time, respectful of all the writers.
12:26I mean, he'd been there for five years already, you know, on the show.
12:30But then when we started to work together, it was the same.
12:35He knew what he wanted.
12:37He knew how to get it.
12:38He knew how to trust you.
12:39He'd have the perfect little idea, or he'd just step back and let you find it yourself.
12:47I'm sure that Mandy Patinkin will tell you, or Carrie Elway, when shooting Princess Bride.
12:54I promise I will not kill you until you reach the top.
12:58That's very comforting.
12:59But I'm afraid you'll just have to wait.
13:01The only problem was Rob laughing too hard.
13:06We had to leave the set.
13:08Because he said to me, say what you want here, Miracle Max.
13:12Come with it.
13:13Script is good.
13:13We'll do that.
13:15But just go, go, go, go, go.
13:18What?
13:18What?
13:19Are you the Miracle Max who worked for the King all those years?
13:22The King's stinking son fired me.
13:24And thank you so much for bringing up such a painful subject.
13:27While you're at it, why don't you give me a nice paper cut and pour lemon juice on it?
13:30We're closed.
13:31Because when he first asked me, and I read the book, and I said, don't you want Mel?
13:36And he goes, no, no, no, no, no, no.
13:38He says, I don't want the 2,000-year-old man as brilliant as Mel is.
13:41He's the greatest.
13:45It was that.
13:46And it was a dream part.
13:48I worked three days.
13:50No one ever saw my real face.
13:52I got to the studio at 2 a.m.
13:54I was on set by 8.
13:56We shot all day.
13:58They took two hours to take it off.
13:59Back the next day, and the next day, on a plane, back to New York.
14:07Chemistry like that, it's undefinable sometimes.
14:10You just know.
14:11I knew it from the first time we met.
14:13I knew it from that first week.
14:14This is going to be a forever thing.
14:17I just know it.
14:18We laughed.
14:20We talked about all kinds of things.
14:22We were always interested in what each other was doing.
14:28And grateful that we both were getting chances to do something.
14:31Even as we went, you know, our separate ways in, you know, projects and all this stuff.
14:36And he gave me a chance to make my own movies.
14:40And that first movie was City Slickers.
14:42Mr. Loop and put it around the head of Mr. Cow.
14:50Now, what's wrong with that?
14:52Which is celebrating his 35th anniversary this year.
14:55That!
14:59That!
15:00I'm on vacation!
15:03When Rob was going through divorce from Penny Marshall, he was really going through some difficult times.
15:10And we would be on the phone constantly at night.
15:14I'd get a call like, um, at the moment in Harry and Sally, it's, they're watching Casablanca together.
15:21I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
15:25Ooh, best last line of a movie ever.
15:27That was stuff we did.
15:29And he'd say, oh, I got a headache, buddy.
15:32I got such a headache.
15:33It was a, you know, I said, and that became of a 24-hour tumor, the going around.
15:39I'm definitely coming down with something.
15:42Probably a 24-hour tumor, the going around.
15:44You don't have a tumor.
15:46How do you know?
15:46And he goes, go to see the doctor.
15:48He said, no, he'll just tell me it's nothing.
15:51And it's one of my favorite little exchanges.
15:53That was Purus.
15:55It was difficult in that I was not his first choice for the, for Harry.
16:01And I was, I, you know, I said, listen, if he, when he wants me, if he wants me, then
16:08he wants me.
16:09But I know he's seeing other people, which he should do.
16:14And I knew who some of them were.
16:17And I'm going, oh, he'll get it.
16:19He'll get it.
16:19And then one day, the call came, and he was almost upset by saying, I always knew it was you.
16:28And I put a, I had, you have to see them.
16:31You have to see these, because you never, I said, of course.
16:34Of course.
16:35So he said, please read it.
16:37And I said, someone snuck it to me.
16:39So I read it.
16:40Guess what?
16:41I don't like it.
16:42And then we laughed, laughed, laughed, laughed.
16:44And then I said, I have a lot of ideas.
16:46He said, come on.
16:47We'll start tomorrow.
16:48Let's go to work.
16:48And so I brought to it so many ideas.
16:52And it was great to do them, because Rob was Harry.
16:59And the difficult part for me was to say to him, you have to get out of the way so
17:07I can then step in and be this guy.
17:11And he said, I got it.
17:14That one was a dream to do.
17:16You have no idea how it's going to end up.
17:19A little movie like that became this evergreen for people.
17:24Now, all of these years later, all of these young people are starting to fall in love, finding it difficult,
17:33and then finding each other.
17:34And they watch Harry and Sally.
17:35Some holiday, there was 5,000 people on the Brooklyn Bridge side, at Dumbo, watching it outside.
17:425,000 people.
17:45That's more than some of my movies.
17:55We had a run-through on this stage here.
18:00And the first time, all the music was in, lights, and I'm in my office again.
18:08It was really kind of exhilarating.
18:10It's not the rehearsal studio.
18:12It's on.
18:13It felt so good.
18:17But I ran up to finish.
18:20Good night.
18:21Good night, everybody.
18:21I ran upstairs in the dressing room, and my first thought was, I've got to call Robin Teller.
18:25And that, you know, I don't know if I don't want that to keep happening, or I do want it
18:37to keep happening.
18:45I don't know.
18:5156 years.
18:52We just realized the other day our first date was 60 years ago.
18:56Wow.
18:57As we always joke during the Johnson administration.
19:01I hope Yankee fans will go mad at me, but we went to a Met game.
19:04I didn't even drive.
19:05I didn't even have a driver's license.
19:07We went there because of these couple that we were friendly with had four tickets.
19:12I said, you want to go?
19:13So I asked, would you go?
19:14So we went, and I knew right away.
19:18First time I saw her, I knew.
19:20And I even, you know, it's in Seven of the Sun.
19:22She walked by me in a bikini.
19:24She had a great walk.
19:25And I said to my friend, I said, Steve, I'm going to marry her.
19:29What's her name?
19:32Janice Goldfinger.
19:33And I followed her, and I still walked behind her going, you're looking good, kid.
19:37And when you can't describe someone, that's how big it is.
19:44Hilarious, charming, beautiful, loving, nurturing, honest, compassionate, tough, assertive.
20:01Not just with me, with, you know, strong-willed, greatest grandmother.
20:10The kids adore her.
20:11She's, I watch her sometimes, and I go, where did she find that joy?
20:20The other day, and I'm going to embarrass her, but she was back home.
20:25Her mom is 98.
20:27And she went back for a week to be with her.
20:29And it's just, and her mother's in an assisted living place.
20:34And so the video is Janice is tap dancing in front of, as the camera pans around,
20:42all these people in their 90s in wheelchairs watching her and clapping,
20:47and she's dancing for them.
20:48And I went, well, you know, come on.
20:51How do you not love that forever?
20:57How do you stay optimistic?
20:59It's that rock.
21:01It's the rock.
21:04It's hard to, seeing what's happening in the world.
21:12It's crazy out there now.
21:15But you've got to, you know, always think about, okay, you surround yourself with people who love you.
21:24You surround yourself with people who care about you, and you care about them.
21:31And as Mel Brooks would say, never eat fried food.
21:35You sense the reality of time, and you start measuring it, and you go, oh, boy.
21:48I mean, I'm 78 years old now, but I keep myself in great shape.
21:52I'm about to do seven, eight shows a week.
21:56How much longer can you do other things?
21:58So you start thinking of all the things you want to do beyond being there for other people.
22:05What now?
22:07Where do we want to go?
22:08What do we want to do?
22:09I hate the term bucket list, because that assumes you're going to kick it.
22:14And it's just, what do we got to do?
22:16What's the new adventure?
22:18What's, you know?
22:19You know, I've done this.
22:22I love doing this, and I'll probably always do this in some fashion or form.
22:27But you sense choices become more important.
22:33And the things that you value become more important.
22:36And the things you don't want to deal with anymore become less important.
22:44It's how do you stay loving?
22:47How do you stay healthy?
22:49How do you stay optimistic?
22:51And how do you stay strong to face the storms that are on their way?