LOS ANGELES — It's hard to imagine a character more unforgettable than Berns Crystal. And, thanks to his great-niece, Lindsay Crystal, this extraordinary character has been immortalized in her documentary "My Uncle Berns."
Yes, she's the daughter of comedian Billy Crystal. And he's Billy's uncle. But that has nothing to do with Berns' incredible personality, which veritably leaps off the screen in the film, which premieres tonight at 8:30 p.m. on HBO.
"It's time to give him away and to share this incredible force in our family with everybody. . . . It's a universal story," Billy Crystal said.
Bernhardt Crystal was there at D-Day — as an artist. He was only two blocks away from the World Trade Center when the planes hit on Sept. 11, 2001.
"He's been an incredible force in our family and to everyone who meets him," said Crystal, adding that Berns, 89, has the "exact same personality" as his uncle's close friend, the late Zero Mostel. "They were just huge, funny, incredibly charming, take-over-a-room, there's-no-oxygen-left kind of people."
Crystal said when he was a kid his Uncle Berns "was the reason we got up and were funny." He encouraged Crystal to improvise, do comedy, start performing for the relatives. "Which ended up in my career. I firmly know that's true."
"And my father died when I was 15, and Berns stepped in in ways unimaginable and rescued us from a very dark time in our lives."
Billy Crystal encouraged his daughter, Lindsay, to spend time with Uncle Berns. And what started as an amateur project turned into a documentary that has been well received at a number of film festivals and will now air on HBO.
She obviously had help, but it's astonishing that this is Lindsay Crystal's first film.
"My intention for making the movie initially was just to have it for me, for my family. . . . The fact that it's now on HBO is beyond what I ever imagined for the movie," she said.
Of course, it didn't hurt to have Billy Crystal for a father and have him pitch the project to HBO. But that doesn't in any way diminish the end result, which is captivating. And Lindsay said her parents "really gave me the confidence to go ahead with it and do it" Lindsay Crystal said.
Starting to film her great-uncle wasn't the hard part; stopping was. "I would want to keep shooting and shooting and shooting, and sometimes I'd forget maybe his energy wasn't as full as mine," she said. "Also, listening to his stories was really difficult because it's so personal. It's my family. It's not like I was interviewing a stranger about his experiences."
And it wasn't easy to take the more than 100 hours of film she had of her great-uncle and trim it down to a 90-minute documentary — cutting out pieces that "are special to me,"
Her father hopes that "My Uncle Berns" will do more than just immortalize his uncle — he hopes other people will be inspired to record the stories of their older relatives.
"There are tons of heroes in this country that just need to be asked the question — what was your life like?" Billy Crystal said.
POLYGAMY ON HBO: The pay-cable channel has ordered "Big Love," a 10-episode drama series about a Utah polygamist (Bill Paxton) and his three wives (Gennifer Goodwin, Chloe Sevigny and Jeanne Tripplehorn), which will air sometime next year.
It'll come to us from Tom Hanks' production company, which produced both "From the Earth to the Moon" and "Band of Brothers" for HBO.
CH. 4 SWITCHES ANCHORS: As of Monday, Aug. 16, Terry Wood will replace Randall Carlisle on KTVX-Ch. 4's 10 p.m. newscast. Wood — who has become sort of the ultimate survivor among Utah anchormen — is currently Ch. 4's weekend anchor and has done two previous stints as Ch. 2's 10 p.m. anchor and was Ch. 5's morning anchor.
The official reason for the change is that Carlisle "requested the change, saying that after nearly 25 years of working nights, he would like to enjoy more personal time," said Ch. 4 news director Jon Fischer. You may recall that KTVX replaced Carlisle at 10 p.m. once before (with Scott Swann, from October 2000 to March 2002) and that he wasn't happy about it.
But that's their story, and they're sticking to it at fourth-place Ch. 4.
Carlisle will remain as anchor of Ch. 4's 5 and 5:30 p.m. newscasts.
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com