After Rob Reiner tragically died at the age of 78 earlier this month, I, like many people familiar with the man, started thinking back on his work as an actor, writer and director. However, rather than my mind going to one of his career classics, like All in the Family, This is Spinal Tap, The Princess Bride or When Harry Met Sally…, I instead keep going back to his guest appearances on The Bear earlier this year. In fact, upon rewatching his scenes in the Hulu subscription-exclusive series, I realized that Reiner’s character is more important to Season 4 than I originally thought.
Rob Reiner appeared in three The Bear episodes as Albert Schnur, a business consultant who’s provided his expertise to “everything from Fortune 500 companies to strip-mall laundromats.” Edwin Lee Gibson’s Ebra seeks him out to be a mentor in his efforts to “create opportunity” for The Bear restaurant’s sandwich window. Impressed with the numbers Ebra provided, Albert pinpoints that the best way forward is “expansion through replication,” i.e., opening two more beef sandwich-specific locations in Chicago’s north and south suburbs, respectively, along with a commissary kitchen somewhere in the middle. He also pitches himself as a consigliere to arrange this expansion, comparing himself to Robert Duvall’s Tom Hagen in The Godfather.
