As far as I know, no one in the Kaufman or Hart clan was the basis for anyone in the play. I think we all wish we had a Grandpa, Penny, and Mr. De Pinna in our families.

As a young man with celebrity parents I yearned to ignore my heritage (or, more precisely, have other people ignore my famous parents) and "make it" in my chosen career entirely on my own merit (which of course never happens, you're always found out).

As a younger person I think I thought of myself as a Tony [from The Best Man], struggling with the legacy of my famous parents.

A couple of years ago my friend and business partner Jeffrey Richards was doing the Gore Vidal play, The Best Man, starring James Earl Jones. I asked Jeffrey out to lunch and asked him what he thought of James playing Grandpa in You Can't Take It With You. Jeffrey thought it was a fabulous idea and so did James.

What makes You Can't Take It With You so popular and a perennial favorite with student and amateur productions (it continues to be one of the top 10 best-selling plays year after year) is the breadth of characters and personalities on display: in age, race, gender, social status, a true cross section of society when the play was written and also true today in terms of the reality of the humanity on display.

As far as I know, no one in the Kaufman or Hart clan was the basis for anyone in the play. I think we all wish we had a Grandpa, Penny, and Mr. De Pinna in our families.

I had the good fortune to direct my first professional production with one of my Dad's masterpieces, The Man Who Came To Dinner. What it taught me was how beautifully the Kaufman and Hart plays are constructed: with economy, and wit, and warmth, and a sensibility, and heart/Hart that appeals to every stripe of theatregoers. It was a gift that can't be underestimated.