TVSquad

• At 7, CBS has a new 60 Minutes, followed by a new Amazing Race and the movie Pictures of Hollis Woods.
• ABC has a new America's Funniest Home Videos at 7, then new episodes of Extreme Makeover, Desperate Housewives, and Brothers & Sisters.
• NBC has a new Football Night in America at 7, then the Bengals/Steelers game.
• There's a new CW Now on The CW at 7.
• At 8, FOX has the BCS Selection Show.
• If you like You've Got Mail, check out 1940's The Shop Around The Corner, the movie it was based on. It's on TCM at 8.
• HBO has Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project at 8.
• At 9, The CW has a new Life is Wild.
• Lifetime has Finding John Christmas at 9.
• Food Network has a new Iron Chef America at 9, then a new holiday Dinner: Impossible.
• Showtime has a new Dexter at 9, followed by the season finale of Brotherhood.
• Also at 9: Sci-Fi has part one of the Tin Man miniseries.
• At 9:30, FOX has a new American Dad.

Check your local TV listings for more.

While we all mourn the demise of the celebrity Roast, I thought this might be a good time to reflect back on a time when the master, Don Rickles, used just the right combination of acerbic wit and what would today be called "political incorrectness" for hilarious results.

All comedians, in their own way, are skilled at keeping an audience engaged, but very few can match the likes of Don Rickles. There are a lot of angry comedians out there, and even some who aren't afraid to take a few shots at the audience, but Rickles' act was only ostensibly about insults. At its core, it was about creating a kind of communal moment in which no one was the butt of the joke because everyone was the butt of the joke.

• Charlie Rose: a conversation about Claude Monet
• The Daily Show: Don Rickles (repeat)
• The Colbert Report: Howard Dean (repeat)
• The Late Show With David Letterman: Senator Barack Obama and Halle Berry (repeat)
• Jay Leno: Will Ferrell, Senator Joe Biden, and Paolo Nutini (repeat)
• Jimmy Kimmel Live: Matthew Fox and Kelly Clarkson
• Tavis Smiley: Right To Return, Part 2
• Late Night With Conan O'Brien: Dr. Phil, Emily Deschanel, and Colexico (repeat)
• The Late, Late Show With Craig Ferguson: Lance Burton, Matt Serra, and Chantal Kreviazuk (repeat)
• Last Call With Carson Daly: Eddie Izzard and Vietnam (repeat)

As Annie mentioned in her review, Don Rickles was on The Daily Show last night. I typically don't watch The Daily Show until the day after, because, at the old age of 30, I'm out like a light by 8:00 p.m., barely able to finish my bowl of oatmeal.

I usually skip over the interview segments of the show, but today I actual watched the segment with Rickles. I may be a fan of a lot of today's "alternative" comics (a term as meaningless as "alternative music"), but I also have a lot of respect and admiration for older comics such as Rickles. And it's genuine respect, not that fake respect you exude because they're old and society demands it from you. No, Rickles is a very funny and amicable gentleman, and even at the age of 81 the man is still as sharp as he ever was.

It took me several years to really appreciate Rodney Dangerfield. When I was young and knew everything, his act seemed so easy to me: just a bunch of one-liners and a few nervous tugs of his tie. Now that I'm older and a bit wiser, I realize it's not that his act was easy, it's that he made it look easy (and that ain't easy). Perhaps he's not as relevant to today's younger crows looking for comedy with a bit more cruelty and bite, but it's not as if Dangerfield's act was kind, but the unkindness was always turned toward himself, something lacking in today's comedians like David Cross (who I also like, but I've always been more fond of comedy based on self-deprecation).

Don Rickles, the premiere insult comic, will be honored with the first Pinnacle Award at the Comedy and Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado next month. The ceremony will include a screening of John Landis' documentary about the comedian, The Rickles Project. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Landis and Rickles.

Rickles got his start playing night clubs, later moving on to film and television. He appeared on several of Dean Martin's "Roasts" and was also the star of his own television series in the '70s, C.P.O. Sharkey, one of a few short-lived shows featuring Rickles (others included Daddy Dearest and The Don Rickles Show). Rickles also guest starred on several other television series, such as The Twilight Zone, The Addams Family, and Newhart.

If I were to pick 10 of my favorite TV people of all-time, my list would include people like Rod Serling, Dick Van Dyke and Carl Reiner, everyone behind The Simpsons, and, of course, American Idol judge Paula Abdul.

OK, I'm kidding about that last one.

But also on that list would be veteran comic Bob Newhart. Not only did he star in two great classic sitcoms (The Bob Newhart Show and Newhart), and a third underrated one (George & Leo), he's also a brilliant standup comic. He even had the #1 album and won a Grammy, beating out people like Frank Sinatra. He's funny, has a unique style, and just seems like a helluva decent guy.