Decades, 12:00 p.m. ET
These Dean Martin specials, which Decades collects tonight in an all-weekend marathon, are anything but politically correct, so be forewarned. But they’re fascinating, to me, because no matter how many hundreds or thousands of paid customers are crammed into the Las Vegas venues for these Las Vegas celebrity roasts, the people on the dais essentially are performing only for each other. And what makes them laugh, in these vintage TV specials, is illuminating as well as sometimes surprising. All the heavyweights of comedy and show business seem to be here, from Bob Hope and Muhammad Ali (and, of course, Dean Martin himself) to Howard Cosell and Jimmy Stewart – but the talents who crack everyone up the most include Ruth Buzzi in her Laugh-In old lady role, Foster Brooks in his drunken speaker role, and Don Rickles as… himself.
TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET
Kevin Costner ascended quickly in Hollywood, and leveraged his clout aggressively and intelligently. After his breakout supporting role in 1985’s Silverado as the irrepressible Jake, he spent the next few years playing leading men who no less magnetic. In successive years from 1987 to 1989, Costner played the incorruptible Eliot Ness in The Untouchables, the poetic veteran baseball player in Bull Durham, and the obsessed farmer in Field of Dreams. Then, after that terrific trifecta, he took advantage of his Hollywood status and signed on to direct, as well as star in, Michael Blake’s screenplay adaptation of his own Civil War-era novel in 1990’s Dances with Wolves. It’s a film of epic length, and actually works as an epic Western – at a time when the genre, as well as such overtly sentimental stories, were somewhat out of vogue. Co-stars include Mary McDonnell and Graham Greene.
NBC, 11:29 p.m. ET
Nick Jonas, without the other Jonas Brothers, is the musical guest tonight – and, in this new installment, he’s also the guest host.