Don Rickles’ final project debuts online

Comedy legend Don Rickles has returned from beyond the grave to star in a new digital series featuring interviews with celebrities like Robert De Niro, Snoop Dogg, and Billy Crystal.
The famed funnyman filmed Dinner with Don in the months leading up to his death from kidney failure in April (17), and the 13-episode AARP Studios series debuted online on Monday (25Sep17).
The show, described as a “legacy series celebrating Don Rickles’ life and career”, also featured chats with the likes of Vince Vaughn, Paul Rudd, Amy Poehler, Sarah Silverman, Judd Apatow, and Jimmy Kimmel, and the finale episode reunited Don with his longtime pals and Casino colleagues De Niro and Martin Scorsese.
The trio met up at Craig’s restaurant in Hollywood in January (17) to shoot the installment, at the end of which De Niro said of Rickles, “I want him to be around for a long time.”
Director Scorsese also heaped praise on the producers of the Dinner with Don series at the time, insisting he loved the idea of capturing Rickles’ quick wit and memories of a bygone era on film.
“It’s good what you’re doing here because it’s an oral history of a time in entertainment, in showbusiness, and our culture, that of course is waning now,” he shared. “It’s really, really important that you get this recording.”
The get-together on camera ended up being Don’s last project before he passed away at the age of 90.
A note at the end of the De Niro and Scorsese episode reads: “This would become the last episode of Dinner with Don and Don’s final professional performance. He did what he loved until the very end working and making people laugh. There will never be another like him.”