Review of CPO Sharkey

In 1976 Hollywood, known for having the predictive power of the Froggie Fortuneteller in the DisneyLand "Small World" ride ("SEES ALL - KNOWS NOTHING") had no idea that 50 years in the future Rickles would still be performing, and that his unique talent would still be razor-sharp. All they knew in 1976 was that he was a hot talent and surely, as they had already done with other standup comics, they could translate that into a payday...? Well, you can't bottle stardust and you can't tie Don Rickles to a script. The show was, at best, awkward. If you examine Don's amazing career (see the movie Mr. Warmth) the one single thing you will find conspicuously missing from his resume is the ability to hit his mark and deliver his lines just as they were written. More often than not, Don's high-water mark in these episodes consisted of yelling insults (pre-written ones!) and getting so red in the face that viewers with color sets thought the picture tube had gone bad. In fact (and no disrespect to the other reviewer) for years after on the talk shows, whenever one of Don's "targets" wanted to shut him down, they would merely say 2 magic words, and the usually unstoppable comic would hit a speedbump: "CPO Sharkey." There is however a happy ending to this story. Don himself went on to become one of the longest-performing and best liked comics of all time, and Hollywood tried the formula one more time with another ad-lib comic named Robin Williams. The second time was a charm.