Two friends and show business veterans swap stories on “Mel Brooks and Dick Cavett Together Again” (8 p.m., HBO). They are completely at ease with each other and make the most of their contrasts. Brooks, the accomplished comedy filmmaker and producer of “The Producers” on stage and screen, never forgets his roots in bawdy and even scatological humor. Cavett plays the urbane Yale grad and Midwestern WASP to Brooks’ Catskills comedian, and their mutual admiration and respect are infectious.

Most of “Together” consists of the two men revealing familiar but “never before told” anecdotes about show business luminaries. Aged 84 when this was filmed before a live theater audience, Brooks still brings a giddy, wicked, boyish enthusiasm to his off-color stories. He seems truly ageless. A full decade younger, Cavett appears to be further removed from the talk show persona that depended so heavily on boyish looks.

Both men have roots deep in television. Cavett wrote for Jack Paar, Johnny Carson and Jerry Lewis, among other hosts, before getting his own series, arguably the best TV talk show ever. Writers for “Your Show of Shows,” Brooks and Carl Reiner were regulars on “The Steve Allen Show,” where they re-created their long-running routine, the 2000- Year-Old Man. Brooks also co-created “Get Smart” with Buck Henry, who wrote “The Graduate” at roughly the same time Brooks was making “The Producers.”

Brooks and Cavett share a mid-20th century affection for old Hollywood and the Great American Songbook. Their sensibilities appear to have been well established before Elvis Presley cut a record. And that’s what makes them so special, and increasingly rare. It’s fun to hear these old pros egging each other on and spilling not-so-secret tales about the eating habits of Alfred Hitchcock and Orson Welles, Cary Grant’s insecurities, Frank Sinatra’s dubious associates, Fred Astaire’s opinion of Katharine Hepburn and the amorous excesses of Tallulah Bankhead and Grace Kelly.

• The voice of Neil Patrick Harris animates a new chapter of “The Penguins of Madagascar” (7 p.m., Nickelodeon), “Blowhole Strikes Back.”

Tonight’s other highlights

• Scheduled on “48 Hours Mystery” (7 p.m., CBS): a survivor tells of an encounter with “The Railroad Killer.”

• On two episodes of “Friends With Benefits” (NBC): work (7 p.m.), buddies (7:30 p.m.).

• A couple of survivors endure a forest fire on “Man, Woman, Wild” (8 p.m., Discovery).

• Time for a lockdown on “Haven” (9 p.m., Syfy).

• One final mission on “Torchwood” (9 p.m., Starz).

• An outdoor garden sprouts vermin on “Rat Busters NYC” (9 p.m., Animal Planet).

Cult choice

All work and no play makes Jack (Jack Nicholson) a dull boy in Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 adaptation of Stephen King’s horror novel “The Shining” (8 p.m., BBC America).