TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET
What a delightful film – and what a pleasant way to begin the New Year, by laughing out loud. This 1963 movie, in which Peter Sellers introduces the bumbling character of Inspector Clouseau, is a very, very funny film. David Niven, Robert Wagner and Capucine co-star, but this movie belongs completely to one actor. It’s a Sellers market.
The Movie Channel, 8:00 p.m. ET
This 2011 movie focuses on the making of another movie – specifically, a week of filming during 1957’s The Prince and the Showgirl, which starred Laurence Olivier and Marilyn Monroe. The point of view here is from Olivier’s assistant, Colin Clark, who documents the stars’ flinty relationship, and his own “dream week” with the vulnerable, magnetic actress. Eddie Redmayne portrays Clark, Olivier is played by Kenneth Branagh, and Monroe is played by Michelle Williams.
PBS, 9:30 p.m. ET
Michael Kantor, who looked lovingly and intelligently at New York stage history in Broadway: The American Musical, returns with another smart, talent-filled treatise, this time focusing on Jewish performers, composers, book writers and influences on the Broadway musical. Joel Grey hosts, and the vintage performance clips you’ll see include Zero Mostel in Fiddler on the Roof, Nathan Lane in The Producers, Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl, and, yes, David Hyde-Pierce in Spamalot, singing the pertinent lyrics, “To hit the top on Broadway and not lose… There simply must be, simply must be Jews.” Interview subjects include Stephen Sondheim, Mel Brooks, Stephen Schwartz, Arthur Laurents, Sheldon Harnick, John Kander and Harold Prince. Check local listings.
NBC, 10:00 p.m. ET
Of all the series on my Top 10 TV Shows of 2012 list, this is the first to return in 2013 with a fresh episode. I’m still recovering from the Christmas episode, so I hope this one takes it a little easier, emotionally. For that matter, I hope 2013 does, too. I’m just saying…
TCM, 10:00 p.m. ET
This 1950 movie, directed by John Huston, is fun to watch because it's such a prototypical film noir, and because its plot - of a daring robbery and what happens afterward - has been borrowed by so many other subsequent films, including Reservoir Dogs. But watch, too, for the actress who stars, playing Doll Conovan, opposite Sterling Hayden. She's Jean Hagen, who's much more familiar from comedy roles - especially as Danny Thomas' wife in Make Room for Daddy, and as Lina Lamont, the silent movie star with the horrible singing voice, in Singin' in the Rain.