Sundance, 7:00 p.m. ET
It’s lovely watching Edmund Gwenn slip into the role, and big red suit, of Kris Kringle in this 1947 holiday classic. It’s equally heartwarming to see little Natalie Wood, as a child actress here, playing the role of the girl who believes that the department store Santa at Macy’s is indeed the genuine article. Repeats at 9:15 p.m. ET.
Fox, 8:00 p.m. ET
Tonight’s new episode takes on the movie Boyhood by animating the story of Bart Simpson as he might progress if, like the boy in Boyhood, he actually aged. And why not? Bart’s been around long enough, in terms of years, to have reached not only “Barthood” – the title of this episode – but adulthood as well. And pay special attention to the couch gag this week: Like the rest of this episode, it’s a loving nod to director Richard Linklater, director of Boyhood. He also directed 2006’s A Scanner Darkly, a movie whose unusual visual style relies on rotoscoping – as does, this week, the couch gag.
USA, 8:00 p.m. ET
Because NBC Universal owns the TV rights to this 1946 holiday classic, it can be televised, these days, only on NBC and its sister networks. That’s why NBC already has shown it once -- and why USA Network, one of NBC’s cable sister stations, is showing it tonight.
CBS, 9:00 p.m. ET
There are people around Alicia who aren’t very happy with her choices of late – either the cases she’s taking or the man with whom she’s working, quite closely. Tonight, the forces around the campaign try to make some adjustments – but, as regular viewers of this series know full well, Alicia doesn’t “adjust” easily.
Showtime, 9:00 p.m. ET
Rupert Friend’s Peter Quinn didn’t die after all, which is a fate taken by several seemingly ill-fated regular characters on TV this fall. But that doesn’t mean Quinn is out of the woods. Not when Carrie, in search of critical information, decides to pull him out of his medically induced coma.
Adult Swim, 12:00 a.m. ET
In this new Robot Chicken holiday special, the Robot Chicken Nerd heads to the North Pole. His encounter with Santa Claus, however, is anything but a ho-ho-ho laughing matter. And what happens to poor Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is something you won’t soon forget. But like the rest of the crazy humor in this long-running Adult Swim franchise, it’s well worth a look.