TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET
Two of my favorite movies are shown as a TCM prime-time double feature tonight: 1976’s All the President’s Men, which persuaded me to commit to journalism as a career, followed at 10:30 p.m. ET by 1969’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, which convinced me not to rob banks. Both films starred Robert Redford, opposite Dustin Hoffman in the former and Paul Newman in the latter. And both, significantly, had screenplays written by William Goldman. Two great scripts. Two great movies. Four great performances. And no matter how many times I’ve seen these films, which by now is in the dozens, I know I’ll be sucked into watching them again tonight.
getTV, 11:00 p.m. ET
Tonight’s repeat of a classic Comedy Hour episode features Jefferson Airplane. It’s another rarity from Season 1, which has never been released on video, and also features Jonathan Winters and Nancy Wilson. But it’s the Airplane’s rendition of “Somebody to Love,” with Grace Slick and her bandmates performing in front of a psychedelic backdrop, that was a groundbreaking part of that 1967 program. And another part of that program, censored and not shown at the time, is presented her intact: Tom and Dick Smothers introducing and highlighting a new Mother’s Day card, a plea for peace, which CBS at the time thought too controversial to air. Its now-familiar message: “War is not healthy for children and other living things.” That’s how important the Smothers Brothers were then, and how conservative the network was.