BBC America, 8:00 p.m. ET
Playwright Aaron Sorkin’s inaugural Broadway effort was the basis of this 1992 movie, whose screenplay he also wrote. Rob Reiner directed, and the two of them led the way, dramatically, in so many ways. The drama stars Tom Cruise and Demi Moore as attorneys defending a Marine accused of murder on a military base, and undergoing a military trial. It’s a drama that arrived years before the TV series JAG, and also years before the military base at Guantanamo Bay made major headlines. Also, there’s the cast: Cruise and Moore are dynamic, and Jack Nicholson, as the hard-bitten colonel in charge, shows what acting is all about. We want him on that wall. And what a supporting cast, loaded with young actors who, like Sorkin, would become major players in subsequent years: Kevin Bacon, Kiefer Sutherland, Noah Wyle, Kevin Pollak, and Cuba Gooding Jr.
TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET
On Christmas Day, a new movie version of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women will hit theaters, directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Meryl Streep, Emma Watson, Saoirse Ronan and others. Meanwhile, tonight, TCM presents two cinematic versions of this enduring 1868 novel: At 8 p.m. ET is the beloved 1933 version, directed by George Cukor and starring Katharine Hepburn and Joan Bennett. That’s followed, at 10:15 p.m. ET, by the 1949 version, directed by Mervyn LeRoy and starring June Allyson, Margaret O’Brien, Janet Leigh, Mary Astor, and Elizabeth Taylor (pictured).
HBO, 9:00 p.m. ET
This series may not have swung into high gear yet – but the bears certainly are making themselves known…