CBS, 8:00 p.m. ET
Tonight’s episode is timed for Thanksgiving, and asks the separated Sheldon and Amy to get back together, just for the day, in a platonic show of respect. They do – but they also end up showing a little more emotion than that.
NFL Network, 8:00 p.m. ET
I note tonight’s game just to point out that this season, with several teams still undefeated in late November and others struggling mightily, the once-cherished idea of NFL parity seems to have fallen by the sideline. The Thursday games were scheduled, and assigned to NFL Network for telecast, long before the season began – but back then, who would have thought that a contest pitting the Tennessee Titans vs. the Jacksonville Jaguars would have resulted in a game, as is the case tonight, in which the 2-7 Titans are facing the nearly as toothless 3-6 Jaguars.
TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET
Tonight’s prime-time TCM lineup salutes early film star Douglas Fairbanks, one of the cinema’s first action heroes. First up, at 8 p.m. ET, is his 1916 Western, The Good Bad Man, made the year after Fairbanks first stepped in front of a movie camera. The Good Bad Man is one of the few films that has been restored twice: once in 1923, in a recut version with additional titles and some deleted and altered scenes, and again in 2014, in a clean restoration of the 1923 version. Allan Dwan directs, and the director of photography is Victor Fleming, later the director of The Wizard of Oz.
TCM, 10:15 p.m. ET
This 1920 Douglas Fairbanks movie was his first swashbuckler, and featured such exciting action sequences, and such a dynamic leading character (and leading man), that Fairbanks shot to the top of the Hollywood ranks. Watch this silent film, 95 years later, and it’s still easy to see why.
TCM, 12:15 a.m. ET
Made in 1924, this Douglas Fairbanks film is another epic, iconic showcase of his athletic stunt work and his potent charisma. That’s enough reason to watch – but to see how Hollywood depicted Baghdad, nearly a century ago, is another reason, especially given the geopolitics of the past 40 years or so.