TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET
Untamed Youth isn’t the sort of B movie TCM presents very often – but tonight, it’s the first of a mini-marathon of films featuring actress Mamie Van Doren, who competed with Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield in the late Fifties for the title of American film goddess (and lost to both). This is a rare chance to see a lot of her films in one place, beginning with this 1957 drama, in which she plays a wannabe actress detained in a rural prison. Six additional Mamie Van Doren movies follow, and the later it gets, the stranger they get. Set your recorders for 3:15 a.m. ET, for example, when the film on view is 1960’s Sex Kittens Go to College. You can thank me in the morning.
ABC, 9:00 p.m. ET
Game 6 went into overtime, saw the San Antonio Spurs collapse at the very end, and gave the Miami Heat another day to play, in an end-of-it-all Game 7 in front of a home crowd. Given both the home crowd and the momentum, the Heat have the advantage – but no team in this year’s finals has found a way to win two games in a row. Expect the game to be gripping – and the ratings to be huge, at least for pro basketball.
FX, 10:00 p.m. ET
SEASON PREMIERE: The first two episodes of the new season are shown back-to-back – starting with a memorable visual reference, then getting down to business, and a second episode that ranks among this show’s best. For a full review, see Eric Gould’s Cold Light Reader.
NBC, 10:01 p.m. ET
SEASON FINALE: If you’ve stayed with this show, tonight’s the night the plot thickens substantially. The hero is suspected of murder, and the person to whom he turns for help is, as only we know, the real killer. And when the killer’s name is the title of the show, it doesn’t bode well for the good guys.
Comedy Central, 11:31 p.m. ET
Tonight on The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert plays host to Joss Whedon, whose new film, after The Avengers, is a modern-dress, black-and-white Shakespearean adaptation filmed in his own house. The film is Much Ado about Nothing, and the stars include lots of veterans from previous Whedon works: Amy Acker (seen here with Whedon) from Angel and Dollhouse, Nathan Fillion from Firefly, Alexis Denisof from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, Fran Kranz and Reed Diamond from Dollhouse, and Clark Gregg from The Avengers. Given the source material, the title, the cast, its lack of color, its modern setting, and its creative proximity to The Avengers, Colbert ought to have a lot of fun with this interview. And Whedon is smart enough to keep up, and return volleys. Ought to be a keeper. Yea, verily.