PBS, 8:00 p.m. ET
Part 2. This is the second part of Ken Burns’ three-night, six-hour study of Prohibition – and it’s the installment in which Prohibition, the banning of alcohol for general use in the 1920s, actually comes into practice. Part 1 was all about setting the scene, and explaining what came before – and doing that, so thoroughly, is what makes a Ken Burns documentary so singular, and so satisfying. That, and what Apple calls “the Ken Burns effect.” Check local listings.
TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET
This Spencer Tracy-Katharine Hepburn comedy was released in 1957, and concerns a subject that ought to be especially interesting to TV enthusiasts in general and Mad Men fans in particular. It looks behind the scenes at a television network, and the unsettling but unavoidable decision to bring new-fangled computer technology into the network’s research department. This takes place, in Desk Set, just before the era we saw on Mad Men, and you can remember how unsettling the introduction of computers was to at least one member of that firm. (And if you don’t remember, I don’t want to describe it.) In Desk Set, Tracy plays the engineer plotting to introduce the computerized system, and Hepburn plays the research department head who feels threatened by its, and his, encroachment.
Disney Channel, 9:40 p.m. ET
With this 2009 3-D motion-capture holiday film directed by Robert Zemeckis, Jim Carrey became the first actor to portray both of the Christmas season’s most heinous humbuggers: The Grinch in 2000’s Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and Ebenezer Scrooge in this latest Disney retelling of the Charles Dickens classic tale. But wait – that’s not all. In this Disney’s A Christmas Carol, Carrey not only plays Scrooge, but also plays all three of the spirits who haunt Scrooge throughout his nightmarish night.
ABC, 9:00 p.m. ET
Robin Roberts hosts this ABC look back at 2015, tallying the most memorable and outrageous moments. Expect more than a fair share of Donald Trump clips.
HBO, 10:00 p.m. ET
This HBO sports magazine series has been around for 21 seasons now – and tonight’s end-of-year wrap-up looks back not only at the year 2015, with host Bryant Gumbel debriefing his regular, and valuable, correspondents, but also takes a second look at the show’s entire 20-year stretch.