Netflix, 3:00 a.m. ET
SPECIAL PREMIERE: This new Netflix comedy special, from John Mulaney, is presented as a sort of modern Mickey Mouse Club, with Mulaney himself as the host. But this is no Pee-wee’s Playhouse, where kids and adults can watch together, each enjoying different elements or taking different things from them. This is like more of a David Letterman approach to the children’s TV genre – so twisted and off-center, in so many ways, that I can’t even recommend it for kids. But for adults? Absolutely. Richard Kind, who interacts delightfully with the young “Sack Lunch Bunch,” is billed as the only guest star. He’d be enough, but there are others, slipped in as surprises… including, just to ruin one small but significant surprise, former Talking Heads front man David Byrne.
NBC, 8:00 p.m. ET
For a few years now, the only times to see 1946’s It’s a Wonderful Life on TV were on NBC, when the network televised it once early in December, and again on Christmas Eve. That happens again this year, which is why the classic Frank Capra Christmas movie, starring James Stewart and Donna Reed, is showing again tonight. But it doesn’t explain why, tomorrow on Christmas Day, sister corporate network E! is being allowed to present an all-day marathon of It’s a Wonderful Life, starting at 8 a.m. ET. The beautiful sentiments of It’s a Wonderful Life, interrupted by promos for tacky reality shows from the E! lineup? Bah, humbug! Watch it tonight instead…