CBS, 4:30 p.m. ET
Two strong, dramatic contests are on tap tonight on CBS. In the first game, it’s Louisville vs. Florida, pitting Louisville coach Rick Pitino against his old player and coaching assistant, Billy Donovan, who now coaches Florida. They’ve faced each other, on the opposing benches, six times before (two of them with Donovan at UF), and Pitino’s teams have won them all – to date. But this time, Donovan has freshman powerhouse guard Bradley Beal (pictured), who’s been electrifying thus far. The second game played tonight, Syracuse vs. Ohio State, pits the teams ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the East, respectively.
Cartoon Network, 6:30 p.m. ET
Once an annual TV viewing tradition for the entire family, this 1939 musical epic children’s film tonight gets shown by the Cartoon Network. In late March. And not even in prime time, yet! But still: It’s a fabulous movie, with one iconic scene and character after another. If you don’t agree that The Wizard of Oz is one of the most influential pop culture artifacts of all time, I’ll get you, my pretty. And your little dog, too...
AMC, 8:00 p.m. ET
Another brilliant movie, this one is more recent (from 2000), even more strange (it’s loosely based on The Odyssey, but about as loosely as you can get), and has almost as much pivotal music. George Clooney plays one of a small group of convicts on the run from a chain gang – and finding the time, while traversing the Depression-era South as fugitives, to record a hit record and make public appearances in disguise, singing “Man of Constant Sorrow.” Amazing. And somehow, it all works.
FX, 8:00 p.m. ET
Not brilliant, this movie, but boy, it’s fun. Woody Harrelson began his current career resurgence with this 2009 zombie horror comedy, which is brimming with talent that was just about to get even hotter: Jesse Eisenberg, just to name one -- and Emma Stone (pictured), just to name two.
TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET
Neil Simon wrote the line, but it took Richard Dreyfuss, punctuating each word with a tugging removal of intimate undergarments hanging from a shower rod, to win an Oscar for complaining to Marsha Mason, “I don’t like the panties hanging on the rod.” This 1977 comedy is a bit unchecked in the acting department (Mason, at the time, was married to Simon), but it’s vey, very funny – and Dreyfuss, as an egotistical actor rooming with a divorced woman and her young daughter (Quinn Cummings), swings for the fences throughout, like an actor playing to the balcony.