Spike, 6:00 p.m. ET
Spike is working through most of the Star Wars canon this weekend, beginning tonight with the first two films in the series. Not the first two released, but the first two entries in the prequel trilogy. Star Wars Episode I – The Phantom Menace, from 1999, begins at 6 p.m. ET, and Star Wars Episode II – Attack of the Clones, from 2002, begins at 9:15 p.m. ET. Watch the first film, if for no other reason, to catch the then 17-year-old Natalie Portman as Queen Padme Amidala.
TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET
Filmed in 1939 (how many great movies were made in 1939?), this Ernst Lubitsch film allowed Greta Garbo to show off her comic side, and to great effect. She plays a super-serious Russian commie, whose views of everything in the Western world are shaped by disbelief and disdain – until, at long last, she warms to the city of Paris and a charming Count, played by Melvyn Douglas. The movie still works, and Garbo’s screen presence still glows.
ABC, 9:00 p.m. ET
Part 2 of 2: Tonight Christiane Amanpour concludes her four-hour video tour of ancient sites of importance to Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.
PBS, 9:00 p.m. ET
Credited as basically the first truly American dance company, the Joffrey Ballet is saluted in tonight’s new American Masters program. Bob Hercules directs the documentary, Mandy Patinkin narrates it, and vintage interviews with founders Robert Joffrey and Gerald Arpino are included – along with, of course, enough performance clips to make you want to belly up to the barre. Check local listings.
TCM, 10:00 p.m. ET
Here’s another Ernst Lubitsch comedy presented tonight on TCM. This one, from 1942, stars one of the comedy superstars of the period – Jack Benny – and puts him in an impressively complex role. He and Carole Lombard play a couple of Polish actors (they live in Poland, they’re stage actors, and they’re a couple) who use their celebrity and acting ability to foil plots by the Nazis. In real life, the Nazis had invaded Poland in 1939, starting World War II for much of the world, so this film was as bold as it was timely.