TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET
Anne Bancroft, in Mike Nichols’ groundbreaking 1967 comedy film, delivers a performance every bit as funny, and memorable, as that of leading man Dustin Hoffman. In real life, she was only six years older than Hoffman when she played the older seductress to his naïve college grad – but Mrs. Robinson became iconic for the way Bancroft played and embodied her, as well as for Paul Simon’s titular song salute. As Mrs. Robinson, she even dressed like a cougar.
HBO, 9:00 p.m. ET
CONCLUSION. In more than one sense, this HBO miniseries is mostly foreplay – dramatically as well as sexually. But in tonight’s conclusion, after four installments of teasing, Christopher (Benedict Cumberbatch) finally finds himself reassigned to the front. And once he’s in the trenches, and Parade’s End nears its end, the tension that’s been building all this time finally snaps.
ABC, 10:00 p.m. ET
The broadcast networks are getting big into prime-time repurposing of late-night shows these days. NBC is repeating edited-down episodes of Saturday Night Live the following Fridays, and tonight ABC presents a prime-time repeat of Jimmy Kimmel’s After the Oscars special, including a showing of its action-packed, star-cameo packed sequel to its “trailer” for Movie: The Movie. Included: Bryan Cranston as “a brilliant, armless piano savant.”
FX, 10:00 p.m. ET
Consider this a cartoon crossover: Anthony Bourdain, a fan of this show, somehow talked his way into an episode. And “talked his way into” is literal, because he provides the voice for a “bastard chef” in tonight’s new episode, which has Archer going undercover in the kitchen, and Bourdain’s character eager to serve Lana. So to speak.
TCM, 10:00 p.m. ET
Mel Brooks wrote and directed this 1968 comic masterpiece, which he turned, eventually, into a Broadway musical masterpiece. But even without the rest of the songs added for the stage, the music and comedy in this version of The Producers are super-high on the hilarity meter. Zero Moster and Gene Wilder are brilliant as the scheming producers in question, and the intentionally awful musical they mount – Springtime for Hitler – is so good at being so bad, maybe it, too, should be spun off as a full-length stage musical.