TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET
This documentary is an original nonfiction film from TCM Spain, which is the first surprise: Who knew there was a TCM Spain? (“No importa. Yo tengo papel!”) The second surprise is the family background and heritage of filmmaker Sam Peckinpah, noted for upping the artistic violence quotient in films in the 1960s and 1970s. His daughter, Lupita Peckinpah, travels to his last home, in Montana, to learn more about her father and his filmmaking passions and achievements. After The Peckinpah Suite, written and directed by Pedro González Bermúdez, is over, TCM devotes the rest of the night to a sweet suite of Peckinpah movies. The mini-festival begins at 9:15 p.m. ET with 1962’s Ride the High Country, a Western movie Peckinpah directed after writing scripts for several TV Westerns – good ones, including The Rifleman, The Westerner, Gunsmoke and Have Gun – Will Travel. At 11 p.m. ET, TCM presents Peckinpah’s seminal 1969 The Wild Bunch. Stay tuned, though, or set your DVRs, for two late-night classics. The evening ends at 5 a.m. ET with 1972’s The Getaway, the modern-day action film pairing Steve McQueen and Ali McGraw. And just before that, at 3 a.m. ET, it’s 1973’s moody Western Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, which stars James Coburn and Kris Kristofferson – and features, in a supporting role as a character named Alias, Bob Dylan (pictured), who also supplies the film’s haunting soundtrack, including the song with vocals that became a radio hit, “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door.”
Netflix, 3:00 a.m. ET
DOCUMENTARY PREMIERE: Can you spell B-E-S-T-B-E-T, boys and girls? Well, this is one: a documentary that notes that the last dozen winners of the prestigious Scripps spelling bee, televised on ESPN, have been Indian Americans? Coincidence? Cultural emphases? Or… conspiracy? (Spoiler Alert: It’s not conspiracy.)
FX, 10:00 p.m. ET
Since this series began, Nadja has blamed everything on witches, and feared their presence and influence at almost every turn. But you aren’t paranoid if they are out to get you – and in tonight’s new installment, a group of witches abducts Laszlo and Nandor. But perhaps their intentions are friendly: After all, nothing says lovin’ like something from the coven…