Encore, 8:00 p.m. ET
This is the 2004 movie that led to the 2006 NBC series, and a few things are significantly different. The small Texas town is Odessa, not Dillon. The football team is called the Permian Panthers, and their head coach is named Gary Gaines, and played by Billy Bob Thornton. But there are some strong similarities, too — the movie's director is Peter Berg, who helped adapt Friday Night Lights as a weekly series. And the coach's wife, though a very small role in the film, is played by Connie Britton, the same actress who signed on to play Tami Taylor, the wife of Kyle Chandler's Coach Eric, on NBC. But whether you compare or contrast, or just enjoy this movie on its own, it's a gripping experience.
TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET
Robert Donat plays an extraordinarily caring teacher, a schoolmaster who loves the classics and the students in his charge, in this 1939 movie that is itself, by now, one of the classics. But there’s another reason to watch these days: When Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan sold his series, it was by describing the dramatic arc of his leading character, who goes from science teacher to meth dealer and murderer, as “Mr. Chips becomes Scarface.” Tune in, then, to see Walter White’s “Before” picture.
Sundance, 10:00 p.m. ET
Part 9. This is the mini-sequel fans of this series have been waiting to see. It’s one of two new installments, presenting new evidence in the case of convicted murderer Michael Peterson. If you harbored any reasonable doubts about his guilt before – or about his innocence – prepare to be challenged all over again.
Showtime, 11:00 p.m. ET
Steve Martin and Lily Tomlin are David Steinberg’s guests on tonight’s edition of his smart, rewarding talk show about comedy. And Martin and Steinberg, in particular, go way, way back. Steinberg was a guest on the third and final season of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, reprising a controversial “comic sermonette” bit that helped get the Smothers Brothers thrown off the air. Among the young writers on the show that season? Steve Martin, with his first regular job in show business.
Sundance, 11:00 p.m. ET
SERIES REPEAT: The concluding half-season of Breaking Bad doesn’t show up until this summer. Meanwhile, though, Sundance has gotten rights to repeat the series from its first episode, two episodes every Monday night – beginning tonight with the brilliant episode that started it all. It starts with Bryan Cranston in his tighty whities, gun in hand – and never slows down from there.