Movies On Demand, 3:00 a.m. ET
MOVIE PREMIERE: Almost every film that takes a hypothetical look into the future, whether near or far, imagines a dystopian world. This fact-based extrapolation, which is titled 2040 after the future it envisions 20 years from now, zags where everyone else has zigged. It asks, basically, these questions: What if, from this moment on, we as a society made all the right moves? What would it look like, two decades from now, if we strove diligently and intelligently to protect the environment, right social wrongs, and save the planet? Using the open minds and honest mouths of children as a jumping-off point, 2040 imagines one of their possible futures. One which, in this moment in time especially, is a wonderful place to envision, and to visit. Available as a Video On Demand movie.
Movies On Demand, 3:00 a.m. ET
This Movie On Demand premiere is a restored version of the only movie directed by actor Peter Sellers. Also known as I Like Money, this 1961 comedy stars Sellers as a schoolteacher who refuses to inflate the failing grade of a privileged student. It’s noteworthy not only because Sellers does double duty as director, but because one of his co-stars in Herbert Lom. Three years later, Lom would reunite with Sellers, playing the twitchy boss of Sellers’ bumbling Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther entry A Shot in the Dark.
Movies On Demand, 3:00 a.m. ET
MOVIE PREMIERE: What kind of woman writes The Lottery, that familiar story assigned in almost every high school English class? Or The Haunting of Hill House, an early genre thriller adapted into both movies and TV series? Shirley Jackson, that’s who. And, in this new film biography exploring her inner as well as literary demons, she’s played by the always riveting Elisabeth Moss.
Nickelodeon, 7:00 p.m. ET
SPECIAL: SpongeBob SquarePants is a cultural icon. I know this mostly because I teach college, and my college students, though they rarely have a shared viewing experience of anything, are invariably, enthusiastically, 100 percent familiar with that animated Nickelodeon children’s show. SpongeBob premiered in 1999, and my students have watched it, and loved it, all their lives. And they’re not alone: For the past 17 years, SpongeBob SquarePants has been the top-rated kids’ animated series on TV. The creator of SpongeBob, Stephen Hillenberg, died in 2018 at age 57, but the rest of the cartoon gang has gathered together – from safe distances – for this virtual table read featuring some of the show’s vocal cast members. Tom Kenny, who plays the titular porifera, is taking part. So are, among others, Bill Fagerbakke as Patrick, Carolyn Lawrence as Sandy, and a personal favorite, Clancy Brown as Mr. Krabs.
TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET
If you want to laugh tonight – and who doesn’t – TCM is the place, and X Marx the spot. It’s a Marx Brothers marathon, and I can remember when the only way to see these movies, other than to scour late-night TV listings religiously, was during occasional campus film clubs and festivals. But tonight, TCM makes it easy. Four movies, right in a row: 1931’s Monkey Business at 8 p.m. ET, followed by 1932’s Horse Feathers at 9:30 p.m. ET; 1930’s Animal Crackers at 10:45 p.m. ET; and, at 12:30 a.m. ET, the one I’ll be teaching and showing in my film class this fall, the 1933 comedy masterpiece Duck Soup (pictured).
Lincoln Center At Home, 8:00 p.m. ET
SPECIAL PREMIERE: Beginning today, and continuing every Friday in June, Lincoln Center is pulling, and streaming, a filmed production from its archives. Its inaugural offering, which will be available for streaming beginning tonight at 8 ET, and left up for a while, is the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical
Carousel. Kelli O’Hara and Nathan Gunn star, with Kate Burton and John Cullum in supporting roles. It’s the same performances shown on PBS’s
Great Performances in 2013, but here’s a chance to see it again, on the
Lincoln Center at Home website. And since another website, BroadwayHD, showed O’Hara as the star of the revival of another classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musical,
The King and I, only last month, it’s an opportunity to compare and contrast. Do you prefer her Julie, or her Anna?
HBO, 10:00 p.m. ET
What a week. And what a guest lineup: Tonight’s scheduled virtually visiting guests include Michael Steele, Frank Figliuzzi, Rosa Brooks, and rapper Michael Render, a.k.a. Killer Mike.
BBC America, 11:00 p.m. ET
Graham Norton never has problems getting major celebrities to sit on his couch. But now that they get to stay at home, he gets even more big names on each show, it seems. In tonight’s new at-home edition, Norton’s guests include Lady Gaga, Chris Evans, Michelle Dockery, and Josh Gad.