CBS All Access, 12:00 a.m. ET
It's an all-day salute to Star Trek, on the 54th anniversary of its original series launch on NBC. But it’s not just a salute to the original Star Trek. Today, CBS All Access is mounting quite an ambitious enterprise (or, if you prefer, Enterprise) by saluting all nine shows and spinoffs relating to Gene Roddenberry’s original Trek vision. Running all day and night, except for a significant midday break, CBS All Access presents selected episodes from all existing series in the Star Trek canon. And that aforementioned break actually is a 3½-hour stretch of panels, co-hosted by Wil Wheaton, featuring actors, producers and/or other contributors to Star Trek shows past, present and future. Go to CBS All Access for, well, all access to the day’s panels and programs, nicely organized and subdivided for easy live access. Watch long and prosper.
TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET
Tonight is the second installment of this fascinating documentary miniseries, covering three more topic “chapters,” including Introducing Characters and the Meet Cute. Every Tuesday this month, TCM presents not only the latest installment of the Women Make Film documentary, but follows it with a super-generous helping of some of the films shown. Tonight, they include 1970’s Wanda ( 2:15 a.m. ET), a late-night showing of a film both starring and directed by Barbara Loden. And here’s advance warning to your DVRs, or personal calendars, to watch tomorrow – Tuesday at 7:45 a.m. ET – when TCM presents the breathtaking 1926 silent movie The Adventures of Prince Achmed, a version of the Arabian Knights tales, directed by Lotte Reiniger, told entirely in silhouette animation (pictured). It’s a rarity, and a quiet, unassuming masterpiece.
A&E, 9:00 p.m. ET
DOCUMENTARY PREMIERE: It was August 1, 1981, when a new cable channel called MTV launched – and took the “launch” designation seriously, by building its opening campaign around images related to a manned space launch to the moon. The MTV flag was “planted” on the moon with colorfully animated variations, and to this day, the MTV Video Music Awards handed out are in the shape of flag-wielding “moon men.” I was a TV critic in Akron, Ohio, then, watching and reviewing MTV the moment it launched: The first video it showed was by the Buggles: the somewhat prescient “Video Killed the Radio Star.” Today, A&E gives MTV itself the Biography treatment.
HBO, 10:00 p.m. ET
SEASON FINALE: With the potential start of the potentially infected 2020 NFL pro football season just around the corner, HBO presents the season finale of its annual preseason sports documentary, Hard Knocks. It’s a season unlike any other, with the two Los Angeles teams, the Rams and the Chargers, struggling to cope with preparing for play while playing it safe from transmitting COVID-19. And last week, even those concerns were dwarfed by something else very significant that was sweeping the league, and both clubhouses: a growing urgency to take a stand to protest against systemic racism in general, and police shootings and abusive treatment of Blacks in particular. Last week’s edition was dramatic and illuminating. I expect the same of tonight’s real-life season finale.