TCM, 6:00 a.m. ET
All day and night, Audrey Hepburn is today’s saluted star, and the rich TCM lineup includes 1964’s My Fair Lady at 5 p.m. ET, 1954’s Sabrina at 8 p.m. ET, and one of my favorite films, 1963’s Charade, co-starring Cary Grant, at midnight ET.
PBS, 9:00 p.m. ET
SPECIAL: Broadcast live from New York City, this celebratory special features mostly the second-tier cast of the popular TV show and upcoming movie: the biggest scheduled in-person stars include Laura Carmichael (Lady Edith) and Lesley Nicol (Mrs. Patmore). ABC’s Deborah Roberts hosts, and the special features clips not only from the beloved PBS series, but from the upcoming film. Check local listings.
CNN, 9:00 p.m. ET
This installment of The Movies crams three decades of film history into one two-hour program, covering the 1930s through the 1950s. This is more of a reflection of expectations of the audience’s attention span and interest for older films than of their perceived importance and value. You could do a solid two-hour program on the films from 1939 alone, starting with Gone with the Wind, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Stagecoach, and The Wizard of Oz. (My son argues that 1999 is an even better year, and offers as exhibits The Matrix, The Fight Club, The Sixth Sense, American Beauty, and so on. It’s the sort of stuff we argue about passionately.)
HBO, 9:00 p.m. ET
Last week’s Season 2 premiere certainly hit the ground running, cleared the decks, and reshuffled all the players. It’s as though all the families of Game of Thrones pledged new allegiances – and from now on, we see whether those decisions were good ones.
Showtime, 9:00 p.m. ET
SEASON FINALE: I expected that this series would be telling a self-contained, one-season story – but once Kevin Bacon, as Jackie, took revenge on his daughter’s attacker by shooting him in the face, it made sense that we were in this drama for the long haul. What a good show – and what a string of strong performances.
HBO, 10:00 p.m. ET
SERIES PREMIERE: John Goodman and Danny McBride in a comedy about televangelists? Sounds like the answer to an irreverent TV viewer’s prayer… And we've got it covered here at TVWW. See Ed Bark, David Hinckley, Roger Catlin, and Mike Hughes.
HBO, 11:00 p.m. ET
There’s a reason John Oliver keeps winning Emmys. He’s not only one of the hardest-working comics on TV – he’s one of the smartest-thinking. He would know, for example, that “hardest-thinking” is not exactly one of the best words.