Best-bets for Oct. 19: A classic country tale

1) “Patsy & Loretta,” 8-10:03 p.m., Lifetime. Two near-opposites merged beautifully. Patsy Cline was big, brash and confident; since childhood she was intent on stardom; Loretta Lynn was backwoods and shy, with four kids and a belated career. Both had great talent, warm hearts and heavy-drinking husbands; in the two years before her death in a plane crash, Cline guided her friend. This sprawling story is told with a fairly good script, skilled direction and gifted stars, Megan Hilty (shown here) and Jessie Mueller. Read more…

1) “Patsy & Loretta,” 8-10:03 p.m., Lifetime. Two near-opposites merged beautifully. Patsy Cline was big, brash and confident; since childhood she was intent on stardom; Loretta Lynn was backwoods and shy, with four kids and a belated career. Both had great talent, warm hearts and heavy-drinking husbands; in the two years before her death in a plane crash, Cline guided her friend. This sprawling story is told with a fairly good script, skilled direction and gifted stars, Megan Hilty (shown here) and Jessie Mueller.

2) “Bob (hearts) Abishola,” 8 and 8:30 p.m., CBS. Slow and sweet and a tad silly, this is a charming comedy in its own way. Here are reruns of the second and third episodes: Bob is enamored with the cardiac nurse who cared for him. She’s reluctant — “Nigerians don’t do useless things,” she says — but her aunt and uncle like the guy … and spy on him. These are gently pleasant episodes.

3) “The Masked Singer,” 8 and 9 p.m., Fox. Here’s a chance to catch up on the second season of this this ratings success. The two-part opener revealed Johnny Weir, a well-known Olympic skater and host, plus someone many viewers had never heard of – an internet videogame player called Ninja. Now here are reruns of the third and fourth hours – one of them revealing someone with a famous surname.

4) “Saturday Night Live,” 11:29 p.m., NBC. After starting the season with three new episodes, “SNL” has a quick rerun of the opener, with Woody Harrelson hosting and Billie Eilish as music guest. It’s a pretty good one, but also might have left viewers fretting about a so-so opener bit and an oddly brief “Weekend Update.” Not to worry; the next week, with Phoebe Waller-Bridge, was “SNL” at its best.

5) “The Simpsons,” 11:15 a.m. to 4:15 p.m., Freeform. At 8 p.m. Sunday, this show has its 30th annual “Treehouse of Horror” (a good one) on Fox. First, here’s a chance to re-visit 10 of the early ones, filled with offbeat tales that are often creepy and sometimes quite funny. That’s followed by “Zootopia” (2016) at 4:15 and then a return to Halloween — “Hocus Pocus” (1993) at 6:45 p.m., the delightful “Ghostbusters” (1984) at 8:55 and its sequel (1989) at 11:25.

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