Best-bets for Dec. 20: Lucy, Lidia and linebackers

1) “I Love Lucy Christmas Special,” 8 p.m., CBS. This fun hour changes only partially from year to year. Each time, it has two old episodes, with color added by computer; the first is a 1956 Christmas show. Only the second one varies: This time (shown here), it’s set in Paris. Both episodes have slow build-ups, leading to a sight gag that’s worth the wait. The opener has three dandy flashbacks, including Lucy’s-having-her-baby, a comic masterpiece; the second has a hilarious jailhouse translation scene. Read more…

1) “I Love Lucy Christmas Special,” 8 p.m., CBS. This fun hour changes only partially from year to year. Each time, it has two old episodes, with color added by computer; the first is a 1956 Christmas show. Only the second one varies: This time (shown here), it’s set in Paris. Both episodes have slow build-ups, leading to a sight gag that’s worth the wait. The opener has three dandy flashbacks, including Lucy’s-having-her-baby, a comic masterpiece; the second has a hilarious jailhouse translation scene.

2) Bowl games, 2 p.m. ET, ESPN; and 7:30 p.m., ESPN2. The bowl season starts mildly: Three teams have 7-5 records; one is 6-6. First is the Bahamas Bowl, with Buffalo and Charlotte; this tends to have meager attendance (13,510 last year), but pretty weather. (If you were in Buffalo, you wouldn’t mind playing in the Bahamas.) The second is the Frisco Bowl, with Kent State (the 6-6 team) and Utah State.

3) “Lidia Celebrates America,” 9 p.m., PBS. When Lidia Bastianich came here(60 years ago, at 12, from what’s now Croatia), she was surprised that things are already made, packaged and in stores. This is a land of big businesses (including Bastianich and kin, restaurant moguls), but in this beautifully filmed hour, she visits the actual makers. That takes her from a Tennessee town of 4,600, where hams are smoked, to the Napa Valley, where one of the world’s few master coopers (barrel-makers) works.

4) “Global Citizen Prize,” 8 p.m., NBC. It’s the first year for this prize, from a group that hopes to link forces and end extreme poverty by 2030. John Legend hosts from Royal Albert Hall in London, with five awards, from “Youth Citizen” to “Global Citizen of the Year.”

5) “The Christmas Temp,” 8 p.m., Lifetime. The final weekend of new Christmas movies begins with just one tonight. Don’t worry; a dozen more are coming.

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