Best-bets for Dec. 26: Movie quality, football quantity

1) “Casablanca” (1942, shown here), 8 p.m. ET, Turner Classic Movies. Beautifully crafted, this is No. 3 on the American Film Institute’s all-time list, trailing only “Citizen Kane” and “Godfather.” It arrives on a great movie night – “1917” (2019) at 8 p.m. on Showtime, “The Fugitive” (1993) at 9 p.m. and midnight on Sundance and, especially, “Inside Out” (2015) at 8 p.m. on Freeform. That last one, an animated gem, is from Pete Docter, whose “Soul” debuted Friday on Disney+. Read more…

1) “Casablanca” (1942, shown here), 8 p.m.ET, Turner Classic Movies. Beautifully crafted, this is No. 3 on the American Film Institute’s all-time list, trailing only “Citizen Kane” and “Godfather.” It arrives on a great movie night – “1917” (2019) at 8 p.m. on Showtime, “The Fugitive” (1993) at 9 p.m. and midnight on Sundance and, especially, “Inside Out” (2015) at 8 p.m. on Freeform. That last one, an animated gem, is from Pete Docter, whose “Soul” debuted Friday on Disney+.

2) Bowl games, all day. Six bowl games were scheduled for this crowded day, but two of them – Independence and Guaranteed Rate – have been canceled. That still leaves two on ABC – Gasparilla Bowl (South Carolina and Alabama-Birmingham) at noon ET and First Responder Bowl (Louisiana and Texas-San Antonio) at 3:30. There are also two on ESPN – Cure Bowl (Liberty and Coastal Carolina) at noon ET and LendingTree Bowl (Western Kentucky and Georgia State) at 3:30.

3) “NCIS: New Orleans,” 8 p.m., CBS. In a rerun, a man impersonating LaSalle tries to free a young woman from prison. That spurs a quick investigation of the man and the prisoner.

4) “The Rookie,” 10 p.m., ABC. Eight days from the third-season opener, ABC is getting us ready. Over the next two Saturdays, it will rerun the two-parter that ended with John’s world getting a sudden, surprise jolt. This begins with the cops being pushed harder than ever, as their rookie year ends.

5) Also: The college bowl games compete with three pro games. One (49ers-Cardinals) is 4:30 p.m. ET on Amazon Prime; the others are on the NFL Network – Bucs-Lions at 1 p.m., Dolphns-Raiders at 8:15. And after three straight new episodes, “Saturday Night Live” has reruns at 10 and 11:29 p.m. on NBC. The first one has Jason Momoa, with music from Mumford & Sons.

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