Best-bets for Sept. 18: Gripping Ken Burns film debuts

1) “The U.S. and the Holocaust” (shown here) opener, 8 p.m., PBS, rerunning at 10:12. Over three nights, Ken Burns calmly and brilliantly shows chaos on both sides of the Atlantic. Jews are desperate to leave Germany, but isolationism has swept the U.S. A 1924 law sharply reduced the number of immigrants, mostly choosing ones from Protestant countries. Prominent Americans – Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh – gave anti-Semitic speeches; tragedy loomed. Read more…

1) “The U.S. and the Holocaust” (shown here) opener, 8 p.m., PBS, rerunning at 10:12. Over three nights, Ken Burns calmly and brilliantly shows chaos on both sides of the Atlantic. Jews are desperate to leave Germany, but isolationism has swept the U.S. A 1924 law sharply reduced the number of immigrants, mostly choosing ones from Protestant countries. Prominent Americans – Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh – gave anti-Semitic speeches; tragedy loomed.

2) “60 Minutes,” about 7:30 p.m. ET, CBS. The 55th season begins for this eternal ratings-leader. It has the advantage of following an afternoon of pro football … and the disadvantage of going against the evening game: At 8:30 p.m. on NBC, the Bears, led by second-year quarterback Justin Fields, visit the Packers, led by 18th-year quarterback (and four-time MVP) Aaron Rodgers. The Bears won their opener; the Packers didn’t.

3) “Tales of the Walking Dead” finale, 9 p.m., AMC. A man and woman are terrorized by a haunted house. Or are they just imagining it, amid the PTSD from the zombie apocalypse? This wraps up AMC’s six-week experiment in self-contained hours. In two weeks, “Walking Dead” begins its final eight episodes, alongside the debut of an “Interview With the Vampire” series.

4) “Celebrity Family Feud,” 8 p.m., ABC. The first game has pro football players competing with their moms. The second has the Williams sisters (Kimberly and Ashley, both actresses) with their brother and more, facing people from the “Holey Moley” miniature-golf show. Tonight wraps the summer-Sunday run of “Feud” (which has an episode set for Thursday), “$100,000 Pyramid” and “Final Straw.’

5) Movies. Three animated gems run back-to-back on Freeform. It’s “Toy Story 3” (2010) at 3:50 p.m., “Moana” (2016) at 6:20 and “Coco” (2017) at 8:50. Then again, some grown-ups will prefer “The Last of Sheila” (1973), at 5:45 p.m. on Turner Classic Movies. Stephen Sondheim, a Broadway hero for his musicals, was also a puzzles buff. He and Anthony Perkins devised this much-praised story about a games guy who concocts a deadly puzzle.

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