Best-bets for Dec. 4: country stars and animated pets

1) “George & Tammy” opener, 9 p.m., Showtime and Paramount Network. In 1967, George Jones was soaring (17 top-10 country hits) and sinking (twice-divorced and deeply alcoholic). Tammy Wynette had three singles on the country charts; she had three daughters, no money and a wobbly second marriage. Showtime’s six-parter (with Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain, shown here) starts strongly, with great music and a cinematic feel. This opener is also on Paramount, right after “Yellowstone.” Read more…

1) “George & Tammy” opener, 9 p.m., Showtime and Paramount Network. In 1967, George Jones was soaring (17 top-10 country hits) and sinking (twice-divorced and deeply alcoholic). Tammy Wynette had three singles on the country charts; she had three daughters, no money and a wobbly second marriage. Showtime’s six-parter  (with Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain, shown here) starts strongly, with great music and a cinematic feel. This opener is also on Paramount, right after “Yellowstone.”

2) “Housebroken,” 8:30 and 9 p.m., Fox. Fans are still waiting for the second season of this witty show … which ended its first season 14 months ago. Now, at least, we get a sampling, with the two Christmas episodes from the tardy season, In the first, Honey (voiced by Lisa Kudrow) spends the holiday in a dream home; in the second, she and Chief fight an intruder, in the “Home Alone” style.

3) “Home Alone” (1990), 6:40 p.m., Freeform. Just before “Housebroken” has its “Home Alone” take-off, Freeform gives us the original, filled withh smartly crafted sight gags. That’s followed by the fairly good sequel (2002) at 9:10 and preceded by popular cartoons – “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” at 4, “Frosty the Snowman” at 5:05 and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” at 5:35.

4) “Fit for Christmas,” 8:30 p.m., CBS (but 8 p.m. on the West Coast). On the next couple Sundays, CBS will debut two more Christmas films – one excellent (Dec. 11), the other pretty good. Oddly, it precedes them with this lame effort. Amanda Kloots’ idea of acting it to smile through all dialog; her beau is annoying and the plot is predictable. There are worse films, though. A dreary version of “A Christmas Carol” (2019) is 7 and 10:30 on FX Movies.

5) More movies: There are other holiday choices. AMC has the funny “Christmas Vacation” (1989) at 7 and 9:15 p.m.; Lifetime reruns the OK “A New Orleans Noel” at 6, then debuts “Merry Textmas” – set in Texas and Mexico – at 8. Or forget the holiday and catch a deeply moving film. “Sounder” (1972, 8 p.m. ET, Turner Classic Movies) has Kevin Hooks (now a gifted TV director) as a young boy whose family is sharecropping in 1930s Louisiana.

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