1) “The Simpsons,” 8 p.m., Fox. The first episode (back in 1989) included the rescuing of a scraggy greyhound. Now the 800th shows what happened next: Homer overindulges him; Marge transforms him into a sleek champion… and takes him to a national dog show in Philadelphia. The rest is awash in Philly (shown here) and “National Treasure” moments, many of them quite funny.
2) More new cartoons, Fox. “Simpsons” has another new episode at 8:32, then will go on the shelf for a while. There’s a new “Universal Basic Guys” at 9:02 and the 450th “Family Guy” at 9:31. For the first time in the show’s 21-year history, Lois and Stewie can communicate. Pot gummies are involved and the result ranges from warm to funny to just weird.
3) Olympics. NBC goes from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET, pauses for the NBA All-Star game, then repackages the day from 8-11 p.m. Also. the USA Network and CNBC go all day. There’s lots of skiing and speedskating, plus hockey (including U.S.-Germany at 3:10 p.m. on USA) and figure skating: The pairs short program is 1:30 p.m. on USA, then 3-5 p.m. on NBC.
4) “Miss Scarlet” season-finale, 8 p.m., PBS. When a case involves global intrigue, Eliza and Blake can work together. The result wraps up the season neatly. Also concluding (with the second half of a fairly good story) is “Bookish” at 10. At 9, “All Creatures Great and Small” — with one more episode next week — has an emotional, wartime hour.
5) “Dark Winds” season-opener, 9 p.m., AMC, rerunning at 10:04 and 11:08. This begins with a fierce shoot-out, then digs into deeply nuanced characters: Joe, head of the Navajo police station, haunted by his wife’s departure … Bernadette, his ex-deputy, back from border-patrol heroism … And Chee, her boyfriend, a college grad (like Joe, his boss). It’s a great start.
— Mike Hughes, TV America