Weekly Previews

1) Thanksgiving Day parade, 9 a.m. to noon Thursday, NBC (rerunning from 2-5 p.m.); also, 1-4 p.m., CBS. The mega-parade (shown here in a previous year) has 12 bands, 10 performance groups, lots of balloons and 28 floats, often with stars – from Paula Abdul to Ziggy Marley — onboard. Early on, NBC will have the Broadway casts of “Funny Girl,” “The Lion King,” “A Beautiful Noise” and “Some Like It Hot”; CBS will counter with the casts of “Moulin Rouge” and “Six.” Read more…

1) Thanksgiving episodes, Wednesday, ABC. Comedies are at their best during Thanksgiving dinner; now three shows have their turns. On “The Conners” (8 p.m.), Jackie frets about her mother’s health and Darlene scrambles to find a job. On “The Goldbergs” (8:30), Beverly (shown here) prepares for her first holiday as a widow … and an unexpected relative arrives. “Home Economics” (9:30) also has an unexpected guest — Tom’s lone superfan, who is also his half-sister. Read more…

1) CMA Awards, 8-11 p.m. Wednesday, ABC. Generations and genres merge. There are tributes to Alan Jackson (shown here) and (opening the night) the late Loretta Lynn. Reba McEntire and Patty Loveless will perform; so will crossover artists (Katy Perry, Kelly Clarkson, Pillbox Patti, the Black Keys) and current country elite — Miranda Lambert, Carrie Underwood, Luke Bryan, Carly Pearce, Lainey Wilson, Jimmy Allen, Kelsea Ballerini, Luke Combs and more. Read more…

1) Halloween’s final burst, today. The long scare-a-thon concludes. Even “Dancing With the Stars” (8 p.m., Disney+) and “Quantum Leap” (10 p.m., NBC) have Halloween themes. There are plenty of nasty films, but you can also go light. Freeform starts at 10:30 a.m., peaking with “Hotel Transylvania” (shown here, 2012) and “Hocus Pocus” (1993), at 7 and 9 p.m. The Paramount Network has “Addams Family” films (1982, 1984) at 8 and 10, then midnight and 2 a.m. Read more…

1) “The Conners” and more, 8-10 p.m. Wednesday, ABC. Ever since its “Roseanne” days, 34 years ago, this has had great Halloween episodes. (A recent one is shown here.) Now Dan wants the house decorated, but everyone is busy; Becky tries to take over. That’s followed at 8:30 by horror-film spoofs on “The Goldbergs.” At 9, someone steals the Halloween candy from “Abbott Elementarty”; at 9:30, Tom may have a Halloween-time stalker on “Home Economics.” Read more…

1) “The Simpsons,” 8 p.m. Sunday, Fox. “Treehouse of Horror,” an annual delight with three offbeat tales, will be Oct. 30. A week earlier, here’s a fresh twist: “Treehouse presents” a half-hour take-off on Stephen King’s “It.” We see Homer join other self-described “high school losers” (shown heere), battling a killer clown; 27 years later, they re-unite to try again. The Homer/Marge romance is flipped, in a tale that’s too gory for some viewers, but great fun for many. Read more…

1) “Masterpiece” mysteries, 8-11 p.m. Sunday, PBS. After a sluggish start last month, this night has three openers. “Miss Scarlet and the Duke” (shown here) is light and bright at 8 p.m., with Eliza on a missing-person case with a twist. “Annika” (10) has a smart story, complicated by Scottish accents. In between, “Magpie Murder” (9) is special – a six-parter juggling two mysteries: Who killed the author? And who is the killer in the missing chapter of his book? Read more…

1) “Alaska Daily” debut, 10 p.m. Thursday, ABC. Two Academy Award-winners link for a promising drama. Hilary Swank (shown here) won Oscars for “Girls Don’t Cry” and “Million Dollar Baby”; Tom McCarthy won for his “Spotlight” script. Now he’s writer-producer and she plays a newspaper reporter, moving to Anchorage to repair her tarnished career. That gets ABC’s best timeslot, behind the season-openers of “Station 19” and “Grey’s Anatomy.” Read more…

1) “So Help Me Todd” debut, 9 p.m. Thursday, CBS. There’s a sweet spot, where fun and crimesolving co-exist. TV lost it for a while, but “Todd” hits it perfectly in its opener … before getting a tad goofy in the next couple weeks. Margaret (Marcia Gay Harden) is a lawyer; Todd (Skylar Astin) is a private eye, with tech skills and no work. (They’re shown here.) He’s also her son; when he works for her, his freeform style collides with her diligence. Good mysteries are peppered with fun. Read more…

1) “Quantum Leap” debu (shown here)t, 10 p.m. today, NBC, rerunning 8 p.m. Saturday. The first day of the official TV season includes a zinger – a quick, slick fantasy show that keeps us involved, even when stretching credibility wildly, Raymond Lee plays a physicist, adapting the same notion used 30 years ago, in the original series. Suddenly, he’s in 1985, in the body of a stranger. He remembers nothing, including his fiancee, who’s there as a hologram others can’t see. Read more…