IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE
NBC, 8:00 p.m. ET
Few Christmas TV traditions remain, but here’s one of them. This 1946 Frank Capra holiday classic used to be shown by a ridiculous number of local stations and cable networks each year – until the film’s rights were rescued from public domain, and NBC landed a contract to televise the film exclusively, twice each year. This is the first of this month’s two prime-time NBC telecasts, with James Stewart and Donna Reed starring in a story of a small-town banker. Events of recent years have made its story of risky mortgages even more potent – and poignant.