THE MOVIES: "THE GOLDEN AGE"
CNN, 9:00 p.m. ET
This installment of The Movies crams three decades of film history into one two-hour program, covering the 1930s through the 1950s. This is more of a reflection of expectations of the audience’s attention span and interest for older films than of their perceived importance and value. You could do a solid two-hour program on the films from 1939 alone, starting with Gone with the Wind, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Stagecoach, and The Wizard of Oz. (My son argues that 1999 is an even better year, and offers as exhibits The Matrix, The Fight Club, The Sixth Sense, American Beauty, and so on. It’s the sort of stuff we argue about passionately.)