1) “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” season-opener, 8 and 8:30 p.m., NBC. It’s been a bumpy ride for one of TV’s better comedies. “Nine-Nine” started strong: In its first season, it won Golden Globes for best comedy and actor (Andy Samberg, shown here, left, with Joe Lo Truglio and Melissa Fumero), with Television Critics Association nominations for best comedy and new show. It’s still well-made (with four Emmy nominations for Andre Braugher), but Fox cancelled it after five seasons. NBC added three more, but this final season (after a 16-month pause) will only e 10 episodes.
2) “Making It” return, 9 p.m., NBC. There are plenty of summer reality shows, but this is one of the best. Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman (the hosts and producers) bring low-key humor and fill the workshop with people we like instantly. Before the Olympics break, four people had been eliminated, most recently former minor-league pitcher Blake McFarland. Six remain, including a taxidermist, a prop-designer and industrial designer Adam Kingman, whose dad (Dave) was a baseball slugger.
3) Baseball, 7 p.m.ET, Fox. In 1989, a great movie reflected the nostalgic emotions baseball evokes. “Field of Dreams” had an Iowa farmer build a diamond in the middle of his corn field. Ever since, fans have made pilgrimages there; now Major League Baseball has built an 8,000-seat stadium. The “Field of Dreams game” – set for last season, then delayed by COVID – has the White Sox (descendants of the Black Sox mentioned in the movie) and Yankees. Joe Buck and John Smoltz will do the broadcast
4) “Grown-ish,” 8 p.m., Freeform. This show has a real knack for leaping between comedy and drama. After starting its season with drunken resort antics, it now leaps into the summer of Black Lives Matter protests. Visually, some of this – especially the opening – is brilliant. The script still sounds more like position papers than conversation, but the gifted cast makes it work.
5) ALSO: For real variety, keep switching between two cable channels. Disney has the “Descendants” trilogy at 5 (2015), 7:05 (2017) ad 9:10 p.m. (2019), awash in bright colors, youthful faces and pop music. Turner Classic Movies goes back to the 1920s and ‘30s, including the original “Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ” (1925) – silent, black-and-white, no singing teens – at 8 p.m. ET.