1) “Saving Private Ryan” (1999), 8 p.m. ET, Turner Classic Movies. It was 80 years ago today that 24,000 Allied troops stormed the fortified beaches of Normandy. More than 4,000 would be killed on D-Day, another 5,000-plus were wounded, but they changed history. That’s marked here by Steven Spielberg’s masterpiece (shown here), other TCM films and documentaries on two other cable channels.
.
2) Basketball, 8:30 p.m. ET, ABC. The NBA finals begin, with teams that have dominated lately. The Boston Celtics were 64-18 during the regular season, then had a 12-2 record in the play-offs. The Dallas Mavericks were only 50-32, but won four of six in each of the first two rounds and four of five in the conference finals. Now the best-of-seven finals start in Boston, with pre-game at 8.
3) D-Day documentaries. The History Channel debuts “D-Day: The Unheard Tapes” at 8 p.m., rerunning at 12:03 a.m. Audio tapes (with actors lip-synching) are supplememted by old film. And the Smithsonian Channel has new D-Day hours viewing dam-busters, combat ships and an advance company. That’s 9 a.m. to noon, rerunning at 8 and 11 p.m.,; “The Pacific War in Color” reruns from noon to 8.
4) More movies. The TCM marathon includes the clever “36 Hours” at noon ET and the epic “The Longest Day” at 11 p.m. “D-Day The Sixth of June is at 3:30, followed at 5:30 by George Stevens’ documentary footage, starting with D-Day. Other films include the big-scale “Dune: Part Two” at 8 p.m. on HBO and Meg Ryan’s smaller-scale “What Happens Later” at 7:15 on Showtime.
5) “Elsbeth,” 9 p.m., CBS. Elegant wedding plans go awry, with a key figure ending up in a golf-course pond. People assume it’s your standard golf-cart mishap, but Elsbeth has doubts, as always. It’s a fairly good (if sometimes silly) episode, with Keegan-Michael Key as guest star. That’s surrounded by reruns of “Ghosts” (including the season-finale) and “Fire Country” (an earthquake).
— Mike Hughes, TV America