CBS offers musical tribute in ‘Cash’
The Man in Black gets his prime-time salute on “I Walk the Line: A Night for Johnny Cash” (8 p.m., CBS). This musical showcase also serves as a promotion for the biographical film about the late Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon.
Musicians from at least three generations will perform Cash and Carter’s songs, including “I Walk the Line,” “Sunday Morning Coming Down,” “Jackson,” “I Still Miss Someone,” “Folsom Prison Blues,” “Guess Things Happen That Way” and “Home of the Blues.”
The lineup includes Sheryl Crow, Foo Fighters, Shooter Jennings & Jessi Colter, Norah Jones, Kid Rock, Alison Krauss, Kris Kristofferson, Jerry Lee Lewis, Martina McBride, Brad Paisley, U2 and Dwight Yoakam.
According to his autobiography, Cash wrote more than 1,500 songs and received 11 Grammy awards, and Cash was inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Country Music Hall of Fame. He shares that distinction with only one man – his fellow Sun Records alumnus Elvis Presley.
An era ends on “That ‘70s Show” (8 p.m., Fox). And the show sends up tabloid headlines about its most famous player.
Bruce Willis cameos as the toupee-wearing owner of a Chicago “gentleman’s” club who offers Kelso a job. This creates the scenario that writes Ashton Kutcher out of the series after eight seasons. It also allows viewers to watch the interaction between Willis, Demi Moore’s famous ex-husband, and Kutcher, her much-publicized main squeeze.
The series “Secrets of the Dead” (7 p.m., KSPS) mixes the forensic science of “CSI” with painstaking archeological footwork. But tonight’s installment resembles “The Sopranos” and recalls the true-life story that inspired the book and movie “Donnie Brasco.”
The sprawling story begins in 1981, when kids playing in a Queens, N.Y., vacant lot came upon the dead body of a mobster. The narrative ricochets over two decades and involves FBI agent Joseph Pistone, who posed as a mobbed-up jewel thief named Donnnie Brasco in order to infiltrate the Bonnanno crime family.
Pistone/Brasco got very close to “Big Joey” Massino, the man behind the dead body in the vacant lot, as well as two others. It would take years of painstaking paperwork, wiretaps and digging (in the most literal sense) to implicate Massino in the murders.
Eventually “Big Joey” not only was arrested, but he turned on the Bonnannos and became the highest-ranking mobster to rat out his associates.
“In Search of Myths and Heroes” (8 p.m., KSPS) follows historian Michael Wood as he attempts to distinguish between fact and fable in the stories of the Queen of Sheba, King Arthur, Shangri-La, and Jason and the Golden Fleece.
Three “experts,” ages 13 to 18, offer parental advice on the British series “Trust Me, I’m a Teenager” (7 p.m., BBC America).
Other highlights
A cop’s disappearance fits an ominous profile on “Criminal Minds” (9 p.m., CBS).
Good to the last drop on “The Apprentice: Martha Stewart” (9 p.m., NBC).
The other survivors reveal their stories on “Lost” (9 p.m., ABC). As if we didn’t have enough to digest.
Violence is in the cards on “CSI: NY” (10 p.m., CBS).
A shadow falls over immigration vigilantes on “Law & Order” (10 p.m., NBC).
A battle for the baby on “Invasion” (10 p.m., ABC).
Cult choice
Teens (Emilio Estevez, Molly Ringwald, Judd Nelson, Anthony Michael Hall, Ally Sheedy) from different cliques bond during detention in the 1985 touchstone drama “The Breakfast Club” (5 and 8 p.m., WE).
Series notes
Religious strife in Motor City on “E-Ring” (8 p.m., NBC) … A marital milestone on “George Lopez” (8 p.m., ABC) … Tyra Banks hosts “America’s Next Top Model” (8 p.m., UPN) … The fantasy draft continues on “One Tree Hill” (8 p.m., WB) … Jenny McCarthy guest-stars on “Stacked” (8:30 p.m., Fox) … Competition on “Freddie” (8:30 p.m., ABC) … How the other half lives on “Trading Spouses” (9 p.m., Fox) … Meg’s baby-sitting gig may explain her injury on “Veronica Mars” (9 p.m., UPN) … Dana Delany guest-stars on “Related” (9 p.m., WB).