TV Best Bets
‘The Wizard of Oz’
The memories! The colors! Toto, too! Almost every child knows the story of Dorothy and her faithful dog blown by a twister to the magical land of Oz. Judy Garland stars as a more mature version of Dorothy in this 1939 classic adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s book. She and Toto follow the yellow brick road, making friends with an unlikely trio along the way. Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley, Margaret Hamilton and Frank Morgan co-star. An encore airing immediately follows; this perennial favorite also airs Saturday on TBS. 7 p.m. on TNT.
‘Dynasty’
Season 4 ended just a few weeks ago, in October, but Season 5 of this steamy soap reboot kicks off tonight with two back-to-back episodes. In the aftermath of Fallon’s (Elizabeth Gillies) shooting by her unstable former assistant, estranged hubby Liam (Adam Huber) turns to Sam and Kirby (Rafael de la Fuente, Maddison Brown) for help. Elsewhere, Adam (Sam Underwood) is deeply suspicious about his long-lost sister Amanda (Eliza Bennett), who shares his mistrust. Elaine Hendrix and Grant Show also star. A new holiday-themed episode follows. (TV-PG) 8 p.m. on 22.1.
‘Christmas at Belmont’
Belmont University alumnus and multi-platinum recording artist Josh Turner is host and featured guest artist for this year’s edition of a traditional yuletide event, filmed at the university’s newly opened Fisher Center for the Performing Arts. Broadcast nationally on PBS for the 19th consecutive year, the concert features nearly 650 music students and members of the Belmont School of Music performing songs of the Christmas season. (TV-G) 8 p.m. on KUID/KCDT and 9 p.m. on KSPS.
‘Holiday Baking Championship’
Host Jesse Palmer kicks things off in the Season 8 finale, ‘‘Ultimate Holiday Party,’’ by throwing a swanky yuletide open house for judges Duff Goldman, Nancy Fuller and Carla Hall, where he plans to serve dessert charcuterie boards prepared by the bakers. After the bottom two competitors face off in an elimination challenge of dueling holiday pinata desserts, the finalists must incorporate lights into their holiday party theme cake designs. The most successful baker walks away with $25,000. (TV-G) 8 p.m. on FOOD.
‘Candy Cane Candidate’
After her recent city council campaign ends in a mortifying loss, Julia (Jacky Lai) returns to her hometown of North Falls for Christmas, which includes drowning her humiliation in eggnog, cookies and other pleasures of the season. Too late, she realizes that going back home almost inevitably means running into old high school nemesis Parker (Jake Epstein), who defeated her in a bid for class president. Mickeey Nguyen (‘‘Utopia Falls’’), Kara Duncan and Stephanie Herrera co-star in this holiday romantic comedy. 8 p.m. on LIFE.
‘On These Grounds’
In this explosive 2021 documentary, filmmaker Garrett Zevgetis revisits a racially charged incident at a South Carolina high school in 2015. Ben Fields, a white security officer at the school, was summoned to the classroom of a math teacher who reported that a Black student, identified in the film as Shakara, was creating a disturbance. When the girl refused to leave her desk, Fields wrapped an arm around her neck, threw her to the floor and put his knee on her as he arrested the student. A classmate’s video of the incident went viral. 8 p.m. on STRZ.
‘Christmas at Belmont’
Belmont University alumnus and multi-platinum recording artist Josh Turner is host and featured guest artist for this year’s edition of a traditional yuletide event, filmed at the university’s newly opened Fisher Center for the Performing Arts. Broadcast nationally on PBS for the 19th consecutive year, the concert features nearly 650 music students and members of the Belmont School of Music performing songs of the Christmas season. (TV-G) 9 p.m. on 7.1.‘Reopening Night’
Filmmaker Rudy Valdez takes viewers behind the scenes at the world-famous Public Theater in New York as the cast, crew and staff prepare to mount an adaptation of Shakespeare’s “The Merry Wives of Windsor’’ at the open-air Delacorte Theater in Central Park. The eagerly awaited summer production marks the return of live theater following more than a year of pandemic-imposed closures in the Big Apple. The cast and production team must cope with the lingering threat of COVID-19, however, as well as one of the rainiest New York Julys on record. 10 p.m. on HBO.
Left to right, Bert Lahr, Judy Garland, Ray Bolger and Jack Haley, star in the original “Wizard of Oz.”