TCM Remembers James Caan, ‘Below Deck’ Spinoff, ‘New Amsterdam’ vs. Supremes, a Religious Sex Scandal

Thief

Director Michael Mann’s stylish 1981 feature-film debut is the highlight of a night dedicated to the late James Caan, who passed away in July at 82. Caan earned some of his best reviews as Frank, an ex-con and expert safecracker who’s trying to shake off his mob colleagues and go straight. Other highlights of the Caan tribute include Francis Ford Coppola’s 1969 The Rain People (8/7c), co-starring with Shirley Knight on a melancholy road trip, and 1973’s unconventional love story Cinderella Liberty (12:15 am/11:15c), co-starring Marsha Mason.

Below Deck Adventure

The sail-away franchise that just keeps on giving—with recent shout-outs on shows including The Good Fight—spins off yet again with a show adding the element of adrenaline. As the motor yacht Mercury cruises Norwegian fjords, demanding guests expect to paraglide, explore caves and take extreme helicopter rides. Meanwhile, the crew (led by Captain Kerry Titheradge) works hard to rack up big tips, the better to enjoy off-duty excursions in the omnipresent hot tub. Followed by a special live edition of Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen (10/9c) on board the Celebrity Beyond, featuring all five Below Deck captains.

New Amsterdam

There are some things even Dr. Max Goodwin (Ryan Eggold) can’t fix. In an unusually topical episode, he and the rest of the hospital staff are rocked by the Supreme Court’s reversal of the Roe v. Wade ruling, and even the usually tight-fisted board chair Karen Brantley (Debra Monk) says the sky’s the limit if he can answer the question: “How can you help?” In related events, Iggy (Tyler Labine) crosses the line when confronting a protestor who lays hands on a patient, and Dr. Wilder (Sandra Mae Frank) shows compassion toward a patient whose beliefs collide with medical prudence when dealing with a pregnancy endangered by cervical cancer treatment.

God Forbid: The Sex Scandal That Brought Down a Dynasty

From director Billy Corben (Cocaine Cowboys) and executive producer Adam McKay (The Big Short) comes an unsubtle documentary for the stranger-than-fiction files. It tells the story of Giancarlo Granda, who was a pool attendant at Miami’s ritzy Fontainebleau Hotel when he became involved with an older woman whose husband liked to record and observe their sexual encounters. This couple turns out to be evangelical leader Jerry Falwell Jr. and his wife Becki, and this complicated triangle takes on more sinister overtones when the Falwells became involved in then-candidate Donald Trump’s presidential ambitions and the dirty laundry is in danger of being exposed.

Inside Tuesday TV:

• La Brea (9/8c, NBC): The time-travel adventure just keeps getting nuttier, as Eve (Natalie Zea), Gavin (Eoin Mackin), Sam (Jon Seda) and the gang attempt to enter the glass building known as Lazarus, where a portal awaits to whisk them from 10,000 B.C. to 1988 and a reunion with their kids.
• Little People, Big World (9/8c, TLC): The 24th (!) season begins with the Roloff family still divided over Matt’s decision to sell the north side of the farm.
• Putin’s War at Home (10/9c, PBS): Frontline draws on footage from inside Russia to report on dangerous resistance efforts by dissidents and journalists risking jail or worse by opposing the Ukraine war and standing up to Vladimir Putin’s authoritarian censorship to get to the truth about Russian casualties.
• The Rookie: Feds (10/9c, ABC): Agents Simone (Niecy Nash-Betts) and Carter (James Lesure) go undercover at a women’s prison—her as an inmate, him as a guard—to smoke out an international assassin known as The Reaper. Their mission is complicated when a prisoner recognizes seasoned FBI agent Carter, threatening to blow his cover.