Divas of the ’80s, 40 Years of Thriller, All About Agatha Christie, ’60 Minutes’ on ‘Barbie’s Director

Ladies of the 80’s: A Divas Christmas

SATURDAY: The campy nostalgia is off the charts in a holiday movie from comedy scribes James Berg and Stan Zimmerman (The Golden Girls). The scenario, involving a reunion of actresses from a long-running soap opera that’s filming its final Christmas episode, brings together some of the biggest stars of the 1980s’ prime-time soap heyday, including Linda Gray (Dallas), Morgan Fairchild (Flamingo Road, Falcon Crest) and two from my all-time fave, Knots Landing: Donna Mills and Nicollette Sheridan. Comedy vet Loni Anderson (WKRP in Cincinnati) rounds out the cast as the divas reignite past rivalries until they bond to play matchmaker for the show’s producer (Travis Burns) and director (Taylor Ann Thompson). This is a Christmas movie, after all.

A Not So Royal Christmas

The Yule Log: And that’s just the beginning. More from the bottomless Christmas movie well: Hallmark Channel offers A Not So Royal Christmas (Saturday, 8/7c), in which a tabloid journalist (Brooke D’Orsay) pursues an interview with an elusive Count, who’s being impersonated by a groundskeeper (Will Kemp); and Christmas with a Kiss (Sunday, 8/7c), involving romance at a Christmas Carnival. Lifetime’s Sunday movie, Mistletoe Match (8/7c), creates those all-important sparks between two holiday skeptics (Elena Juatco and Ryan Bruce). Great American Family has two: Christmas on Windmill Way (Saturday, 8/7c), where Wynonna Earp’s Christa Taylor Brown pleads with her ex-boyfriend property developer (One Tree Hill alum Chad Michael Murray) to preserve her family’s windmill; and The Jinglebell Jubilee (Sunday, 8/7c), unfolding against a town’s Christmas Charity event. From UPtv: Yuletide the Knot (Sunday, 7/6c), about a wedding planner (Mary Antonini) who starts hearing bells of her own when she learns her new client’s manager is her high school sweetheart (Peter Porte).

Thriller 40

SATURDAY: Even Taylor Swift hasn’t beat this record yet. Still the world’s best-selling album 40 years after its release, Michael Jackson’s Thriller set trends in all aspects of popular music and culture, from sound to image, dance to fashion. Director Nelson George’s documentary revisits the making of the album and its iconic music videos, with commentary from contemporary artist including Usher, Mary J. Blige, Will.I.Am, Misty Copeland and Mark Ronson, plus Thriller video director John Landis.

Agatha Christie: Lucy Worsley on the Mystery Queen

SUNDAY: Historian Lucy Worsley has a mystery to solve: piercing the veil of secrecy and rumor surrounding the life of Agatha Christie (1890-1976), the most successful novelist ever, whose timeless whodunits continue to inspire filmmakers on small and large screens. Over three Sundays, Worsley explores Christie’s history as it echoes events of the 20^th century. She starts with Christie’s Victorian-era childhood through the first third of her life, including her volunteer service as a World War I nurse.

60 Minutes

SUNDAY: It’s hard to remember a more surprising box-office blockbuster than this summer’s smash hit Barbie, and Sharyn Alfonsi profiles the movie’s director and co-writer Greta Gerwig, the indie-film queen who made it big by subverting everyone’s expectations. Other segments include Bill Whitaker visiting college campuses to take the temperature of demonstrations regarding the Israeli-Hamas war, and Scott Pelley’s report on the cutting-edge field of quantum computing.

INSIDE WEEKEND TV:

• College Football Conference Championships: Top teams face their rivals at neutral sites. The Saturday rundown: Big 12 Championship, No. 18 Oklahoma State vs. No. 7 Texas, on ABC (noon/ET); MAC Championship, Miami of Ohio vs. Toledo, ESPN (noon/ET); Mountain West Championship, Boise State vs. UNLV, Fox (3 pm/ET), SEC Championship, No. 1 Georgia vs. No. 8 Alabama, CBS (4 pm/ET); AAC Championship, SMU vs. No 22 Tulane, ABC (4 pm/ET); Sun Belt Championship, Appalachian State vs. Troy, ESPN (4 pm/ET); Big Ten Championship, No. 2. Michigan vs. No 16 Iowa, Fox (8 pm/ET); ACC Championship, No. 14 Louisville vs. No. 4 Florida State, ABC (8 pm/ET).
• Doctor Who (Saturday, streaming on Disney+): Get back in the TARDIS with the Doctor (delightful David Tennant) and his companion Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) for the second of their three adventures, the details of which are being kept under wraps.
• True Crime Watch: Oxygen True Crime’s Fatal Family Feuds (Saturday, 8/7c) revisits tragedies resulting from family conflict, starting with the 1994 murder in Connecticut of one-time exotic dancer Buzz Clinton, whose in-laws didn’t want him raising their granddaughter. On CBS’ 48 Hours (Saturday, 10/9c), Jamie Yuccas reports on the 2010 Sunday-morning murder in Minnesota of Heidi Firkus, which husband Nick insisted was the result of a home invasion, though evidence suggested otherwise.
• Saturday Night Live (Saturday, 11:30/10:30c, 8:30 pm/PT, NBC): Oscar winner Emma Stone, currently in Showtime’s The Curse and earning raves for the movie Poor Things, joins the Five-Timers Club as guest host, with Noah Kahan making his first appearance as musical guest.
• Chowchilla (Sunday, 9/8c, CNN): In 1976, three kidnappers took 26 kids and their driver off a school bus in Chowchilla, California, burying them alive in a soundproofed van. The survivors, who escaped after nearly 16 hours, tell their story.
• Yellowstone (Sunday, 8/7c, CBS): The replay of Season 2’s final two episodes includes a showdown between rancher John Dutton (Kevin Costner) and the nefarious Beck brothers (Neal McDonough and Terry Serpico).
• Between Life & Death: Terri Schiavo’s Story (Sunday, 10/9c, MSNBC): A documentary revisits the emotional high-profile right-to-die case of Terri Schiavo, who at 26 was left in a vegetative state after a brain injury, pitting her husband against her parents in a seven-year legal battle.