Disney’s Mickey Mouse History, The Real Story of ‘Mr Bates,’ ‘Gentleman’s New Ward, ‘Guilt’s Final Chapter, Weekend Update at White House Correspondents Dinner

How Disney Built America

SUNDAY: Disney is one of the world’s most recognized (though in some corners vilified) brands, but Walt Disney’s beginnings were far humbler. A six-part docuseries charting the rise of the Disney entertainment empire begins in the 1920s with “The Birth of Mickey.” That would be Mickey Mouse, created by Walt and animator Ub Iwerks after Disney lost creative control of his first cartoon character (the now-obscure Oswald the Lucky Rabbit). With the iconic “Steamboat Willie,” also notable as the first animated short with synchronized sound, the Disney business is off and running.

Mr Bates vs The Post Office

SUNDAY: After years of delays, the underdog sub-postmasters get their day in court against the monolithic Post Office that accused them of theft and fraud, refusing to concede their own technology was at fault. “Look at us. Do we look like criminals?” declares one of the plaintiffs in the stirring and somewhat bittersweet conclusion to the four-part docudrama. “You don’t give up, do you, you awkward sod?” a weepy forensic accountant (Ian Hart) tweaks Alan Bates (Toby Jones), whose dogged efforts to bring his fellow victims together pays off after 20 years. In reality, Bates is still fighting the Post Office, and in a companion documentary, The Real Story of Mr Bates vs the Post Office (11/10c, PBS), the real-life versions of these characters tell their story.

A Gentleman in Moscow

SUNDAY: A new and very special relationship forms within the Hotel Metropol when Count Alexander Rostov (Ewan McGregor) is entrusted with young Sofia (Billie Gadsdon), a natural charmer abruptly left behind by her mother, the now-grown Nina (Leah Balmforth). Their bond grows slowly but surely, much as it once did when Nina was a child, but the situation becomes dicey when the imperiously disapproving Bishop (John Hefferman) catches on to the new arrival. In other Moscow news, Rostov’s actress paramour Anna (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) considers her options when a younger glamour girl becomes the hot new thing.

Guilt

SUNDAY: The bumbling Scottish brothers are back for a third and final caper on Masterpiece, with the calculating Max (Mark Bonnar) and gullible Jake (Jamie Sives) unhappily dislodged from their Chicago exile and forced by circumstance (and ICE agents) to return to Edinburgh. There, vengeful widow Maggie Lynch (Downton Abbey’s Phyllis Logan, playing deliciously against type) waits for them, while their former ally Kenny (Emun Elliott) contends with a niece who’s embroiled in local criminal intrigue.

The Sympathizer

SUNDAY: In a pivotal episode of the dramatically rich 1970s post-Vietnam War spy dramedy, the Captain (Hoa Xuande) uneasily prepares to assassinate the scapegoat he’s helped to frame as a mole, with a July 4 celebration as an ironic backdrop. Later, he’s recruited to be an expert consultant for an Apocalypse Now-like war movie. At the pitch meeting, all four Robert Downey Jr. characters are now fully on display: CIA spook Claude, Professor Hammer and the latest arrivals, hawkish Congressman Ned Godwin and maverick filmmaker Niko Damianos.

Inside Weekend TV:

• White House Correspondents Dinner (Saturday, coverage starts at 7 pm/ET on CNN, 8 pm/ET on C-SPAN, 9 pm/ET on MSNBC): This just in on Weekend Update: Saturday Night Live’s Colin Jost is the latest court jester to bring his brand of barbed humor to the annual dinner’s dais. President Joe Biden is also expected to attend and provide remarks.
• Branching Out (Saturday, 8/7c, Hallmark Channel): Hallmark’s “Spring into Love” movie series continues with Grey’s Anatomy alum Sarah Drew starring as a single mom whose daughter, conceived through IVF, asks about their incomplete family tree, prompting a search for the biological father (Juan Pablo Di Pace).
• 48 Hours (Saturday, 10/9c, CBS): Erin Moriarty reports on the bizarre case of Kristen Trickle’s 2019 death in Kansas, ruled a suicide after she was found bleeding from a gunshot wound next to her husband in bed. When investigators grew suspicious of her husband, they ordered an autopsy—of Kristen’s mind.
• 60 Minutes (Sunday, 7/6c, CBS): Scott Pelley reports on the challenges facing children of disabled military veterans, Bill Whitaker profiles computer chip giant Nvidia and its innovations enabling the development of AI applications, and Sharyn Alfonsi explores the fuel spill at Pearl Harbor that contaminated the Navy’s drinking water system.
• American Idol (Sunday, 8/7c, ABC): Country superstar Shania Twain is the guest mentor when the Top 10 interpret songs from their birth years. (This will make some of us feel very old.) Former Idol winners Scott McCreery (2011) and Just Sam (2020) also perform.
• The Equalizer (8/7c, CBS): Dee (Laya DeLeon Hayes) turns to her heroic mom Robyn (Queen Latifah) for help when her transgender friend Raya (Avery Sands) goes missing. Followed by Tracker (9/8c), with Colter (Justin Hartley) off to Idaho in search of a client’s adult children last seen on a plane that took off during a storm; and CSI: Vegas (10/9c) in its final weeks, with the team investigating the suspicious deaths of a fitness guru and his future son-in-law in separate incidents.
• How It Really Happened with Jesse L. Martin (Sunday, 9/8c, CNN): The star of The Irrational hosts a two-hour documentary featuring recent discoveries regarding the 1912 sinking of the fabled ocean liner, which still holds such fascination that people risk their lives to see the shipwreck with their own eyes, including last year’s tragic Titan submersible implosion.
• The Great North (Sunday, 9/8c, Fox): A blizzard traps the Tobins indoors, creating cabin fever complications in the animated comedy. Followed by Grimsburg (9:30/8:30c), with guest voice actor Christina Hendricks reuniting with her former Mad Men co-star Jon Hamm when the titular detective (Hamm) tries to stop a serial killer from going after the winner of a local talent show.
• The Mega-Brands That Built America (Sunday, 9/8c, History Channel): Peyton Manning joins the docuseries’ second season, which opens with a survey of the “End of the Landlines,” when the first handheld portable telephone sparked a corporate war over who’d produce the most popular cell phone.
• Michael Strahan x Jon Bon Jovi: Halfway There (Sunday, 10/9c, ABC): The Good Morning America host interviews the rock star, who’s also the subject of Hulu’s docuseries Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story.
• MILF Manor (Sunday, 10/9c, TLC): Apparently unfazed by the Golden Bachelor debacle, a new cast of women in their 40s and 50s look for love in Season 2 of the dating show.