Bah, humbug!

Network programmers have put viewers in a bit of a pickle by pitting "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" (7 p.m. WCCO, Ch. 4) against "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" (7 p.m. KSTP, Ch. 5), both top-notch examples of stop-action animation. Which one should you go with? I'm leaning toward "Rudolph" if only because it's the 50th anniversary of the special.

In the Navy

You may have never heard of Hyman Rickover, the subject of "Rickover: The Birth of Nuclear Power," but his stint as the U.S. Navy admiral who oversaw the development and expansion of a nuclear Navy is pivotal in U.S. history. 7 p.m. TPT, Ch. 2

Parting is such sick sorrow

Time for one final bloodbath. After seven seasons, "Sons of Anarchy" rides into the sunset with a 90-minute episode that should spell out the fate of the most violent Shakespearean family in TV history. "Sons" got a little too tangled for some people, but it was also the most popular show in FX history with a breakout performance by Katey Sagal and an unflinching dedication to showing the repercussions of violence by creator Kurt Sutter, who wrote and directed the finale. 9 p.m. FX

Neal Justin