Dust in the wind
Vintage PBS productions can be expensive or hard to find, which means one should keep an eye on what's playing on TPT Life, the sister station to Minnesota's primary PBS station. Tonight provides a good example: a repeat of Ken Burns' "The Dust Bowl," a searing 2012 documentary which makes the case that one of the country's greatest environmental disasters was largely man-made.
8 p.m., TPT Life
Picking up 'Pieces'
In the discussion of today's best sitcoms, "Life in Pieces" rarely comes up. It should. No network comedy does a smoother job of weaving heartbreak into its humor, most notably at the start of the season when one of the main characters dealt with a miscarriage. The show often resorts to cheap laughs — hey, Barbra Streisand's hubby has an erection problem! — but more often than not, this is network TV's most grown-up sitcom, and maybe even its finest.
8:30 p.m., WCCO, Ch. 4
The weight of the crown
Those who haven't galloped toward Chanhassen Dinner Theatres for "Camelot" can settle for 2004's "King Arthur," although this heavy-handed film, starring Clive Owen and Keira Knightley, makes the Knights of the Round Table seem all too square. Give me a singing Lancelot any day.
9 p.m., Ovation
Neal Justin
