Always on my mind
Word that Willie Nelson was in Washington, D.C., this past November had us hoping that President Obama was about to appoint him Secretary of the Interior. Didn't happen, but we'll settle for highlights from "The Gershwin Prize" in which the country music legend is serenaded by Neil Young, Rosanne Cash and Paul Simon. 8 p.m. Friday, TPT, Ch. 2
Don't call them Shirley
Steve Carell may be the co-creator of "Angie Tribeca," but the police sitcom owes more to "Police Squad!" than "The Office" with its unrelenting barrage of hit-and-miss jokes — mostly misses. The most intriguing aspect of the comedy, aside from a Lisa Kudrow cameo, is its PR strategy. All 10 episodes will air over a straight 25-hour period with repeats airing Mondays the rest of the winter. 8 p.m. Sunday, TBS
The heat is on
Even straight-A students of American history may be unaware that the investigation of the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. took over a month with a search that extended into Canada and Europe. "Justice for MLK: The Hunt for James Earl Ray" does a nice job of following the trail, even if some of the folks we meet along the way are less than reliable. 8 p.m. Sunday, American Heroes Channel
Civil disobedience
In "Mercy Street," PBS' first American-set series in decades, a Civil War-era hospital deals with more than just musket wounds. The fight between the Blue and the Gray nearly takes a back seat to battles on the undercard bouts: doctors vs. nurses, cooks vs. administrators, bearded vs. clean-shaven. The cast, which includes Gary Cole and Mary Elizabeth Winstead, struggles with the stilted, heavy-handed dialogue, which would be fine if the story was being performed in the lobby of a Smithsonian museum, not the high-pressure time slot following the final episodes of "Downton Abbey." 9 p.m. Sunday, TPT, Ch. 2
Neal Justin
