The quickest turnaround from the Sundance Film Festival may be the “The History of the Eagles” (Showtime, 8 p.m.), a rockumentary about the commercially-popular country-rock band. Oddly, it’s from Alex Gibney of “Taxi to the Dark Side” fame.
Things are dark in the Eagles story, especially as they descended into drug use, in-fighting and revolving band members. But there were a handful of pretty great songs, too. Unfortunately, the band today thinks what they did was a bit monumental than that, and there proves to have been an internal struggle about just how much of a sell-out they would be (the winning side decided: very much so). Also decided, according to the film, was to become more of a rock band than a country one, so they ditched Bernie Leadon for Joe Walsh and got his own brand of hotel room-destroying craziness in the process.
The band obviously had a hand in the film, so its laudable they allowed a lot of its backstage footage of nude groupies to be included. But it’s a much longer story than needed: Tonight’s two hours consists of the band’s original incarnation through its breakup in 1980. A follow-up hour on Saturday concentrates on the wildly lucrative reunion tour of 1996 that continues to today.
For something completely different, the 37th season of “Live from Lincoln Center” (PBS, 9 p.m., check local listings) presents a salute to the music of John Kander and Fred Ebb, the duo behind shows from “Cabaret” and “Chicago” to “New York, New York.” Joel Grey, Chita Rivera, Marin Mazzie and Jason Danieley all join in the celebration.
It’s NBA All-Star Weekend in Houston, which kicks off with the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game (ESPN, 7 p.m.) featuring Usain Bolt, Common, N-Yo, Trey Songz, Nick Cannon, Kevin Hart and Education Secretary Arne Duncan.
Guests on a new “Real Time with Bill Maher” (HBO, 10 p.m.) includes an interview with Robert Zimmerman Jr., brother of George Zimmerman, the shooter of Trayvon Martin. Other guests include Joel McHale, whose “The Soup” (E!, 8:30 p.m.) is also on tonight, as well as strategist Donna Brazile, author Jon Meacham and editor Jamie Weinstein.
The new Oxygen model competition “The Face” (E! 10 p.m.) gets a second life on E!.
Kid inventors go talk to the “Shark Tank” (ABC, 9 p.m.).
The premise of “Lincoln’s Secret Killer” (National Geographic, 9 p.m.) posits that the preident was already dying of a rare form of cancer when he was assassinated.
People compete to work at Cosmopolitan on the second episode of “The Job” (CBS, 8 p.m.).
How big is “Gold Rush” (Discovery)? It’s got its own talk show alongside it, “Gold Rush: The Dirt – Fight Night” (Discovery, 8 p.m.).
In “Four Weddings: Grooms Take Over” (TLC, 8 p.m.), the guys step up to do the planning.
The title to the contrary, the projects on “Spontaneous Construction” (HGTV, 8 p.m.) don’t build themselves. Instead, flash mobs are recruited to work on renovation work.
The first season finale comes for “Warped Roadies” (Fuse, 11 p.m.) in Portland, where coincidentally there is another episode of “Portlandia” (IFC, 10 p.m.), in which coyotes start to invade.
Morgana and Gwen plot to kill Arthur on a new “Merlin” (Syfy, 10 p.m.).
Eve and Patti Stanger are guests on the second episode of “The Jenny McCarthy Show” (VH1, 10:30 p.m.).
The nightly showcase of Oscar winners and nominees, studio by studio, on Turner Classic Movies starts several nights of work from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, starting with movies from the 1930s and 40s, “The Champ” (8 p.m.), “Grand Hotel” (9:45 p.m.), “Mrs. Miniver” (midnight), “Woman of the Year” (2:30 a.m.) and “Thousands Cheer” (4:30 a.m.).
Men’s college hoop games include Iona at Manhattan (ESPNU, 7 p.m.), Georgetown at Cincinnati (ESPN, 9 p.m.) and Wisconsin at Cleveland State (ESPNU, 9 p.m.).
Daytime Talk
Kelly & Michael: Heidi Klum, Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi, Jenni “JWoww” Farley, Quvenzhane Wallis, Carley Roney. The View: Eva Longoria, Billy Campbell, Tyler Florence. The Talk: William Shatner, Rocky Carroll. Ellen DeGeneres: Josh Duhamel, Bethenny Frankel, Alicia Keys.
Late Talk
David Letterman: Helen Hunt, Jeff Caldwell, the Macabees. Jay Leno: Kathy Griffin, David Feherty, FM Radio. Jimmy Kimmel: Highlights of the week. Jimmy Fallon: Joan Rivers, Josh Charles, Gloriana. Craig Ferguson: Mario Lopez. Carson Daly: Rich Eisen, Divine Fits (rerun). Tavis Smiley: Laura Dern. Chelsea Handler: Tenacious D, James Davis, Natasha Leggero, Josh Wolf, Dave Grohl (rerun).