Except for the inappropriate car and mattress sale ads, you’d be hard pressed to guess it’s Memorial Day on most of TV. But a 72-hour, 34 film marathon saluting servicemen and women is playing on Turner Classic Movies starting today and continuing through Monday’s holiday.
It begins with “Journey for Margaret” (6 a.m.), “The Shopworn Angel” (7:30 a.m.), “A Guy Named Joe” (9 a.m.), “Hell to Eternity” (11:15 a.m.), “The Steel Helmet” (1:45 p.m.), “Objective, Burma!” (3:15 p.m.), “The Hill” (5:45 p.m.).
Then in prime time, it’s “The Dirty Dozen” (8 p.m.), pictured above, “Where Eagles Dare” (10:45 p.m.), “Kelly’s Heroes” (1:30 a.m.), “Men of the Fighting Lady” (4 a.m.) and “The Horizontal Lieutenant” (5:30 a.m.).
Sports dominates prime time broadcast TV, with Chicago at Los Angeles (NBC, 8 p.m.)in game 3 of the Western Conference Finals of hockey’s Stanley Cup playoffs.
There’s also baseball, with Washington at Pittsburgh (Fox, 7:15 p.m.) Other games include Oakland at Toronto (MLB, 1 p.m.) and Minnesota at San Francisco (MLB, 10 p.m.).
The NBA playoffs are on cable, with game 3 of Indiana at Miami (ESPN, 8:30 p.m.).
The first Saturday night since the TV season ended isn’t pretty: The only thing new on networks are newsmagazines “20/20” (AB, 9 p.m.) and “Nightline Prime” (ABC, 10 p.m.). Even “48 Hours” (CBS, 9 and 10 p.m.) are replays.
Bruce Willis, John Malkovich and Helen Mirren return to star in “Red 2” (HBO, 8 p.m.), which makes its debut on premium cable. Also on tonight, “Lockout” (Syfy, 9 p.m.) and the British made comedy “The World’s End” (Cinemax, 10 p.m.) — not to be confused with the similar and also recent to cable comedy “End of the World.”
Sarah aligns with an unusual ally to find the origins of the cloning thing on a new “Orphan Black” (BBC America, 9 p.m.).
The 36-day hunger strike by Cesar Chavez in 1988 is the subject of the documentary “Cesar’s Last Fast” (Pivot, 7 p.m.).
Another new documentary looks beyond Dog and the rest to report on the booming bail bond industry in “Chasing Bail” (Al Jazeera America, 7 p.m.).
A town hall forum on the kidnapping of Nigerian schoolgirls is offered in “Stolen Innocence: Your Daughters are Our Daughters” (Centric, 10 p.m.).
And what’s most newsworthy on Fox News? This anniversary: “Geraldo Rivera: O.J. Simpson at 20” (Fox News, 10 p.m.).
Freddie Preston returns from the grave on “In the Flesh” (BBC, 10 p.m.), which is the kind of thing you’d expect to happen on a zombie series.
Ali Wong, Junior Stopka and Jimmy Shubert do sets on a new “Comedy Underground with Dave Attell” (Comedy Central, 1 a.m.).
Tiffany yells at Brian in the first season finale of “Love in the City” (OWN, 10 p.m.).
Mumford & Sons play a replay of “Austin City Limits” (PBS, 9 p.m., check local listings).
Following last week’s season finale, it’s reruns for months to come on “Saturday Night Live” (NBC, 11:30 p.m.). Tonight, the one where Drake is both host and musical guest.