Staying indoors on Memorial Day? TV has you covered

By Christopher Lawrence Las Vegas Review-Journal

7 years ago

David Schwimmer and Damian Lewis in “Band of Brothers.” (HBO)

Damian Lewis and Ron Livingston in Band of Brothers. (HBO)

“Dumb: The Story of Big Brother Magazine” (Sean Cliver/Gorilla Flicks/Hulu)

Ellen Barkin stars in TNT’s “Animal Kingdom.” (Eddy Chen/TNT)

Navi stars in “Michael Jackson: Searching for Neverland,” premiering Monday, May 29 at 8pm ET/PT on Lifetime. (Deadra Bryant)

What’s that you say? You have no interest in being outside on Memorial Day?

No cookouts? No pool parties? No heatstroke?

Well, as usual, TV has you covered with a series of marathons — some tied to the holiday, some just random blocks of programming. But regardless, they’ll keep you in front of the air-conditioning.

Turner Classic Movies is dedicating the day to war films: 1933’s “Ace of Aces” (1:15 a.m.), 1948’s “Fighter Squadron” (2:45 a.m.), 1959’s “Never So Few” (4:30 a.m.), 1964’s “Operation Crossbow” (6:45 a.m.), 1970’s “Kelly’s Heroes” (9 a.m.), 1969’s “Where Eagles Dare” (11:30 a.m.), 1967’s “The Dirty Dozen” (2:15 p.m.), 1944’s “Destination Tokyo” (5 p.m.), 1951’s “Operation Pacific” (7:30 p.m.), 1957’s “The Enemy Below” (9:30 p.m.) and 1959’s “Up Periscope” (11:30 p.m.).

Sundance is airing 48 hours of “M*A*S*H” episodes from 6 a.m. Sunday through 6 a.m. Tuesday.

HBO2 is showcasing the acclaimed 2001 miniseries “Band of Brothers,” following the U.S. Army 101st Airborne division’s Easy Company from Operation Overlord through V-J Day, beginning at 6 a.m.

Not surprisingly, American Heroes Channel is going all-in on military programming, including the 12-part series “World War II in Color,” beginning at 5 a.m.

After airing 1976’s “Midway” (10 a.m.) and 1998’s “Saving Private Ryan” (1 p.m.), AMC is letting viewers catch up on its “Breaking Bad” prequel, “Better Call Saul,” by showing all of this season’s episodes starting at 5 p.m.

Speaking of catching up, CMT is airing all 11 of this season’s episodes of “Nashville” starting at 9 a.m. Chiller is playing the 13-episode first season of Syfy’s supernatural Western series “Wynonna Earp” — twice — beginning at 1 a.m. and 2 p.m. TV One is showing the recently completed third season of Fox’s “Empire” from 4 a.m. to 9 p.m. And OWN is showcasing its drama “Queen Sugar,” starring Las Vegas native Rutina Wesley, from 2 p.m. through 3 a.m. Tuesday.

It has nothing to do with Memorial Day, but “Friday Night Lights” is one of the greatest slices of Americana ever produced for television. Catch 18 straight hours of it on the Longhorn Network starting at midnight Sunday.

Or, if you simply want to be entertained, Comedy Central is running “Scrubs” from 9 a.m. through 4:40 a.m. Tuesday, while Syfy is airing a block of ridiculousness that contains “Ragin Cajun Redneck Gators” (6:30 a.m.), “Swamp Shark” (8:30 a.m.), “Lake Placid vs. Anaconda” (10:30 a.m.), “Lake Placid: The Final Chapter” (12:30 p.m.) and “Snakes on a Plane” (2:30 p.m.).