There’s more than just holiday uplift at work on the 2023 holiday romance “Ladies of the ‘80: A Divas Christmas” (8 p.m. Saturday, Lifetime, TV-PG). Divorce and plastic surgery jokes abound as five stars from a vintage soap opera reunite for a holiday special.
Look for Loni Anderson (“WKRP in Cincinnati”), Morgan Fairchild (“Falcon Crest”), Linda Gray (“Dallas”), Donna Mills (“Knots Landing”) and Nicollette Sheridan (“Knots Landing” to ham it up as best girlfriends and bitter rivals.
Along the way, they get to play Cupid for the special’s young and cute producer (Travis Burns) and director (Taylor Ann Thompson), who appear to be rekindling an old college flame.
While we’re awash in ’80s nostalgia here, it’s worth noting that both Fairchild and Sheridan were cast in the short-lived cult classic prime-time soap “Paper Dolls.” A fall 1984 series that was canceled on Christmas of that year, it was set in the fashion industry and starred Fairchild as a model agency director. Lloyd Bridges portrayed a harried beauty business executive, some years before playing real estate mogul Harry Helmsley in the deliciously campy 1990 TV movie “Queen of Mean” (Prime Video), starring Suzanne Pleshette as Leona Helmsley.
Sheridan starred as a young model. The show made the most of the glitz and intrigue of the garment industry and toyed with the morality of using very young girls in suggestive outfits and poses. The show introduced Terry Farrell, thinly disguised as a Brooke Shields-type. No stranger to series with cult followings, Farrell later starred on “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” as well as “Becker,” one of Ted Danson’s many hit shows.
— Life can be stranger than fiction, even for masters of storytelling. A popular British historian takes on a woman synonymous with bestselling murder mysteries on “Agatha Christie: Lucy Worsley on the Mystery Queen” (8 p.m., Sunday, PBS, TV-PG, check local listings).
The hour-long profile concentrates on Christie’s (1890-1976) early years and eccentric upbringing. Fully literate at 4 years old, she became a voracious reader, but her mother limited her education to homeschooling and kept her fairly isolated. Her father’s death when she was only 11 rocked the family’s financial security.
While Christie made a literary breakthrough in 1920 with “The Mysterious Affair at Styles,” she had been submitting short stories and novels to publishers from a young age and had decades of rejection letters. Her wartime work as a nurse put her in an apothecary and gave her a working knowledge of poisons and antidotes, quite the training for a mystery writer.
Before her literary success, Christie saw the failure of her marriage and in 1926, well into her fame, she vanished for a short period, sparking a massive manhunt and international headlines. This peculiar interlude went unmentioned in Christie’s memoirs, but has generated nearly a century of speculation and inspired the 1979 British movie “Agatha,” starring Vanessa Redgrave, Dustin Hoffman and Timothy Dalton.
— The 2023 documentary “Eddy’s World” will appear on select PBS stations and stream on PBS.org and the PBS app beginning on Saturday. The documentary short profiles Eddy Goldfarb. Now 102 years old, this World War II veteran is the man behind many beloved toys and devices, including Chattering Teeth, Kerplunk, Vac-U-Form, the Bubble Gun and more than 800 other playthings. Now in his second century, Eddy is at work on his 3-D printer dreaming up distractions for yet another generation.
SATURDAY’S HIGHLIGHTS
— Friends save Christmas in the animated special “Reindeer in Here” (8 p.m., CBS, r, TV-G).
— Michigan and Iowa State meet in the Big Ten Football Championship (8 p.m., Fox).
— Louisville and Florida State meet in the ACC Football Championship (8 p.m., ABC).
— “Planet Earth III” (8 p.m., BBC America, TV-PG) surveys the world’s forests.
— Ralphie (Peter Billingsley) recalls his late 1930s holiday in the 1983 comedy “A Christmas Story” (8 p.m., TBS) and then tries to re-create the magic in his adult years in the 2022 sequel “A Christmas Story Christmas” (10 p.m., TBS).
— A journalist in search of a regal interview encounters a dashing imposter in the 2023 romance “A Not So Royal Christmas” (8 p.m., Hallmark, TV-G).
— Santa’s sled looms large in “Robbie the Reindeer in Hooves of Fire” (9 p.m., CBS, TV-G) and its sequel “Robbie the Reindeer in Legend of the Lost Tribe” (9:30 p.m.).
— Emma Stone hosts “Saturday Night Live” (11:30 p.m., NBC, TV-14), featuring musical guest Noah Kahan.
SUNDAY’S HIGHLIGHTS
— “60 Minutes” (7 p.m., CBS).
— At the time Tim Allen starred in the 1994 comedy “The Santa Clause” (8 p.m., ABC, TV-PG), his TV series “Home Improvement” was in the top 10 and his book “Don’t Stand Too Close to a Naked Man” was on the bestseller list. It has been reported that Allen is open to the idea of a “Home Improvement” reboot with Tim (Allen) and Al (Richard Karn) as grandparents.
— The Green Bay Packers host the Kansas City Chiefs in NFL Football action (8:15 p.m., NBC).
— Labor strife looms in Pittsburgh on “The Gilded Age” (9 p.m., HBO, TV-MA).
— Secrets follow former lovers well into the 1970s on “Fellow Travelers” (9 p.m., Showtime, TV-MA).
— Good news arrives with a caveat on “The Curse” (10 p.m., Showtime, TV-MA).
— Robert Eggers (“The Witch,” “The Lighthouse”) directs the 2022 Viking epic “The Northman” (9 p.m., Starz), starring Alexander Skarsgard.
CULT CHOICE
Directed by Rob Reiner and written by Nora Ephron, the 1989 comedy “When Harry Met Sally” (9:30 p.m., Bravo, TV-14) helped redefine the notion of romantic comedies by playing with the idea that longtime friends (Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan) might become lovers. In a way, it puts a happier and more mainstream spin on themes explored in Woody Allen’s 1977 masterpiece “Annie Hall” and paved the way for the 1992 comedy “Four Weddings and a Funeral” (8 p.m. Sunday, TCM). The sitcom “Seinfeld,” launched just a year after “Sally,” further tweaks the notion, turning casual lovers into friends.
SATURDAY SERIES
Two episodes of “Dateline” (8 p.m. and 9 p.m., NBC, r) …”48 Hours” (10 p.m., CBS) … Keke Palmer and SZA appear on a 2022 helping of “Saturday Night Live” (10 p.m., NBC, r, TV-14).
SUNDAY SERIES
On two episodes of “Yellowstone” (CBS, r, TV-MA): a showdown with the Becks (8 p.m.); circling the Dutton wagons (9 p.m.) … Tyrannis is inhabited by his grandfather’s spirit on “Krapopolis” (8 p.m., Fox, TV-14) … Groundskeeper Willie returns to Scotland on “The Simpsons” (8:30 p.m., Fox, TV-PG).
A documentary crew follows Louise on “Bob’s Burgers” (9 p.m., Fox, TV-PG) … Meg’s new cookies feature a secret ingredient on “Family Guy” (9:30 p.m., Fox, TV-14).
A hiker needs rescuing on “Fire Country” (10 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14) … Three families compete on “The Great Christmas Light Fight” (10 p.m., ABC, TV-PG).
