FRIDAY’S BEST PICKS
8:30 AM (TMC) MOVIE Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure Slacker dudes Bill and Ted (Alex Winter, Keanu Reeves) have a lot riding on their final history report. For one thing, if Ted flunks history, he’s off to military school in Alaska. But thanks to a mysterious stranger and a time machine, the boys deliver a presentation that knocks everyone’s socks off, complete with actual historical figures from Socrates to Sigmund Freud. George Carlin also stars in this 1989 comedy classic.
7:30 PM (ESPN) NBA Basketball Two beasts of the East come to loggerheads in the opener of tonight’s TNT doubleheader, as Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers defend home hardwood from Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks. That’s followed in the late game that pits Jalen Brunson and the New York Knicks against Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors in California.
8PM (FX) MOVIE Bad Boys for Life Will Smith and Martin Lawrence return to their familiar roles as Detective Lts. Mike Lowery and Marcus Burnett, respectively, in this 2020 action comedy from the directing team of Adil & Bilall. This third installment in the “Bad Boys” trilogy follows the police duo as they pursue — and are pursued by — Armando Armas (Jacob Scipio), the vengeful son of a dead cartel kingpin. Vanessa Hudgens and Alexander Ludwig also star. 8PM (HALL) MOVIE Inventing the Christmas Prince It seems the holidays are the perfect time to manifest your dreams. Shelby (Tamera Mowry-Housley) is about to quit her job as a rocket engineer when her daughter becomes convinced that her Scrooge-like boss, Evan (Ronnie Rowe Jr.), is the Christmas prince from a story Shelby made up a few years ago in this 2022 romance. Isabel Birch and Dan Zukovic also star.
8PM (LIFE) MOVIE A Country Christmas Harmony Before Chrissy Kessler’s (Brooke Elliott) meteoric rise to fame, the country music superstar was just a small-town girl with big dreams. Now, with her record sales plummeting, she must return to her hometown for a live Christmas concert. But when she runs into her exboyfriend and former country music duo partner, Luke (Brandon Quinn), whom she abandoned to pursue her solo career, his life is turned upside down. But a storm helps the two realize that the only way they’ll survive the holidays is with each other in this 2022 holiday romance. 8PM (TCM) MOVIE Christmas in Connecticut A successful lifestyle journalist (Barbara Stanwyck) is lauded by her readers as the sweetest, most efficient homemaker in the countryside. Problem is, Elizabeth (Stanwyck) is a chain-smoking urbanite in a city apartment. When her boss suggests she host a soldier on leave for the holidays, she needs to come up with a home, child and cooking skills fast! Dennis Morgan and S.Z. Sakall co-star in the 1945 romantic comedy.
9PM ^ Next at the Kennedy Center The timeless and genre-defying influence of Joni Mitchell’s artistry is celebrated with an all-star lineup at the Kennedy Center, accompanied by the National Symphony Orchestra. This heartfelt tribute to the folk and jazz music legend reflects upon Mitchell’s orchestral recordings of “Both Sides Now” and “Travelogue,” which realized a meditative and hauntingly expressive tone to Mitchell’s seminal works. This new special features performances by Lalah Hathaway, Renée Fleming, Jimmie Herrod, Raul Midón, and Aoife O’Donovan.