Showtime adds a new documentary to its classic rock collection. “Lynyrd Skynyrd: If I Leave Here Tomorrow” (9 p.m. Saturday, TV-14) recalls the band at the center of the 1970s Southern Rock scene in a film as shaggy, informed and affectionate as any fan could desire.
It concentrates on the band’s first incarnation, before the 1977 plane crash that killed lead singer Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines and his sister, Cassie Gaines, a vocalist for the band.
Mostly narrated by original member Gary Rossington, it often unfolds like a family home movie. Essentially, it’s about a group of boys from the mossy Deep South who came together as teenagers, sharing adolescent milestones and a goofy slang all their own.
Rich in period footage and personal movies and photographs, “If I Leave” even sheds new light on the origin of the band’s name.
While it has been well established that Lynyrd Skynyrd was a disrespectful variation on the name of a stern high school gym teacher, Rossington offers a new detail. Like most goofy guys at the time, they were obsessed with the 1963 Allan Sherman comedy song “Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh.” One of its many silly lyrics include, “You remember Leonard Skinner; He got ptomaine poisoning last night after dinner.” Skinner became a standard of their group banter. Only later, when they found out that they had a teacher/tormenter with the same name did they realize that fate had given them the moniker for their emerging band!
It’s curious that we’re talking about Skynyrd some 40 years after the original band’s tragic end. I’m hard-pressed to recall pop artifacts from 1937 that were obsessed over in the late 1970s. A staple of classic rock radio, Skynyrd arrived when rock had already reached a mature, self-referential phase. Their two best-known songs are about other musicians. “Free Bird” mourns Duane Allman, and “Sweet Home Alabama” offers a spirited retort to Neil Young’s polemical “Southern Man.” The time of the band’s plane crash coincided with the rise of punk, when rock music returned to fast and furious two-minute records as opposed to “Free Bird,” a nine-minute single that could go on forever when performed live.
— Even the people behind “Sharknado” want the phenomenon to end. Why else call it “The Last Sharknado: It’s About Time” (8 p.m. Sunday, Syfy, TV-14)? Few experiences are as review-proof and filled with stunt-casting spoilers as a “Sharknado” movie, so the less said about it the better.
Suffice it to say that this time, Fin (Ian Ziering) and his cohorts (Tara Reid, Cassandra Scerbo, Vivica A. Fox and Judah Friedlander) travel back in time to stop the first Sharknado in order to save the world. They throw all time-travel cliches and conundrums to the wind. OK, if you change the past, you might change reality so that you never existed. But the world was wrecked at the end of “Sharknado 5,” so what’s the diff?
The film begins with rapid-fire references to “2001” and “Jurassic Park” before the time travelers disembark for other periods, turning history itself into an amusement park. Look for plenty of blink-and-you-missed-them cameos before the franchise runs out of “Time.” Or does it?
SATURDAY’S HIGHLIGHTS
— The makers of “Sesame Street” introduce the new educational cartoon “Esme & Roy” (9:30 a.m., HBO, TV-Y).
— A bad tax adviser loots her clients’ accounts on “Pink Collar Crimes” (8 p.m., CBS, TV-PG).
— Fates rise and fall with souffles on “MasterChef” (8 p.m., Fox, r, TV-14).
— A colleague suggests Shaun visit with a therapist on “The Good Doctor” (8 p.m., ABC, r, TV-14).
— A newlywed discovers that her perfect husband has an evil twin in the 2017 shocker “Married to a Murderer” (8 p.m., Lifetime, TV-14).
SUNDAY’S HIGHLIGHTS
— Scheduled on “60 Minutes” (7 p.m., CBS): war crimes in Syria; grandparents raising the children of their addicted offspring; an ecumenical concert.
— Live coverage of Women’s U.S. Gymnastics Championships (8 p.m., NBC).
— “The 2000s” (9 p.m., CNN) explores how the 1999 introduction of Napster disrupted the music industry.
— A family takes “off the grid” living to extremes on the eighth season premiere of “Alaskan Bush People” (9 p.m., Discovery).
— Alicia’s past won’t stay buried on “Fear the Walking Dead” (9 p.m., AMC, TV-MA).
— Camille opens herself up to one suspect as we discover more about a likely killer on the second-to-last episode of “Sharp Objects” (9 p.m., HBO, TV-MA).
— A figure from the past appears in Princeton on the season finale of “The Affair” (9 p.m., Showtime, TV-MA).
— “The History of Comedy” (10 p.m., CNN) looks at family-friendly fare.
— Harlee faces police brass on the series finale of “Shades of Blue” (10 p.m., NBC, TV-14).
— Issa gets financial advice on “Insecure” (10:30 p.m., HBO, TV-MA).
— ID returns to the familiar with “Pamela Smart: An American Murder Mystery” (10 p.m., TV-14).
CULT CHOICE
A departing soldier (Robert Walker) falls for a stranger (Judy Garland) he meets in a train station under “The Clock” (10 a.m. Sunday, TCM). Directed by Vincente Minnelli, who married Garland in 1945, the year of this film’s release. TCM devotes all of Sunday to Garland’s movies.
SATURDAY SERIES
The quarterfinals of “America’s Got Talent” (8 p.m., NBC, r, TV-PG) … Two episodes of “48 Hours” (9 p.m., CBS) … A two-hour “20/20” (9 p.m., ABC) … “Dateline” (10 p.m., NBC).
SUNDAY SERIES
Julie Chen hosts “Big Brother” (8 p.m., CBS) … Danish medicine on “The Simpsons” (8 p.m., Fox, r, TV-PG) … Playing for charity on “Celebrity Family Feud” (8 p.m., ABC, r, TV-PG) … On two helpings of “Bob’s Burgers” (Fox, r, TV-PG), new friends (8:30 p.m.), a surprise party (9:30 p.m.).
Sebastian is questioned by the feds on “NCIS: New Orleans” (9 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14) … Bulls and bears on “Family Guy” (9 p.m., Fox, r, TV-14) … Michael Strahan hosts “The $100,000 Pyramid” (9 p.m., ABC, TV-14) … Homeland Security helps solve a case on “NCIS: Los Angeles” (10 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14) … Anthony Anderson hosts “To Tell the Truth” (10 p.m., ABC, TV-PG).
(Kevin McDonough can be reached at [email protected].)
