Network television’s wayback machine reaches all the way back to "College Bowl" (10 p.m., NBC, TV-PG). A genial Peyton Manning hosts this academic reboot of a quiz show pitting panels of three scholars from different colleges or universities against each other. Contestants play for scholarship money as well as institutional bragging rights.
The quiz rivalry kicks off with a battle of brains between two Alabama rivals, the University of Alabama and Auburn, teams that meet annually in the Iron Bowl football game, a post-Thanksgiving tradition that dates back to 1893.
Not quite as vintage, "College Bowl" is a product of television’s infancy. Based on a radio show and developed in Canada in the postwar era, it provided an early job for future TV legend Grant Tinker. In the United States, "College Bowl" aired on CBS from 1959 to 1963 and on NBC from 1963 to 1970. YouTube has no shortage of clips of crew-cutted brainiacs and pert young co-eds showing off their academic prowess.
There’s a great scene from "Diner," Barry Levinson’s 1982 ode to 1959 Baltimore, when Kevin Bacon’s heavy-drinking character displays a surprising mastery of "College Bowl" questions, something his gambling pals find potentially useful.
Old and new, the accent on "Bowl" is academic, so it’s more likely to pose questions about history, literature, chemistry and insect science than popular culture. Unlike "Jeopardy!," now in search of a new host to replace the late Alex Trebek, "Bowl" doesn’t ask players to contort their answers into a question. Manning’s older brother, Cooper, serves as sidekick and offers comic relief in the form of mangled answers and misinterpretations. Peyton pretty much plays it straight.
"College Bowl" dates back to the time when a show’s sponsors were included in its title. For its early incarnation, it was "GE’s College Bowl." Perhaps as a symbol of how finance has usurped manufacturing in our nation’s economy in the decades since the original, the new installment is officially called "Capital One’s College Bowl."
— Now entering its second season, you’ve got to hand "Motherland: Fort Salem" (10 p.m., Freeform, TV-14) credit for imaginative contrivance.
While many supernatural series follow templates set down by comic books, "Motherland" offers a peculiar variation on American history, a story of a young nation that made a deal with its witches. It would stop persecuting them in exchange for protection provided by an army of Amazons. Three centuries later, these enchanted enlisted women gather in a kind of Wiccan West Point, a place steeped in tradition and shot through with rivalries centuries in the making. Help yourself.
— The four-hour series "Mysteries of Mental Illness" (9 p.m. and 10 p.m., PBS, TV-14, check local listings) takes a survey approach to a vast subject, touching on the history of treatment dating back to ancient times, when ailments of the mind were seen as the act of devils and evil spirits. It examines a centuries-long look at the notion of "normal behavior," and focuses on individual cases, such as an Olympic-level boxer who demonstrates remarkable focus in the ring, but whose obsessive-compulsive disorder keeps her from performing simple acts like brushing her teeth without elaborate rituals that some might find disturbing.
TONIGHT’S OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
— A family seeks safe haven as an asteroid threatens life on Earth in the 2020 thriller "Greenland" (8 p.m., HBO).
— Masked intruders on "FBI" (9 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14).
— The search for a serial killer on "FBI: Most Wanted" (10 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14).
CULT CHOICE
— Matt Damon, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Cate Blanchett and Philip Seymour Hoffman star in director Anthony Minghella’s 1999 adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel of homicidal social climbing, "The Talented Mr. Ripley" (9 p.m., MoMax).
SERIES NOTES
Torres meets his estranged father on "NCIS" (8 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14) … "America’s Got Talent" (8 p.m., NBC, TV-PG) … Will Arnett hosts "Lego Masters" (8 p.m., Fox, TV-PG) … A sudden wedding on "The Goldbergs" (8 p.m., ABC, r, TV-PG) … Shrinking Ultraviolet on "The Flash" (8 p.m., CW, TV-PG) … Exhausting exes on "Home Economics" (8:30 p.m., ABC, r, TV-PG).
Rob Lowe hosts "Mental Samurai" (9 p.m., Fox, TV-PG) … Darlene’s awkward situation on "The Conners" (9 p.m., ABC, r, TV-PG) … Clark’s startling discovery on "Superman & Lois" (9 p.m., CW, TV-PG) … Dre lectures on "black-ish" (9:30 p.m., ABC, r, TV-14) … "To Tell the Truth" (10 p.m., ABC, r, TV-PG).
LATE NIGHT
Jimmy Fallon welcomes Vin Diesel, Riley Keough and Modest Mouse on "The Tonight Show" (11:35 p.m., NBC) … Graham Norton, Zosia Mamet and Brandon Taylor visit "Late Night With Seth Meyers" (12:35 a.m., NBC).
