Netflix streams the 2023 documentary profile “The Saint of Second Chances.” Co-directed by Academy Award-winner Morgan Neville (“20 Feet From Stardom”) and Jeff Malmberg (“Marwencol”), it profiles Mike Veeck, the son of Hall of Fame Baseball owner Bill Veeck.
Over his career, the elder Veeck helped introduce baseball to razzle-dazzle, hype and stunts like animal mascots, theme nights and contests. As a young man, Mike Veeck put on the most notorious theme night in baseball history. On July 29, 1979, the Chicago White Sox held “Disco Demolition Night,” inviting fans to bring their disco records to Comiskey Park to shatter them between games of a scheduled double-header. Exceeding all expectations, it resulted in a riot involving more than 10,000 drunken fans invading the field and a forfeited second game.
“Second Chances” follows Mike Veeck over time as he tries to redeem himself, work himself back into a baseball promotional world that he loves and restore his family’s good name. Jeff Daniels narrates this feel-good tale about hype and its excess in the service of America’s pastime.
— PBS imports the three-part BBC2 series “Becoming Frida Kahlo” (9 p.m., TV-14, check local listings), a miniseries profile of a legendary artist whose posthumous fame almost obscures her difficult efforts to emerge as an independent woman and painter in 20th-century Mexico, America and Europe.
Part one explores her youth in Mexico, when she was afflicted by childhood polio and involved in a bus accident at 18 that left her injured and disfigured. Kahlo’s health issues and estrangement from her body would loom large in paintings, where she sometimes represented herself as detached from her bones and organs or as an empty set of clothes.
Her life and career were both enhanced and circumscribed by her marriage to painter, muralist and notable Mexican communist Diego Rivera. Her first show of paintings in New York turned heads in 1938, but would not have taken place were it not for her connections. At the time, Rivera was a kind of superstar and martyr, perhaps best known to Americans for having his Rockefeller Center murals painted over because of content too sympathetic to Marx and Lenin.
Rivera’s star may have shown bright in the 1930s, but his politics make him seem a bit of a relic today. In contrast, Kahlo’s ability to explore personal agony and turn her internal narrative into a kind of religious iconography speaks to an era where the personal has transcended the political.
— Commemorating the 50th anniversary of the hip hop musical genre, Hulu streams the 2023 documentary “The Defiant Ones,” profiling the decades-long friendship and collaboration between rapper Dr. Dre and producer Jimmy Iovine.
TONIGHT’S OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
— A trucker’s murder points to international intrigue on “FBI” (8 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14).
— An American basketball star dies mysteriously while playing in Europe on “FBI: International” (9 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14).
— Storms threaten disaster at a county fair on “9-1-1: Lone Star” (9 p.m., Fox, r, TV-14).
— A missing teen may have been recruited by a dangerous agent on “FBI: Most Wanted” (10 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14).
— Ben helps save a family’s Indian restaurant on “Quantum Leap” (10 p.m., NBC, r, TV-PG). A second season of new episodes of “Leap” will arrive on Oct. 4.
— “Independent Lens” (10 p.m., PBS, TV-14, check local listings) presents the documentary “Sanson and Me,” the story of an incarcerated undocumented immigrant.
— The perfect red dress brings out something horrifying in each owner in the 2018 comedy/shocker “In Fabric” (10:15 p.m., TMCX).
CULT CHOICE
Directed by Charles Laughton and written by James Agee, the 1955 thriller “The Night of the Hunter” (10 p.m., TCM, TV-PG) stars Robert Mitchum as a serial killer disguised as a preacher. Using visual styles unseen since the silent era, the film is fittingly narrated by Lilian Gish, who also appears. One of three movies, including “A Place in the Sun” and “The Poseidon Adventure,” that feature a character played by Shelley Winters who dies by drowning.
SERIES NOTES
The home audience judges 11 performances on “America’s Got Talent” (8 p.m., NBC, TV-PG) … “Name That Tune” (8 p.m., Fox, TV-PG) … “Celebrity Family Feud” (8 p.m., ABC, TV-PG) concludes its ninth season … “Jeopardy! Masters” (9 p.m., ABC, r, TV-PG) … “The Chase” (10 p.m., ABC, r, TV-PG).
LATE NIGHT
Due to the Writers Guild strike, all late-night shows are repeats.
Jimmy Fallon welcomes Kim Kardashian, Hannah Einbinder, Mo Willems and Paris Jackson on “The Tonight Show” (11:35 p.m., NBC) … Hilary Duff and Kim Petras visit “Late Night With Seth Meyers” (12:35 a.m., NBC) … “Comics Unleashed With Byron Allen” (12:35 a.m., CBS) hosts a rotating panel of comedians.
