“The American Buffalo” (8 p.m., PBS, TV-14, check local listings) concludes with the story of the animal’s near extinction and remarkable rescue. A coalition of former hunters, Native Americans and conservationists would create preserves for some of the remaining buffalo. From a herd of only 77 animals assembled in the early 20th century, some 350,000 buffalo roam in America today.
The story of the buffalo’s preservation is filled with paradoxes. Some of the animal’s greatest champions were former hunters who had thought little of slaughtering them in their youth. Teddy Roosevelt, long associated with hunting, would create the first bison preserve as president.
While Indigenous tribes would play a leading role in preserving buffalo and reintegrating them into their grazing lands, some of the buffalo’s more notable champions would draw disturbing lessons from their conservation efforts.
Figures including William Temple Hornaday would help in the efforts; Hornaday went on to found the Bronx Zoo. He and Madison Grant, another early 20th-century zoologist, ethnologist and conservationist, would popularize theories about the “thinning of the herd,” equating the decline of noble animals like the buffalo and Western elk with “the passing of the white race,” a popularly held fear that “inferior” people from southern and eastern Europe were displacing and diluting the American “stock” of Anglo-Saxons and Teutonic people, members that these conservationists deemed a “master race.”
Such notions might be dismissed as a product of the early decades of the 20th century, when science was easily contorted to promote popular racism. But such feelings endure. They were echoed only last week, when former President Trump took time out from battling 91 felony indictments to claim that immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country.”
— “Dark Side of Comedy” (10 p.m., Vice, TV-14) enters its second season with a profile of comedian Robin Williams, a man who made no secret of his addictions and demons and whose suicide shocked the entertainment world. Dave Foley (“Kids in the Hall”) narrates. Foley will star in the forthcoming fifth incarnation of “Fargo,” returning on FX on Nov. 21.
— Streaming on Paramount+, the documentary “Crush” asks viewers to experience firsthand the actions of young people who traveled to South Korea to participate in a world-famous Halloween event, a celebration enhanced by the notion of freedom from COVID fears and restrictions. The fun vibes would change in an instant when the throng grew too intense, and 159 revelers died in the melee that left nearly 200 injured.
— “Navajo Police: Class 57” (9 p.m., HBO, TV-MA) documents a new class of officers enlisted to serve in the vast desert stretches of Navajo Nation. Its enormous size and sparse population make the region well-suited to criminal activity. A history of displacement and betrayals have also inspired a cultural distrust of authority that undercuts officers’ effectiveness.
“Police” joins a number of recent dramas exploring these themes, including “Dark Winds” and “Longmire.”
— MTV sends up several TV genres with the Halloween horror spoof “Binged to Death” (9 p.m., TV-14), about two obsessive reality-TV fans who kidnap participants in dating shows they suspect of “betraying” them and their ideas of true love. There isn’t a moment of subtlety here, but that’s kind of the point.
— Making scary use of fading footage and reenactments, “The Devil on Trial” streams on Netflix, purporting to document the only time that demonic possession was used as a defense tactic in an actual criminal trial.
TONIGHT’S OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
— A snob (Kelsey Grammer) returns to Boston to reconnect with his estranged son who has rejected his posh pedigree to become a fireman on two episodes of “Frasier” (9:15 p.m. and 9:50 p.m. CBS, TV-PG).
— “FBI True” (10:20 p.m., CBS, TV-14) recalls the search for the Golden State Killer.
— A doorman tips off the team to a missing widower on “Found” (10 p.m., NBC, TV-14).
CULT CHOICE
Former A-list stars Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland and Joseph Cotten star in the campy 1964 shocker “Hush … Hush, Sweet Charlotte” (10 p.m., TCM).
SERIES NOTES
“Big Brother” (8 p.m., CBS, TV-PG) … “The Voice” (8 p.m., NBC, TV-PG) … “Name That Tune” (8 p.m., Fox, TV-PG) … “Dancing With the Stars” (8 p.m., ABC, TV-14).
Owen’s wired sit-down with O’Brien ends awkwardly on “9-1-1: Lone Star” (9 p.m., Fox, r, TV-14) … “Press Your Luck” (10 p.m., ABC, TV-PG).
LATE NIGHT
Jimmy Fallon welcomes Paris Hilton and Jared Freid on “The Tonight Show” (11:35 p.m., NBC) … Josh Gad and Ayesha Nurdjaja visit “Late Night With Seth Meyers” (12:35 a.m., NBC).
