What's On Tonight (Sunday): Robot Chicken is still alive!

Robot Chicken

Happy Independence Day to the Cape Verde citizens! For a cult favorite that has been on since I was in college, you'd think Robot Chicken would've already been Top Pick at some point in our history. Erik Adams loved him some Adult Swim show back in WOTs earlier days. Nevertheless, it wasn't until tonight, in the year of our Lord, 2020, that the 15-year-old six-time Emmy-winner Robot Chicken achieved the Top Pick honor. The series is a mish-mash of skits parodying people and things in pop culture, making a lot of them a product of the time. It can be a really amusing show. The title sequence has change over the years as the Robot Chicken has evolved and eventually even dethawed. This season's new title sequence features a nerd being cyborg'd.

Elsewhere, Desus Nice and The Kid Mero move to Sunday nights, the Good Witch is done being good, History seeks out America's Defining Hours, Showtime's crime docuseries Outcry examines Texas, justice, and football, Layton prepares a rebellion, and we meet a Beatles collector.

It's all happening on the Snowpiercer, 1001 cars long, here's what's on television for tonight, Sunday, July 5!

STREAMING & EARLY PRIMETIME

The Untouchables 📺 (Heroes & Icons, 6 p.m.): H&I has abandoned its Sunday afternoon of terrible syndicated shows from the 1990s and 2000s (I'll  have to find other means to finish War of the Worlds) for the landmark '60s drama The Untouchables, which help really put ABC on the map. In this episode, the multi-million dollar business of fruits and veggies coming into NYC is the target of gangsters. Eliot Ness and his Untouchables are on the case!

60 Minutes (CBS, 7 p.m.): Tonight, the 60 gang becomes the 120 gang with profiles the long-term impact of the water crisis on children in Flint, architect Chris Downey on finding a way to keep working after he loses his sight, and tennis player Rafael Nadal. In the second hour, South African gold miners work in some of the world's deepest mines, falconer(!) Lauren McGough hunts with eagles in Mongolia, and the stone statues called moai on Easter Island.

The Dark Knight Rises 🎥 (AMC, 6 p.m.): If you want to see a very different kind of Bane than the one in Harley Quinn.

Doctor Who 📺 (Retro TV, 6 p.m.): On the island of Fang Rock, a shapeshifting alien scout called a Rutan arrives on Earth intending to use the planet as a strategic base in the Rutans' war against the Sontarans.

FOR THE RECORD: It's Okay to Not Be Okay (Netflix, 3 a.m.); Snapped (Oxygen, 6 p.m.)

Doctor Who, "Horror at Fang Rock" (via Tumblr)

🕗 EASTERN / 🕖 CENTRAL

Black Monday (Showtime, 8 p.m.): On election night, Blair makes a risky proposition while Mo and Dawn go on a double date. Keith makes a startling discovery.

Columbo 📺 (MeTV, 8 p.m.): Behavioral psychologist Nicol Williamson whose wife died under suspicious circumstances trains his dogs to kill on command using a telephone.

Driven to the Edge 🎥 (Lifetime, 8 p.m.): Tess is a young fashion designer who develops a strong bond with a fellow passenger during a ride-sharing trip. However, she soon realizes that her new friend has a dark agenda -- making sure Tess never leaves her.

Family Ties 📺 (Antenna TV, 8:30 p.m.): Antenna spends Sunday with the Keatons! Uncle Ned hits Alex in this possibly cringey VSE that is truly lifted tHanks to Tom Hanks and Michael J. Fox.

Lucy Worsley's Royal Myths & Secrets (PBS, 8 p.m.): The myths and secrets that led Marie Antoinette to the guillotine. Remember the Coppola movie with Kirsten Dunst??✔️

THE GUEST LIST:
Hollywood Game Night (NBC, finale): tWitch, D'Arcy Carden and Iliza Shlesinger as they play hilarious party games with Yvette Nicole Brown, Tone Bell and Amanda Seales

FOR THE RECORD: 90 Day Fiancé: Happily Ever After? (TLC); Mystic Britain (Smithsonian Channel); Naked & Afraid XL (Discovery Channel); Renovation Island (HGTV); Sunday Best (BET, premiere); World's Deadliest Weather (The Weather Channel)

Lucy Worsley's Royal Myths & Secrets (via Giphy)

🕘 EASTERN / 🕗 CENTRAL

America: Our Defining Hours, Part 1 (History, 9 p.m.): SERIES PREMIERE. What are those moments that defined who we are as a country? History has ideas. Surviving the "starving time" of the first colonies... battling their mother country for independence... heading out to the frontier and west into the unknown... sparking a resistance to slavery that brings the United States to the brink of civil war.✔️

The Chi (Showtime, 9 p.m.): The Williams family goes into a tailspin. Emmett and Tiff devise a plan to move in with Jada while he gets his new business off the ground. Meanwhile, Ronnie gets a not-so-friendly reminder that his neighborhood has a long memory of his past deeds.

Collector's Call (MeTV, 9:30 p.m.): Rick Lisnek devoted a large part of his life to collecting everything related to The Beatles, including the infamous censored "Butcher" album cover, a rare tin of Beatles talcum powder, a Beatles record player, and some hotel bed sheets on which the band members once slept.

Good Witch (Hallmark Channel, 9 p.m.): SEASON FINALE. Cassie and Martha smudge the mayor's mansion in preparation for her housewarming gala. Abigail and Donovan decide to reunite and put up a final fight against Merriwick-Davenport.

Grantchester (PBS, 9 p.m.): When a young man is found dead and naked out on the Fens, Will and Geordie discover ties to a Cambridge research project experimenting with mind-altering drugs in psychotherapy sessions, but soon wonder if there is still more going on.

Perry Mason (HBO, 9 p.m.): Maynard Barnes goes public with a shocking new development. Mason and Strickland get unauthorized access to physical evidence with help from Virgil, and Mason attempts to extract information from Drake. I hope he does it through supernatural methods to give this miniseries some life.

Snowpiercer (TNT, 9 p.m.): Revolution has finally come and Layton leads the lower classes forward in armed rebellion. Melanie's house of cards collapses and she's in danger of becoming the first casualty.

Yellowstone (Paramount Network, 9 p.m.): Jamie plays cover-up and damage control with Hendon. Gov. Perry (Rick?) hears a multibillion-dollar pitch for a development right on the Yellowstone. Jimmy competes in a rodeo competition.

THE TOPIC & GUEST LIST:
An American Aristocrat's Guide to Great Estates (Smithsonian Channel, finale): Eastnor Castle

FOR THE RECORD: American Monster (Investigation Discovery); Bahamas Life (HGTV); Barnyard Builders (DIY Network); Lone Star Law (Animal Planet, premiere); Married to Medicine Los Angeles (Bravo); Weird Earth (The Weather Channel); Wicked Tuna: Outer Banks (National Geographic); Worst Cooks in America (Food Network)

🕙 EASTERN / 🕘 CENTRAL

Beach Around the World (HGTV, 10 p.m.): SERIES PREMIERE. After the loss of her husband, a woman keeps their traveling traditions alive and feels Belize's Caye Caulker is perfect for the family's future home. She brings her cousin along to find the ideal beach house with enough space for the family of six. So, this is a show about people with waterfront houses. Relatable!

Beecham House (PBS, 10 p.m.): Just as John thinks all is going well, Chandrika visits his room late at night, witnessed by Violet, who tells his mother. Margaret is devastated and makes clear her intentions to leave.

I'll Be Gone in the Dark (HBO, 10 p.m.): "Michelle McNamara reflects on the 1984 murder of her childhood neighbor Kathy Lombardo." Well, duh, HBO!

NOS4A2 (AMC / BBC America, 10 p.m.): Vic McQueen takes the Shorter Way to Haverhill. Lou and Wayne face a terrible threat in her absence. Charlie Manx engages an old friend for a mysterious favor.

Outcry (Showtime, 10 p.m.): SERIES PREMIERE. High school football star Greg Kelley is convicted of molesting a 4-year-old boy and sent to prison for 25 years, but a show of community support for Kelley calls the investigation and conviction into question. The filmmakers seem to be playing it neutral... maybe?✔️

THE TOPIC & GUEST LIST:
Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted (National Geographic): Guyana jungles
The Johnny Cash Show 📺 (getTV): Merle Haggard, Brenda Lee, and Charley Pride (6 May 1970)
Tournament of Laughs (TBS): ?

FOR THE RECORD: Beat Bobby Flay (Food Network); Lost Cities of the Amazon (Science); Naked & Afraid: Foreign Exchange (Discovery Channel); On the Case with Paula Zahn (Investigation Discovery); Smothered (TLC); Top 100 Weather Moments (The Weather Channel)

🕚 EASTERN / 🕙 CENTRAL

Dear John 📺 (Antenna TV, 11 p.m.): The largely forgotten NBC Thursday sitcom Dear John is back on the Antenna TV schedule! [*Matthew Stechel nods*] I have the entire series on my DVR. One day...✔️

Law & Order 📺 (WE, 11 p.m.): During the investigation into a wealthy publisher's death, the victim's daughter (Sarah Paulson) claims to be having a relationship with her mother's new husband.

THE GUEST LIST:
The Johnny Cash Show 📺 (getTV, 11 p.m.): Neil Diamond, Jackie DeShannon, and Dennis Hopper (30 Sep 1970)

FOR THE RECORD: Lakefront Bargain Hunt (HGTV)

💤💤😴💤💤

Mission: Impossible 📺 (MeTV, 3 a.m.): An American intelligence officer has defected to the enemy with the only copy of an encoded top-secret message. The IMF must get to him, get him out, discredit him and recover the message before the enemy can decode it. Steven Hill sits out for most of this episode, so stepping into the action is the limber and athletic Eartha Kitt.✔️

⭐ Robot Chicken (Adult Swim, midnight): Tyrion Lannister learns the true meaning of winter is coming. Blade tries to slice his way into informercials. Inside Out Boy goes to college. The Robot Chicken writers show what happens when Halloween meets Home Alone.

Mission: Impossible, "The Traitor" (via Giphy)

LATE-NIGHT TALK & SATIRE

Desus & Mero (Showtime, 11 p.m.): Jamaal Bowman✔️

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Note: All times are Eastern.
Key Sources: The Futon Critic (outline); Zap2it (descriptions); TV Passport (throwbacks); IMDb (movies)
⭐: Top pick(s)
📺: Throwback
🎥: Movie
✔️: Video/gif/photo included

Happy watching, everyone!