Basketball; comedy burnoffs; a glance ahead at June

2019---- On a night dominated by basketball playoffs, NBC offers double helpings of two comedies it hasn't yet canceled. On two episodes of "A.P. Bio" (TV-14), Jack loses his phone plan (8 p.m.), and needs a new computer (8:30 p.m.). On "Abby's" (TV-PG), familiar faces fill a backyard bar (9 p.m.), and submit to the owner's arcane rules (9:30 p.m.). It's doubtful either series will return. Or be missed.

-- The NBA finals aren't the only competition on the dial. Young people hope to make their name in the final round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee (8:30 p.m., ESPN).

Some of these champion spellers aren't that far removed from their days of watching "Sesame Street," home to Big Bird, who appears on "Lip Sync Battle" (10 p.m., Paramount, TV-PG), where he'll face off with actor Jason Schwartzman ("Rushmore").

Also on Paramount, the cable incarnation of ABC's old "Wife Swap" (9 p.m., TV-PG) sees a conservative stay-at-home wife of a military veteran change places with a businesswoman in a same-sex marriage. Few series have confronted participants from both sides of America's cultural divide quite like "Wife Swap."

Paramount's biggest show, "Yellowstone," starring Kevin Costner as the patriarch of a vast ranching family, returns June 19. Not just a hit for Paramount, it was the most-watched new cable series of 2018.

Other series returning in June include AMC's "Fear the Walking Dead" (June 2); the stateside airing of "Luther" on BBC America (June 2); Hulu's "The Handmaid's Tale" (June 5); "Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City" (hitting Netflix on June 7); HBO's "Big Little Lies" (June 9); FX's "Pose" (June 11); TV Land's "Younger" (June 12); the CBS All Access drama "Strange Angel" (June 13); the CBS drama "Instinct," starring Alan Cumming (June 16), and Comedy Central's "Drunk History" (June 18).

Sundance Now's "Riviera" returns on June 20. Look for the third season of FX's trippy "Legion" on June 24. CBS's "Big Brother" seals its guests indoors on June 25.

That's quite a few returning favorites for June, a month once known for having "nothing" worth watching.

An older cable favorite is returning in full-length movie form. The HBO film adaptation of "Deadwood" arrives tomorrow night, starring Ian McShane.

-- Following up on its Memorial Day marathon, TCM airs films dedicated to the difficult readjustment of returning veterans, including "The Best Years of Our Lives" (8 p.m., TV-PG); "Till the End of Time" (1:15 a.m., TV-G) and "Pride of the Marines" (3:15 a.m., TV-G).

Actors like Robert Mitchum ("End of Time") and John Garfield ("Pride") demonstrated how wartime and postwar audiences rejected pretty faces and gravitated to flawed men who might have been to hell and back.

Leading ladies changed as well, as personified by 19-year-old Lauren Bacall's sultry walk and saucy patter in director Howard Hawks' 1944 adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's "To Have and Have Not" (3:45 p.m., TCM, TV-G).

TONIGHT'S OTHER HIGHLIGHTS

-- "Jimmy Kimmel Live" (8 p.m.ABC, TV-14) and "NBA Countdown" (8:30 p.m.) anticipate the "2019 NBA Finals" (9 p.m.).

-- Liv channels Ferris Bueller on "iZombie" (8 p.m., CW, TV-14).

-- A flawed congressman (Tom Hanks) enlists a powerbroker (Julia Roberts) and a spy (Philip Seymour Hoffman) to help Afghan rebels fight the Soviets in the 2007 historical drama "Charlie Wilson's War" (9:10 p.m., Starz), directed by Mike Nichols.

-- Holmes and Watson follow a U.S. investigation from London on "Elementary" (10 p.m., CBS, TV-14).

-- Kitchen confidential on "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (10 p.m., NBC, r, TV-14).

CULT CHOICE

Matthew Modine, Adam Baldwin and Vincent D'Onofrio star in director Stanley Kubrick's 1987 Vietnam War drama "Full Metal Jacket" (9 p.m., Showtime).

SERIES NOTES

Adventures in baby-sitting on "The Big Bang Theory" (8 p.m., CBS, r, TV-PG) ... Frisky exhibitionists pair up just to avoid eviction from "Paradise Hotel" (8 p.m., Fox, TV-14) ... Fusion and confusion on "Young Sheldon" (8:30 p.m., CBS, r, TV-PG) ... Christy feels burdened on "Mom" (9 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14) ... Relationship issues on "In the Dark" (9 p.m., CW, TV-14) ... Greg misplaces Lark on "Life in Pieces" (9:30 p.m., CBS, TV-PG).

LATE NIGHT

John Bradley appears on "Conan" (11 p.m., TBS, r, TV-14) ... Gayle King, Anthony Mason, Tony Dokoupil, Pete Holmes and the National are booked on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" (11:35 p.m., CBS, r) ... Jimmy Fallon welcomes Will Smith, Laurie Metcalf and Phil Hanley on "The Tonight Show" (11:35 p.m., NBC, r) ... Sharon Osbourne, Sam Richardson and Ryan Conner appear on "The Late Late Show With James Corden" (12:35 a.m., CBS, r).

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