Weekend TV : Networks and Independents Do Battle for Ratings With Classic and New Movies

Television’s February ratings sweeps are always a favored time for movie buffs, and this weekend is no exception.

The three networks will battle it out for viewers Sunday night with two new TV movies and one of the most popular theatrical releases of all time. NBC (4)(36)(39) will trot out reliable Raymond Burr at 9 p.m. in yet another installment of “Perry Mason,” this one “The Case of the Lethal Lesson.” CBS (2)(8) counters with Sharon Gless in “The Outside Woman,” a true-life story of a woman who falls in love with a prison inmate.

Meanwhile, ABC (7)(3)(10)(42) will reap the benefits of Harrison Ford’s swashbuckling shenanigans in “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”

KTLA Channel 5 will go with a movie lineup of sequels Sunday that includes “The Black Stallion Returns” at 6 p.m. and “Pyscho III” at 8 p.m. KHJ-TV Channel 9 counters with “Under Fire,” the 1983 film set in revolutionary Nicaragua that stars Nick Nolte, Gene Hackman and Joanna Cassidy, at 7 p.m. Sunday.

And KCOP Channel 13 offers up the crown jewel of them all, “Casablanca,” starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, at 8 p.m. Sunday.