Weekend TV : Classic Movies Worth Staying Home for . . . and Talk About Politics, Politics, Politics

One reason so many people go to the movies in the summer is there is so little to watch on television. But this weekend there are a few movies worth staying home for.

Three classics light up the small screen today. William Wyler’s 1958 big-scale Western, “The Big Country,” unfolds at noon on Channel 13. Peter Sellers follows as Inspector Clouseau in Blake Edwards’ “A Shot in the Dark” at 3 p.m. on Channel 5. And George Cukor’s “Holiday,” one of Hollywood’s best romantic comedies starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant, tops off the day at 10 p.m. on Channel 28.

On Sunday, Cary Grant returns in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1959 masterpiece, “North by Northwest,” at 2:30 p.m. (13). Gene Wilder lightens things up at 8 p.m. on Channel 13 with the sexy comedy “The Woman in Red.” And Burt Reynolds finishes off the weekend at 9 p.m. on ABC in “Starting Over,” Alan J. Pakula’s movie of one man’s attempt to cope with feminism, divorce and sexual mores.

Fans of more serious drama will have to wait until 11 p.m. Sunday when Channel 28 presents the debut of “Between the Wars,” a 16-part series that documents American and European history from the World War I Armistice to the bombing of Pearl Harbor.