In the underrated 1988 Tequila Sunrise (NBC...

In the underrated 1988 Tequila Sunrise (NBC Sunday at 8:30 p.m.) writer-director Robert Towne draws upon his wry Chandleresque view of Los Angeles, as he did in his scripts for “Chinatown” and “Two Jakes,” to define a keenly observed contemporary tale of moral ambiguity involving a disturbingly complex and equivocal drug dealer (Mel Gibson), his high-school pal now a cop (Kurt Russell) and a beautiful restaurateur (Michelle Pfeiffer).

A Stranger in Town (CBS Sunday at 9 p.m.), adapted by Ara Watson and Sam Blackwell from a play bt R.T. Marcus, quickly sets up a confrontation between a small-town single white woman, Kay Tarses (Jean Smart), and the mysterious black man named Barnes (Gregory Hines) who shows up at the door of her small Southern farmhouse. At first, the 1995 TV movie plays like a quietly tense study of fears and stereotypes. Under Peter Levin’s direction Smart plays her part very well, regardless of what she is required to do in the role.

Mike Myers, who put heavy metal into comedy and “not” into the lexicon, shows up again, all grown up and facing the murderous frontier of marriage, in So I Married an Axe Murderer (Fox Monday at 8 p.m.) a comedy about fear of marriage, fear of sex and fear of commitment. Nancy Travis plays a butcher, and possible serial killer, who ensnares Myers’ Frisco yuppie.

The Thin Man (KCET Saturday at 9 p.m.) is a key ‘30s film, a sparkling 1934 comedy-mystery derived from the Dashiell Hammett mystery and directed by W.S. Van Dyke. It dared to suggest that a sophisticated married couple, Nick and Nora Charles (William Powell and Myrna Loy) could have fun with each other.

In the 1939 Another Thin Man (KCET Saturday at 10:35 p.m.), third in the series, the effortlessly effervescent Powell and Loy and a sharp supporting cast are all but overwhelmed by a tedious, impenetrably complicated plot, involving the murder of Nora’s late father’s business partner (C. Aubrey Smith).