TV This Week for Sept. 1 - 7: ‘Luther’ on BBC America

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This week’s TV Movies

SUNDAY

Hilarity ensues when “TV’s Funniest of the Funniest: A Paley Center for Media Special” counts down the most guffaw-eliciting scenes in sitcom history. 9 p.m. NBC

For the first time ever on a major TV network, it’s the “MDA Show of Strength Telethon” to raise funds for, and awareness of, kids and adults suffering with muscular dystrophy. 9 p.m. ABC

Amen to that! The winner is announced on the two-part season finale of the gospel-singing competition “Sunday Best.” 8 and 9 p.m. BET

MONDAY

Go back to the very beginnings of cinema with “An Edison Album,” “Lumiere’s First Picture Shows” and “The Story of Film: An Odyssey.” 5, 6:30 and 7 p.m. TCM

Seth Rogen serves as master of unceremonious ceremonies at “The Comedy Central Roast of James Franco.” With Jonah Hill, Aziz Ansari, Jeff Ross, Sarah Silverman and “SNL” alums Andy Samberg and Bill Hader. 10 p.m. Comedy Central

A Venice, Calif., auto shop is the setting for “Turn & Burn,” a new unscripted series about a crew that specializes in turning rusty junkers into custom rides. 10 p.m. Discovery

The scribes responsible for giving you the heebie-jeebies with their multi-Emmy-nominated series “American Horror Story” are featured on the season finale of “The Writers’ Room.” 10 p.m. Sundance

TUESDAY

Got a whole lotta “Luther.” Golden Globe winner Idris Elba is back as the troubled London police inspector when this imported drama returns with a four-night miniseries event. 10 p.m. BBC America; also 9 p.m. Wed.; 10 p.m. Thu. and Fri.

Cheethas never prosper, but we could be lion, when Samuel L. Jackson narrates the 2011 nature doc “African Cats.” 8 and 11 p.m. Animal Planet

Aspiring terpsichoreans hope to win big money and a scholarship to a top-flight ballet school on the return of “Abby’s Ultimate Dance Competition.” 9 p.m. Lifetime

Get up close and personal with a band of bikers in the new reality series “We’re the Fugawis.” It’s like “Sons of Anarchy” — minus the murder, mayhem, drugs and gunrunning. 10 and 10:30 p.m. History

Two women — a veteran Texas prosecutor and a Las Vegas crime-scene investigator — deliver “Cold Justice” when they team to help solve long-dormant murder cases in this new unscripted series. 10 p.m. TNT

WEDNESDAY

What so proudly we hailed: The provenance of “The Flag” exhibited around the country as the same Stars and Stripes raised over the wreckage of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, is explored in this new exposé. 6, 7:30, 10 and 11:30 p.m. CNN

Birds of a feather flock together, and the views are spectacular, in the six-part series “Earthflight, A Nature Special Presentation.” 8 p.m. KOCE

Canceled in 2003. Brought back in 2009. Now it’s farewell for good to “Futurama” as the animated sci-fi spoof created by Matt Groening” airs its final episode. But who knows what the future holds? 10 p.m. Comedy Central

THURSDAY

Rematch! The Ravens beat the Broncos in last year’s AFC Championship on their way to winning the Super Bowl, and the teams will go at it again to kick off a new season of “NFL Football.” 5:30 p.m. NBC

Syfy gives sharks the week off and turns to moonshine-addled alligators for the new creature feature “Ragin’ Cajun Redneck Gators.” 9 p.m. Syfy

Composer, conductor, producer, arranger, engineer. The musical mastermind acclaimed as the “Fifth Beatle” has his praises sung in the 2011 rock doc “Produced by George Martin.” 9:35 p.m. KCET

“The Customer Is Always Right?” We’ll find out when everyday folks offer their two cents directly to the CEOs of some name-brand companies, perhaps winning big bucks in the process, in this new series. 10 p.m. OWN

FRIDAY

A spunky middle-schooler writes in all down in her “Dear Dumb Diary” in this tune-filled tween-age comedy based on the popular series of children’s books. 8 p.m. Hallmark

The night is dark and full of terrorists in director Kathryn Bigelow’s 2012 hunt-for-bin-Laden docudrama “Zero Dark Thirty.” Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke and the late, great James Gandolfini star. 9 p.m. Starz

Those who can, do, but those who can teach, “Teach.” Queen Latifah celebrates educators in this new special. 8 p.m. CBS

SATURDAY

A CIA agent (director, star and Batman-to-be Ben Affleck) turns to Tinseltown for help rescuing U.S. Embassy personnel in the aftermath of the 1979 Iranian Revolution in the 2012 Oscar-winner “Argo.” With Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin and John Goodman. 8 and 11 p.m. HBO

“Gossip Girl’s” Kelly Rutherford and Matthew Settle reunite in the thriller “A Sister’s Nightmare” — which is all well and good, except for that “nightmare” part in the form of a sinister sibling (Natasha Henstridge). 8 p.m. Lifetime