Faye Dunaway Speaks Out, Kids Choice Awards Gets Animated, CBS Airs Stallone’s ‘Tulsa King,’ Discovery’s Storm Front

Faye

SATURDAY: Faye Dunaway will be the first to tell you that she’s “not easy.” In director Laurent Bouzereau’s sympathetic biographical portrait, the Oscar-winning actress, now 83, is first seen fussing over every detail, down to the water bottle, as she settles in for a revealing interview that provides the core of the film. She loosens up when joined by her beloved son Liam to pore over old family photos and those taken by his father and her ex, the late Terry O’Neill. Dunaway attributes her notoriously “erratic behavior” to a bipolar disorder and assumes some responsibility for legendary on-set spats, including with Roman Polanski during filming of the classic Chinatown. With disarming frankness, she covers the highs (Bonnie and Clyde, Network) and arguable lows (the over-the-top Mommie Dearest) of an astonishing career. As Liam movingly observes, “If she wasn’t in so much pain, would she have been that good?”

Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards

SATURDAY: In a first for an awards show, two animated characters — Nickelodeon superstars SpongeBob SquarePants (voiced by Tom Kenny) and his pal Patrick Star (Bill Fagerbakke) — host the annual celebration of kid-oriented entertainment. Bikini Bottom is the fanciful setting, in honor of SpongeBob’s 25th anniversary. Leading the nominations is (no surprise) Taylor Swift with six. First-time nominees include Barbie’s Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling and Wonka’s Timothée Chalamet. Tune in to see who walks away covered in Nickelodeon’s signature slime. The show is simulcast on TeenNick, Nicktoons, Nick Jr., TV Land, CMT and MTV2.

Tulsa King

SUNDAY: Sylvester Stallone has one of his best late-career roles in this caper from Yellowstone’s prolific Taylor Sheridan in cahoots with Boardwalk Empire and The Sopranos veteran Terence Winter. The first season begins a run on CBS after streaming on Paramount+ in 2022-23. Stallone’s a hoot as a swaggering fish out of water, Dwight “the General” (named after Eisenhower) Manfredi, an East Coast mafia capo who kept his mouth shut like a good soldier during a 25-year prison stint. And what’s his reward? Being shipped to the buckle of the Bible Belt in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to form a new criminal organization. But first, he needs to adjust to a world of alien iPhones, businesses that don’t accept cash and other modern inconveniences. A dryly funny Martin Starr (Silicon Valley) co-stars as a stoner whose pot dispensary is Dwight’s first target. He’ll want to stay on Dwight’s good side. Sample Dwight-ism: “Call me buzzkill again and I will rearrange your kidneys.”

In the Eye of the Storm

SUNDAY: Natural disasters caught on camera are the focus of a six-part docuseries that also features interviews with eyewitnesses who survived these harrowing ordeals. The premiere, “Trapped by a Twister” (not to be confused with the upcoming Twisters movie), includes footage from tornadoes that ravaged Mississippi and Arkansas in 2023, plus the story of tornado spotters in Illinois who become trapped in the twister’s deadly eye. Future episodes depict the devastating wildfire in Maui and a bomb-cyclone blizzard in Buffalo.

House of the Dragon

SUNDAY: After the fiery battle of Rook’s Rest that felled a Targaryen princess (R.I.P. Rhaenys), her dragon and possibly a young king, what next? An episode of regrouping and handwringing over who’ll lead which faction in a time of bloody civil war. As it was then and isn’t so different now, it won’t be easy to convince a council of men to give a woman — whether Alicent (Olivia Cooke) of the Greens or Queen Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) of the Blacks — the reins of ultimate power. Just about everyone’s itching to get back in the fight, and that no doubt includes the audience of this grim Game of Thrones prequel.

Grantchester

SUNDAY: Newly installed vicar Alphy (Rishi Nair) gets unsettling news from his bishop that has him questioning his future in Grantchester. There’s also turmoil in the Keating home, when Geordie’s (Robson Green) willful 16-year-old daughter Esme (Skye Lucia Degruttola) witnesses what might be a murder — and knowing this show, it probably is — at her new office workplace, a haven for chauvinist wolves. Enter the intrepid police secretary Miss Scott (Melissa Johns, worthy of her own spinoff), who volunteers to go undercover at Esme’s office to root out the sordid truth.

INSIDE WEEKEND TV:

• Wimbledon Finals (Saturday and Sunday, 9 am/ET, ESPN): Jasmine Paolini and Barbora Krejcikova face off Saturday in the women’s Wimbledon final, a first for both. On Sunday, last year’s men’s champion, Carlos Alcaraz, takes on Novak Djokovic in a rematch of last year’s thrilling final.
• Planet Earth: Mammals (Saturday, 8/7c, BBC America): Nature TV legend Sir David Attenborough presents another dazzling six-part docuseries (with a seventh behind-the-scenes special on Aug. 24) focused on the class of animals who thrived after the dinosaurs became extinct. The opener deals with nocturnal creatures whose heightened senses help them survive in the dark.
• Sharktopia (Saturday, 8/7c, Discovery): Shark Week ends with researchers heading to Indonesia to look for one of the area’s last remaining leopard sharks. Followed by Mothersharker: Hammer Time (9/8c), which addresses the mystery of where pregnant hammerhead sharks give birth.
• Rescuing Christmas (Saturday, 8/7c, Hallmark Channel): The Christmas in July stunt continues with the story of Erin (Rachael Leigh Cook), who gets three magic holiday wishes — and uses one to wish Christmas away! Can her beau (Sam Page) help her restore Yuletide?
• Sister Wife Murder (Saturday, 8/7c, Lifetime): Inspired by actual events, the melodrama stars Dia Nash as a first-time churchgoer who falls for the pastor (Matthew Daddario) and becomes one of his three wives. When one goes missing, she worries she’ll be next.
• UEFA European Championship (Sunday, 3 pm/ET, Fox): Spain battles England in the soccer final. Followed in prime time by the final of the Copa America CONMEBOL (8 pm/ET) where Argentina and Colombia battle it out for top honors.
• Naked and Afraid: Last One Standing (Sunday, 8/7c, Discovery): 14 franchise all-stars, including fan favorites and some we love to hate, are sent into the African bush with not even the clothes on their back to survive the elements and wildlife for 45 days, with the winner receiving a cash prize.
• Alex vs America (Sunday, 9/8c, Food Network): The competition’s fourth season opens with Alex Guarnaschilli taking on three of her fellow Iron Chefs: Michael Symon, Stephanie Izard and Jose Garces.
• Emperor of Ocean Park (Sunday, 10/9c, MGM+): Stephen L. Carter’s celebrated 2002 literary mystery receives a sluggish series adaptation, with Forest Whitaker providing some gravitas as a controversial judge — his Supreme Court nomination ended badly — whose mysterious death sends his family down puzzling avenues of suspicion and conspiracy. Sadly, this Emperor has no dramatic pulse.