'SNL' goes Gleek with Jane Lynch

Jane Lynch plays host to NBC's “Saturday Night Live at 10:30 on WMAQ Channel 5. While the early results of the new season at the longtime sketch variety show have been mixed at best, this has the potential to be a good one, given the “Glee star's background in both comedy and music. (She was in “A Mighty Wind, after all.) Bruno Mars is the musical guest.

Marathon funeral

Turner Classic Movies pays homage to the late Hollywood star Tony Curtis with a marathon of his top films Sunday, Oct. 10, from 5 a.m. on. High point is definitely “Sweet Smell of Success at 7 p.m., although for pure unadulterated camp you can't top Curtis as the Great Leslie in “The Great Race opposite Jack Lemmon and Peter Falk, which follows later on at 12:30 a.m. With “The Defiant Ones in between at 8:45, the only thing missing is Curtis' bath scene with Laurence Olivier in “Spartacus.

Nights of the Jackal

The Sundance Channel launches its first scripted series, “Carlos, with a three-night run at 8 p.m. Monday through Wednesday, Oct. 11-13. Edgar Ramirez plays the infamous '70s terrorist Carlos the Jackal in the miniseries, produced by French director Olivier Assay.

The more the meatier

Superior to the original in every way, “Aliens takes the original “Alien concept and puts some actual meaty action on the bones of tension in the story. Sigourney Weaver returns as Ripley, the outer-space butt kicker, but this time there's a feminist subtext to her encounters with the title creatures. It's at 7 p.m. today on AMC, followed in no particular order by the slack follow-up “Alien 3 at 10 and the original “Alien at 12:30 a.m.