SATURDAY: Marshal Matt Dillon (James Arness), Miss Kitty (Amanda Blake) and their Dodge City neighbors epitomized the TV Western for 20 years (1955-1975), encompassing the height and the waning days of what was once TV’s most popular genre. To mark the occasion of Gunsmoke‘s 70^th anniversary, nostalgia network MeTV uses the Labor Day weekend to jumpstart a monthlong tribute through September, starting with the 1987 reunion movie Gunsmoke: Return to Dodge (at 11 am/10c), followed by a 1973 episode from the show’s next-to-last season in which an amnesiac Dillon falls for a widow (played by The Waltons‘ Michael Learned). On weekdays starting Monday for four weeks, the channel presents theme weeks with back-to-back episodes at 1 pm/12c, beginning with “a week of firsts.” On successive Saturdays at 11 am/10c, the channel airs the Gunsmoke TV movies that followed the show’s cancellation, with a bonus fan-favorite episode.

Holiday weekends are ripe for TV remembrances, and this Labor Day is no exception. MeTV Toons celebrates the 65^th birthday of an animated perennial with The Flintstones: 65 Years & Still Rock’n! (Sunday, starting at 6 am/5c), an all-day marathon of the prehistoric classic that includes the full-length features The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones (10 am/9c) and The Man Called Flintstone (8/7c). For those with more contemporary tastes, Dabl Network salutes the 25^th anniversary of the sitcom Girlfriends (2000-2008), starring Tracee Ellis Ross, Golden Brooks, Jill Marie Jones and Persia White, with a 24-hour marathon starting Sunday at 6 am/5c and continuing until 6 am/5c on Monday.

SUNDAY: Did the devil make him do it? That’s what many thought in 1988 when 14-year-old Tommy Sullivan Jr. murdered his mother Betty Anne in their New Jersey home, then set a fire to cover the evidence and took his own life in a neighbor’s backyard. While investigating the tragedy, authorities discovered a suicide note along with books on the occult, stoking pervasive fears characterized as “Satanic panic.” A four-part docuseries explores the disturbing crime and its lingering aftermath.

SATURDAY: The sincere family drama, which streams earlier on Pure Flix, makes its linear network debut, introducing the ranching Hamilton family, led by patriarch Willis (Shaun Johnston), whose fall from a horse prompts his offspring to return to town. Daughter Janet (Emily Alatalo) is an ER doctor from a neighboring county hospital, and son James (Jonathan Stoddard) is a Chicago pastor who uproots his career, though not his faith, to help out on the neglected ranch. He’ll face romantic temptation when reunited with his high-school sweetheart Maggie (Brittany Underwood), who runs the local café. Home, after all, is where the heart is.

SUNDAY: Having identified the bones found in a marsh as belonging to the long-missing Gerry Cooper, cold-case detectives Sunny Khan (Sanjeev Bhaskar) and Jess James (Sinéad Keenan) inform his shaken professor widow Judith (Victoria Hamilton), who never believed Gerry committed suicide. As the police investigate Gerry’s cloudy past in the engrossing Masterpiece mystery, involving deep debts incurred during the pandemic and ties with criminal loan sharks, we’re left wondering how other characters, including autistic Marty (Maximillian Fairley) and Pakistani immigrant Asif (Elham Ehsas), are connected. In both of their subplots, we hear the sentiment “Life’s not fair,” so we can’t help but suspect there are more dark clouds on the horizon.

Also from Masterpiece: the conclusion of the first two-part mystery in the second season of The Marlow Murder Club (Sunday, 9/8c). Judith (Samantha Bond) follows codes found in a local paper’s crossword puzzle to an epiphany that helps explain how Sir Peter was killed by a falling bookcase in a locked room.

SATURDAY & SUNDAY: Summer is almost over, and so is TCM’s monthlong series devoting each day of August to a different movie star with a 24-hour marathon. The actors featured in the last two days of the month are among Hollywood’s biggest: Kirk Douglas on Saturday and Irene Dunne on Sunday. Prime-time highlights include, for Douglas, two from 1951: the gritty Detective Story (Saturday, 8/7c) and William Wyler’s bitter Ace in the Hole (10/9c); and for Dunne, the relatively lighter fare of 1940’s screwball comedy My Favorite Wife (Sunday, 8/7c) and 1948’s heartwarming memoir I Remember Mama (9:45/8:45c).

INSIDE WEEKEND TV:

• Catch of the Day (Saturday, 8/7c, Hallmark Channel): Food Network personality Katie Lee Biegel is co-writer, producer and co-star of a culinary romance about NY executive chef Sophie (Emilie Ullerup), who returns home to revive the fortunes of her family’s restaurant and rekindle the flame with an old crush (Michael Rady).
• Trafficked With Mariana Van Zeller (Saturday, 10/9c, National Geographic): The investigative journalist exposes scammers who target addicts with fraudulent rehab homes while bilking health programs for billions in bogus treatments.
• CBS News Sunday Morning (Sunday, 9 am/8c, CBS, check local listings): Ever wonder where they find those wonderfully illustrated suns that appear throughout TV’s most enjoyable weekly news show? Meet “sun queen” Jessica Frank, who’s retiring after more than 20 years of curating those luminous images.
• Incredible Dog Challenge (Sunday, 4 pm/3c, NBC): Canines with special skills compete in agility courses for large, medium and small dogs, with head-to-head weave pole racing, high-flying disc stunts and the ever-popular diving dog competition.