Best Cable Movies & TV Shows

Aging local standup comic Sweeney, "The Character King", gets an opportunity to do a national cable show out of Los Angeles. The only caveat is that Sweeney must drop the locally referenced material from his act, the biggest pieces being the portrayal of his colorful Boston "characters," that have become a staple of his home field success. Sweeney makes the hard decision to stop doing the characters. But, to his dismay, the characters "come-to-life" and seek their revenge; they try to kill Sweeney.

The Crocodile Hunter Diaries is a wildlife documentary television series first aired on cable TV channel Animal Planet. It was created as a spin-off to the original Crocodile Hunter series hosted by Australian naturalist Steve Irwin and his wife Terri Irwin. In the UK it was aired on ITV. In Australia it was aired on Network Ten. The show is more focused around the everyday lives of Steve, Terri, and the employees of Australia Zoo. The first season covered, among other things, Terri's pregnancy with her and Steve's first child Bindi, medical problems with Steve's dog Sui, the construction of the Crocoseum, daily ups and downs experienced by zoo staff on the job and animal rescue adventures.

Emily of New Moon is a Canadian television series, which aired on CBC Television from 1998 to 2000. The series originally aired in the United States on the Cookie Jar Toons block on This TV and it is currently seen in Canada on the Viva, Bravo! and Vision TV cable channels. The series, produced by Salter Street Films, was based on the Emily of New Moon series of novels by Lucy Maud Montgomery. The series consisted of three seasons of thirteen episodes and one season of seven episodes, for a total of forty-six. The executive producers were Micheline Charest, Michael Donovan, and Ronald Weinberg. The series starred Martha MacIsaac as the titular orphan Emily Starr. Susan Clark and Sheila McCarthy played Emily's aunts Elizabeth and Laura, who had taken on the responsibility of raising Emily following her father's death, and Stephen McHattie played her cousin Jimmy. Susan Clark left the series after the first season when her character, Elizabeth, was killed off. Recurring cast included Chip Ciupka as Mr. Carpenter, Peter Donaldson as Ian Bowles, Richard Donat as Dr. Burnley, Kris Lemche as Perry Miller, John Neville as Uncle Malcolm, Jessica Pellerin as Ilse Burnley, Shawn Roberts as Teddy Kent, and Linda Thorson as Cousin Isabel.

Solstrom is a Cirque du Soleil television series in thirteen 45-minute episodes from 2003. It was initially broadcast on the U.S. Bravo cable network and aired on Bold in Canada and SBS Television in Australia. It has also been released on DVD.

Nashville Star is an American reality television program. It was last produced and transmitted during mid-2008 on NBC, following five seasons on USA Network. It premiered on March 8, 2003, and its five seasons on USA made it the longest-running competition series on cable television. In Canada, the show aired on CMT through season 5, but moved to E! beginning with season 6. CMT in the United States reaired each episode in season 6. It was similar to American Idol, in that performers had to sing to impress both celebrity judges and the public via call-in and/or internet votes. Unlike American Idol, however, the performers were limited to country music. This restriction was relaxed for Season 6, allowing for the finalists to choose from many genres of music, but the songs were arranged to maintain a country sound. On March 13, 2009, it was confirmed that the series had been canceled by NBC and would not be returning for a seventh season.

km/h is a Quebec television sitcom, which airs on TVA, a French language television network in Quebec which is available across Canada on cable. The cast includes Michel Barrette, Chantal Baril, Marilyse Bourque, Francis de Passillé, Gildor Roy, Gilbert Turp, Nathalie Claude, Sonia Vachon and Robert Brouillette. The series is no longer producing new episodes, although TVA still airs repeats.

Jordan Cooper, a professor in Durham, has everything going for him. A beautiful girlfriend named Kathy, a good job and a nice place to live. But when he goes for his annual check up, things go wrong. Someone is tampering with his computer files and all his tests are bad. He is admitted to the hospital and dragged off to the county hospital late that night for a brain operation that he does not need. His electronic records are changing. He gets cable he did not order and then his girlfriend is murdered in his car. Someone is trying to ruin the life of Cooper, and he has to find out who and why before the police catch up to him.

A multidimensional cable box installs itself into a neighborhood and slowly, the world. We follow two siblings as they fight through a world of television mayhem and stand up to the algorithm…The Purple Guy. From musical numbers with puppets to demonic lesbian possessions, HeBGB TV has something for everyone with a Halloween heart. A true DIY experience, HeBGB TV takes you through the horrors of late 90s television and twists them through a spooky, sci-fi lens. For fans of Goosebumps, Pee Wee’s Playhouse, and Tales from the Crypt. All that and a dash of gay! You won’t know what’s coming next!

Beakman's World is an educational children's television show. The program is based on the Universal Press Syndicate syndicated comic strip You Can with Beakman and Jax created by Jok Church. The series premiered September 18, 1992 on The Learning Channel cable network and in national syndication. On September 18, 1993 it moved from national syndication to CBS Saturday morning children’s lineup. At the peak of its popularity, it was seen in nearly 90 countries around the world. The series was canceled in 1998. Reruns returned to national syndication in September 2006, after which it was transferred to local stations such as KICU. The show debuted a year prior to Bill Nye the Science Guy, which covered similar topics. The show's host, Paul Zaloom, still performs as Beakman in live appearances around the globe.

National Lampoons mockery of everything that is wrong with cable TV.

Blue's Clues is an American children's television show that premiered on September 8, 1996 on the cable television network Nickelodeon, and ran for ten years, until August 6, 2006. Producers Angela Santomero, Todd Kessler and Traci Paige Johnson combined concepts from child development and early-childhood education with innovative animation and production techniques that helped their viewers learn. It was hosted originally by Steve Burns, who left in 2002 to pursue a music career, and later by Donovan Patton. Burns was a crucial reason for the show's success, and rumors that surrounded his departure were an indication of the show's emergence as a cultural phenomenon. Blue's Clues became the highest-rated show for preschoolers on American commercial television and was crucial to Nickelodeon's growth. It has been called "one of the most successful, critically acclaimed, and ground-breaking preschool television series of all time". A spin-off called Blue's Room premiered in 2004. The show's producers and creators presented material in narrative format instead of the more traditional magazine format, used repetition to reinforce its curriculum, and structured every episode the same way. They used research about child development and young children's viewing habits that had been conducted in the thirty years since the debut of Sesame Street in the U.S. They revolutionized the genre by inviting their viewers' involvement. Research was part of the creative and decision-making process in the production of the show, and was integrated into all aspects and stages of the creative process. Blue's Clues was the first cutout animation series for preschoolers, and resembled a storybook in its use of primary colors and its simple construction paper shapes of familiar objects with varied colors and textures. Its home-based setting was familiar to American children, but had a look unlike other children's TV shows. A live production of Blue's Clues, which used many of the production innovations developed by the show's creators, toured the U.S. starting in 1999. As of 2002, over 2 million people had attended over 1,000 performances.

High Stakes Poker is a cash game poker television program, which was broadcast by the cable television network GSN in the United States. The poker variant played on the show is no limit Texas hold 'em. It premiered on January 16, 2006 and ended on December 17, 2007 for the first 4 seasons and the last 3 seasons ran from March 1, 2009 to May 21, 2011 and was simulcast in 3DTV on N3D. The participants on the show include both professional poker players and amateur players. The show was hosted by AJ Benza in the first five seasons, alongside Gabe Kaplan. Starting with the sixth season, Kara Scott replaced Benza as Kaplan's co-host, with Scott conducting interviews from the poker room floor. Starting with the seventh season, Norm Macdonald replaced Gabe Kaplan as Scott's co-host. In 2020, after a nine year hiatus, the show returned with the original commentary duo of Benza and Kaplan.

The Time Tunnel is a 1966–1967 U.S. color science fiction TV series, written around a theme of time travel adventure. The show was creator-producer Irwin Allen's third science fiction television series, released by 20th Century Fox and broadcast on ABC. The show ran for one season of 30 episodes. Reruns are viewable on cable and by internet streaming. A pilot for a new series was produced in 2002, although it was not picked up.

World War II is raging, and an American general has been captured and is being held hostage in the Schloss Adler, a Bavarian castle that's nearly impossible to breach. It's up to a group of skilled Allied soldiers to liberate the general before it's too late.

Most people never have to face the fact that at the right time and right place, they're capable of anything," says John Huston's character, Noah Cross, in the movie Chinatown -- dialogue that seems especially apt watching this engrossing docu collaboration to be simulcast by Sundance Channel and Court TV. Following up on their "First Amendment Project," the cable nets tap filmmaker Alex Gibney (Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room) to craft this thought-provoking examination of three controversial psychological studies whose chilling results still resonate today.

Wisecracking mercenary Deadpool battles the evil and powerful Cable and other bad guys to save a boy's life.

Nessa Stein, the daughter of a Zionist arms procurer who as a child witnessed his assassination. Now an adult, Nessa inherits her father's company and changes course from supplying arms to laying data cabling networks between Israel and the West Bank. Her efforts to reconcile the Israelis and Palestinians lands her an appointment to the House of Lords and creates an international political maelstrom.

In 1966, John Harlin II died while attempting Europe's most difficult climb, the North Face of the Eiger in Switzerland. 40 years later, his son John Harlin III, an expert mountaineer and the editor of the American Alpine Journal, returns to attempt the same climb.

An ambitious and wide-ranging documentary exploring Andre’s upbringing in France, his celebrated career in WWE, and his forays in the entertainment world.

Whale Wars is a weekly American documentary-style reality television series that premiered on November 7, 2008 on the Animal Planet cable channel. The program follows Paul Watson, founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, as he and the crew aboard their various vessels harass Japanese whalers off the coast of Antarctica. On January 5, 2013, Animal Planet renewed the series for a sixth season.

A hyperactive boy and his best friend, a slow-witted youth with an affinity for horses, start collecting scrap metal for a shady dealer.

Czechoslovakia, March 1939, on the eve of World War II. As the German invaders occupy Prague, inventor Axel Bomasch manages to flee and reach England; but those who need to put his knowledge at the service of the Nazi war machine, in order to carry out their evil plans of destruction, will stop at nothing to capture him.

A homeless musician finds meaning in his life when he starts a friendship with dozens of parrots.

A small boy squashing an insect sets in motion a series of events, large and small, that include a lost restaurant reservation, a drunken fender-bender, disruption of basic cable television service, and more than one relationship falling apart. One person's disaster becomes another's boon, and vice versa--because a man loses his job, a young girl becomes the lead ballerina in the school play, which in turn causes the death of a pet pig. These characters weave around Los Angeles and each other as seemingly mundane events fall into place, putting them on a collision course with a common fate and one heroic act of competence.

Wonder Pets! is an American animated children's television series. It debuted on March 3, 2006, on the Nick Jr. block of the Nickelodeon cable television network and Noggin on the same day. It won an Emmy Award in 2008 for Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction and Composition in the United States.

SportsCenter is a daily sports news television program, and the flagship program of American cable and satellite television network ESPN since the network's launch on September 7, 1979. Originally broadcast only daily, SportsCenter is now shown up to twelve times a day, replaying the day's scores and highlights from major sporting events, along with commentary, previews and feature stories. The show has aired more than 50,000 unique episodes, more than any other program on American television, and is shot in ESPN's high definition studio facilities in Bristol, Connecticut and Los Angeles, California.

truTV Presents: World's Dumbest... is a cable television series produced by Meetinghouse Productions, Inc. and is airing on truTV. Originally known as World's Dumbest Criminals, it is a weekly countdown that takes a comedic look at 20 half-witted and offbeat events caught on camera and sometimes by 911 dispatchers. These events are now broken down into topics such as Criminals, Drivers, Daredevils, Partiers, etc. and features commentary from B to C-list comedians and writers such as Jared Logan, Chris Fairbanks, Kevin McCaffrey, Jaime Andrews, Brendon Walsh, Ted Jessup, Brad Loekle, Daisy Gardner, Billy Kimball, Mike Trainor, John Enos, Jamie Lee, Rachel Feinstein, Mike O'Gorman, Amanda Landry, and Gilbert Gottfried. Because the series' original focus was on criminals bungling their acts of crime, commentary used to rely heavily on celebrities who have been known for their own past brushes with the law, including Danny Bonaduce, Leif Garrett, Tonya Harding, Todd Bridges, Daniel Baldwin, and Gary Busey. Often times, and when video clips have no audio track, sound effects and mock commentators are added to enhance the humor of the events.

1st & Ten is an American situation comedy that aired between December 1984 and January 1991 on the cable television network HBO. Featuring series regulars Delta Burke and veteran Reid Shelton, it was one of cable's first attempts to lure the lucrative sit-com audience away from the "Big Three", by taking advantage of their freedom to include occasional cursing and nudity.

Timewatch is a long-running British television series showing documentaries on historical subjects, spanning all human history. It was first broadcast on 29 September 1982 and is produced by the BBC, the Timewatch brandname is used as a banner title in the UK, but many of the individual documentaries can be found on US cable channels without the branding.

A female blackmailer with a disfiguring facial scar meets a plastic surgeon who offers her the possibility of looking like a normal woman.

Jimmie Fails dreams of reclaiming the Victorian home his grandfather built in the heart of San Francisco. Joined on his quest by his best friend Mont, Jimmie searches for belonging in a rapidly changing city that seems to have left them behind.

Double-crossed and left without water in the desert, Cable Hogue is saved when he finds a spring. It is in just the right spot for a much needed rest stop on the local stagecoach line, and Hogue uses this to his advantage. He builds a house and makes money off the stagecoach passengers. Hildy, a prostitute from the nearest town, moves in with him. Hogue has everything going his way until the advent of the automobile ends the era of the stagecoach.

Made especially for the HBO cable network, this well-wrought feature is comprised of three short stories by three noted black American authors, each of which is directed by a respected black director.

Secret History was a long-running British television documentary series. Shown on Channel 4, the Secret History brandname was used as a banner title in the UK, but many of the individual documentaries can still be found on US cable channels without the branding. It can be seen as Channel 4's answer to the BBC's Timewatch.

A Merry Mirthworm Christmas is an animated television special, produced by Perennial Pictures. It premiered on the Showtime Cable Network in 1984. The film features a cast of Mirthworms which are described as cuddly little critters about two inches long, who live in the tiny town of Wormingham.

The Skinny Dip is a half hour long Canadian travel and adventure television series hosted by Eve Kelly and produced by Best Boy Entertainment. The show premiered on July 9, 2008 at 9 pm EST on Canadian digital cable specialty channel, travel + escape, which commissioned six new episodes, the first of which premiered on November 18, 2009.

The stylish, original and uninhibited Emmy award-winning sketch show starring Fiona Allen, Doon Mackichan and Sally Phillips. Distinctly contemporary. Decidedly maverick.

Trading Spaces was an hour-long American television reality program that aired from 2000 to 2008 on the cable channels TLC and Discovery Home. The format of the show was based on the BBC TV series Changing Rooms. The show ran for eight seasons.

Special Report with Bret Baier is an American television news and political commentary program appearing on Fox News Channel, currently hosted by Bret Baier. It airs live each Monday through Friday at 6:00pm ET. The show focuses on both reporting and analysis of the day's events, with a primary focus on national political news. The show has been a part of the Fox News program lineup since 1998 and is the number one cable news broadcast in its time slot. Brit Hume hosted the show from its debut in 1996 until his retirement in December 2008. He has since appeared on the program as a panelist commentator.

The Mysteries of Alfred Hedgehog, also known as Les Mystères d'Alfred, is an animated French-Canadian series that airs on several broadcast and cable networks around the world. The show's characters consist of mainly anthropomorphic woodland animals such as raccoons, moose, and voles. The show follows three anthropomorphic animal tweens—Alfred Hedgehog, Milo Skunk, and Camille Wallaby—as they solve mysteries in Gnarly Woods. In the US, Discovery Kids begin airing the series on March 17, 2010, with a St. Patrick's Day marathon of 19 episodes, starting from 6:00 am to 3:30 pm. The series returned on April 12, 2010, with its regular time slot, starting at 7:00 pm and 7:30 pm. As of November 2011, the show's reruns can be seen on TVOntario, TFO, VRT, TV3, qubo, and France 5.

Pelswick is an animated television series produced by Nelvana for CBC Television in Canada and the Nickelodeon cable channel in the United States. The series is about a teenage boy who uses a wheelchair, emphasized how he lived a normal life and was based on the books created by John Callahan. It aired during Nick on CBS on September 14, 2002, then ended in November the same year.

Country girl Jane Budden goes to the big city, determined to find and marry a wealthy man. Instead, she meets and marries Herman Maxim, a struggling inventor.

Rupert is an animated television series based on the Mary Tourtel character Rupert Bear, produced by Nelvana, Ellipse Programmé and TVS for the first season, with Scottish Television taken over control when TVS closed. Aired from 1991 to 1997 with 65 half-hour episodes produced. It was broadcast in syndication on YTV in Canada. In the United States, the show first aired on Nickelodeon before moving to CBS; repeats of the series came to Qubo's digital service in January 2007, and still airs there. The show was broadcast in the UK on CITV and has recently been re-airing on the satellite and cable channels Tiny Pop and KidsCo. In Australia, the show was broadcast on the ABC public broadcasting network and on TV2 in New Zealand as part of the Jason Gunn Show.

A group of Muslim men living in Sheffield hatch an inept plan to become suicide bombers.

From his days of testifying at the Watergate hearings to advising recent presidential candidate Donald Trump, Roger Stone has long offended people on both sides of the political fence as a force in conservative America. Outspoken author, pundit, ahead of his time election strategist, this is his story.

A documentary on the Z Channel, one of the first pay cable stations in the US, and its programming chief, Jerry Harvey. Debuting in 1974, the LA-based channel's eclectic slate of movies became a prime example of the untapped power of cable television.

Shortly after David Abbott moves into his new San Francisco digs, he has an unwelcome visitor on his hands: winsome Elizabeth Martinson, who asserts that the apartment is hers -- and promptly vanishes. When she starts appearing and disappearing at will, David thinks she's a ghost, while Elizabeth is convinced she's alive.

Before the body-threatening antics of Jackass came crashing into public consciousness, there was Ontario's Ralph Zavadil, aka Cap'n Video, who cascaded off roofs into snowbanks, jumped off ladders into half-empty swimming pools, and drank eggs through his nostrils. Beauty Day is a rambunctious documentary about this irrepressible pioneer of local-access cable shenanigans who entertained and outraged viewers in the small city of St. Catharines-until a special Easter Show, featuring a fat rabbit and adorable puppies (none of which were hurt), got him kicked off the air for good. With a nod to Werner Herzog, Cheel follows the life and times of Cap'n Video and finds that the Cap'n is still quite a firecracker. Written by Laurence Kardish

Frank Bigelow is about to die, and he knows it. The accountant has been poisoned and has only 24 hours before the lethal concoction kills him. Determined to find out who his murderer is, Frank, with the help of his assistant and girlfriend, Paula, begins to trace back over his last steps. As he frantically tries to unravel the mystery behind his own impending demise, his sleuthing leads him to a group of crooked businessmen and another murder.

The Marx Brothers are employed at a hotel in postwar Casablanca, where a ring of Nazis is trying to recover a cache of stolen treasure.