CBS dedicates its Saturday night to the 1986 thriller “Top Gun” (7 p.m.), presumably to promote the May 24 release of “Top Gun: Maverick.”

Hollywood has a long history of remakes and sequels, but making one a full 36 years after the original and featuring the same star (Tom Cruise) is a stretch. Hollywood churned out a new version of the 1925 hit “Ben-Hur” in 1959, but they didn’t drag silent star Ramon Novarro out of retirement.

“Maverick” takes Hollywood’s retread obsession from sadly predictable to genuinely creepy. And much of that has to do with Tom Cruise’s insistence on never acting his age. The return of the 1986 original to prime time might remind us of the fate of the rest of the cast. After appearing in “Witness” and “Top Gun,” Kelly McGillis was as hot as they come. But she has been consigned to the oblivion that faces most actresses older than 40 and does not appear in the sequel. Val Kilmer has been cast in “Maverick” as a venerable admiral who looks decades older than Cruise’s Dorian Gray-like character. Kilmer recently produced and appeared in a moving documentary about his bout with throat cancer. Anthony Edwards, who played the ill-fated Goose in “Top Gun,” recently appeared in the great Netflix miniseries “Inventing Anna” as a portly, middle-aged banker bamboozled by the con artist Anna Sorokin (Julia Garner).

How odd is Cruise’s decision to return Maverick to the cockpit? Think of the peals of derisive laughter that might greet Tom Hanks if he starred in a “Splash” reboot, “Madison Time: Still Splashin’”! Or a movie about AARP types finding a dead body in the woods, “Stand by Me: I Can Barely Walk”!

You needn’t invent films. Hollywood has a history of satirizing the quest for eternal youth.

In “Sunset Blvd.” the silent star Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) is seen as ghoulish and deranged for thinking she can return to glory days some 25 years in her past. Maverick still is eerily boyish after 36 years. In “Pulp Fiction,” Vincent and Mia (John Travolta and Uma Thurman) go to a ‘50s-themed club that Vincent dismisses as “a wax museum with a pulse.” Tom Cruise has fashioned himself into his own wax figure. He’s not so much youthful as entombed.

• Adapted from a 2003 novel by Audrey Niffenegger and the 2009 movie of the same name, “The Time Traveler’s Wife” (8 p.m. Sunday, HBO, TV-MA) stars Rose Leslie (“Game of Thrones,” “Downton Abbey”) as Claire, the patient spouse of Henry (Theo James), a man with a peculiar condition. Every so often, he vanishes from the present only to land, naked and confused, in another point in time, leaving Claire to wait and worry, like a sailor’s wife of old, until he returns.

Blending science-fiction and romance, “Wife” offers a mind-bending chronology of a relationship where an older Henry might meet a child Claire, or a mature Claire might encounter a youthful and confused Henry.

Any story that’s a bestseller, a film and a series must appeal to someone. But I found this cloying and strenuously contrived — worse, “cute.” The incidental background music would not be out of place in a Hallmark movie.

• It’s hard to imagine a more low-key series than “Conversations With Friends,” now streaming on Hulu.

Frances (Alison Oliver) and Bobbi (Sasha Lane) are students and former lovers who perform spoken-word feminist manifesto poetry at bars and clubs. There, they encounter famous author Melissa (Jemima Kirk, “Girls”) and her handsome actor husband, Nick (Joe Alwyn).

American transplants Melissa and Bobbi begin flirting immediately, leaving the painfully shy Frances alone with Nick, who appears tongue-tied without a script.

It’s easy to see where this is going and to know it will take its sweet time getting there. An Anglo-Irish production filmed in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

• “Lucy Worsley Investigates” (7 p.m. Sunday, PBS, TV-PG, check local listings) blends historical scholarship with forensic science to explore historical mysteries, beginning with the 1483 murder of a 12-year-old royal heir and his brother, a villainous act that would pave the way for Richard III’s coronation.

SATURDAY’S HIGHLIGHTS

• The voices of Hayden Rolence, Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres, Diane Keaton and Eugene Levy animate the 2016 animated sequel “Finding Dory” (7 p.m., ABC).

• A fetching wine expert finds herself framed for murder in the 2022 shocker “Revenge Best Served Chilled” (7 p.m., Lifetime, TV-14).

• The ride to a sister’s wedding proves bumpy in the 2022 romance “Road Trip Romance” (7 p.m., Hallmark, TV-G).

— Selena Gomez hosts “Saturday Night Live” (10:30 p.m., NBC, TV-14), featuring musical guest Post Malone.

SUNDAY’S HIGHLIGHTS

• Scheduled on “60 Minutes” (5 p.m., CBS): Bellingcat, an online organization investigating war crimes in Ukraine; the historical legacy of Sharswood, a centuries-old Virginia estate.

• Martha and John Dean find it hard to adjust on “Gaslit” (7 p.m., Starz, TV-MA).

• Joanna woos Jordan on “I Love That For You” (7:30 p.m., Showtime, TV-MA).

• “Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy” (8 p.m., CNN) visits Umbria.

• Betty goes public with her breast cancer diagnosis on “The First Lady” (8 p.m., Showtime, TV-MA).

• Some alone time on the season finale of “The Rookie” (9 p.m., ABC, TV-14).

• Sally’s show opens on “Barry” (9 p.m., HBO, TV-MA).

• Sleep proves elusive on “The Baby” (9:30 p.m., HBO, TV-MA).

CULT CHOICE

I will never, ever, ever refer to the original 1977 “Star Wars” as “Star Wars: A New Hope” (9 p.m., TNT, TV-PG).

SATURDAY SERIES

Two hours of “Dateline” (7 p.m., NBC, r) ... “The Masked Singer” (7 p.m., Fox, r, TV-PG) ... “Domino Masters” (7 p.m., Fox, r, TV-PG) ... A vintage helping of “Saturday Night Live” (9 p.m., NBC, r, TV-14).

SUNDAY SERIES

McCall considers vengeance on the season finale of “The Equalizer” (7 p.m., CBS, TV-14) ... Fast food for thought on “The Simpsons” (7 p.m., Fox, TV-PG) ... “American Idol” (7 p.m., ABC, TV-PG) ... Archie combats Percival’s toxicity on “Riverdale” (7 p.m., CW, TV-14) ... Water park madness on “The Great North” (7:30 p.m., Fox, TV-PG) ... Callen is ensnared on “NCIS: Los Angeles” (8 p.m., CBS, TV-14) ... A cruel clip goes viral on “Bob’s Burgers” (8 p.m., Fox, TV-PG) ... Stewie goes with the flow on “Family Guy” (8:30 p.m., Fox, TV-14) ... Making a killing in antiques on “S.W.A.T.” (9 p.m., CBS, TV-14).

— OK, that was weird. The least expected story of the week was the scandal involving Felicity Huffman (“Desperate Housewives”) and Lori Loughlin, star of “When Calls the Heart” (7 p.m. Sunday, Hallmark, TV-G), in a bribery/cheating plot to get their respective daughters into elite universities.

This is obviously an ongoing case, and all sides must have their say, or day, in court. But the motivation at the center of this story is worth discussing. It involves some overwhelming need to do anything to get children into elite schools. As if anything “lesser” were unthinkable.

Television plays no small role in this insecurity. I can’t remember how many times I’ve had to describe an ABC legal drama where every single character hails from only the most exclusive Ivy and spends most of the pilot bragging about it.

There was a time, not that long ago, when John Grisham wrote best-selling books about young, barely accredited lawyers from no-name institutions who took on impossible cases against massive corporations and eventually won. And got the girl, to boot.

So, our current era’s neurotic obsession with elitism and inequality is hardly hard-wired.

If anything comes of this sordid affair, it’s an appreciation that shoddy efforts at snobbery are always essentially pathetic. Or on classic TV, comedic. Watching “Gilligan’s Island,” we identified with Mary Ann and the Skipper, and pitied the millionaire and his wife.

— CNN launches the four-hour documentary “Tricky Dick” (8 p.m., Sunday), profiling the life and times of Richard Nixon’s public career, which spanned the decades from the dawn of the Cold War to the Clinton years.

SATURDAY’S HIGHLIGHTS

— An anxious new mother joins a group for solidarity and support, only to discover that it has darker plans on its agenda in the 2019 shocker “Mommy Group Murder” (7 p.m., Lifetime, TV-14).

— The Thunder and Warriors meet in NBA action (7:30 p.m., ABC).

— An old kidnapper returns to form on “Ransom” (8 p.m., CBS, TV-14).

SUNDAY’S HIGHLIGHTS

— Scheduled on “60 Minutes” (6 p.m., CBS): Embassy workers in China and Cuba complain of mysterious ailments; AOL founder Steve Case and his plans to invest in the future of overlooked American small towns and cities; a visit to Monaco.

— The duels begin on “World of Dance” (7 p.m., NBC, TV-PG).

— Auditions continue on “American Idol” (7 p.m., ABC, TV-PG).

— Lex Luthor is on the loose on “Supergirl” (7 p.m., CW, TV-PG).

— Mr. Wednesday prepares for battle on “American Gods” (7 p.m., Starz, TV-MA).

— After learning about her royal lineage, an adopted 10-year-old becomes a little tyrant in the 2019 shocker “Mommy’s Little Princess” (7 p.m., Lifetime, TV-14).

— A secret room holds dangers on “Charmed” (8 p.m., CW, TV-14).

— Hidden secrets revealed on “The Walking Dead” (8 p.m., AMC, TV-MA).

— A new trial is pursued on “The Case Against Adnan Syed” (8 p.m., HBO, TV-14).

— Axe is determined to destroy Taylor on the fourth season premiere of “Billions” (8 p.m., Showtime, TV-MA).

— Ulysses pursues a conspiracy theory on “Now Apocalypse” (8 p.m., Starz, TV-MA).

— “Unsung” (8 p.m., TVONE) profiles the Jets.

— Pacific overtures on “Madam Secretary” (9 p.m., CBS, TV-PG).

— Tensions rise on “Good Girls” (9 p.m., NBC, TV-14).

— Mo’s past is revealed on “Black Monday” (9 p.m., Showtime, TV-MA).

CULT CHOICE

— St. Patrick’s Day inspires many traditions. Syfy offers a marathon of “Leprechaun” movies, from “Leprechaun 5: In the Hood” (4 p.m. Saturday, TV-14) to “Leprechaun 2” (8 p.m.). TCM takes the traditional approach, ladling out the Technicolor blarney of director John Ford’s 1952 romance “The Quiet Man” (7 p.m. Sunday, TV-PG).

SATURDAY SERIES

“Dateline” (7 p.m., NBC, TV-PG) ... “NBA Countdown” (7 p.m., ABC) ... The kids are all right on “MasterChef” (8 p.m., Fox, r, TV-PG) ... “48 Hours” (9 p.m., CBS) ... A vintage helping of “Saturday Night Live” (9 p.m., NBC, r, TV-14).

SUNDAY SERIES

A visit from an old friend inspires Miles on “God Friended Me” (7 p.m., CBS, TV-PG) ... Homer can’t leave Bart’s virtual realm on “The Simpsons” (7 p.m., Fox, TV-14) ... Empathy for all things on “Bob’s Burgers” (7:30 p.m., Fox, TV-14).

A walk down the aisle on “NCIS: Los Angeles” (8 p.m., CBS, TV-14) ... On two episodes of “Family Guy” (Fox, TV-14), Meg’s winter Olympics (8 p.m.), fighting over a dowager (8:30 p.m., r) ... Aches and pains on “Shark Tank” (9 p.m., ABC, TV-PG).