Over the next four weeks, “Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King” (8 p.m., TNT) offers eight one-hour adaptations of King’s short stories, starring a great collection of actors including William H. Macy, Tom Berenger, Kim Delaney, Ron Livingston, Marsha Mason, Greta Scacchi, Richard Thomas, Steven Weber and others.

It’s too bad this anthology series didn’t follow the pattern of the best “Twilight Zone” episodes and limit itself to economical half hours. You often get the feeling that Rod Serling packed an hour’s worth of story into a 22-minute “Zone.” We’re not so lucky with “Nightmares.”

Take “Battleground” (8 p.m.), the first of the tales. Jason (William Hurt), a seemingly mute hitman, murders a toy-company CEO. Jason retreats to his penthouse to relax only to discover that retribution has arrived in the form of a box of tiny toy soldiers.

There’s something fun about watching the Oscar-winning Hurt play an evil Gulliver beset by little green army men. But even this nod to King’s inner 8-year-old boy has its limits. The story unfolds at a glacial pace, as if to fill up the hour.

The second story, “Crouch End” (9 p.m.), suffers from that other great destroyer of film suspense: the overreliance on special effects. An American couple (Eion Bailey and Claire Forlani) on their London honeymoon accepts a dinner invitation in a far-off neighborhood only to discover that it’s built on top of a cursed Druid site and is actually a portal to an evil dimension. It’s not giving too much away to say things don’t end well.

In the recent HBO documentary “Boffo,” one expert opined that “Jaws” was a scarier film because of technical problems with the fake mechanical shark. Director Steven Spielberg was forced to cheat and use the ominous music and the hint of unseen danger to maximum effect. The recent TCM documentary “Edge of Outside” included a snippet from Orson Welles stating that an absence of limitations was the enemy of creativity. Both of these observations come to mind while watching “Nightmares.” In filmmaking and storytelling, less is more. And “Nightmares” is often too much.

¢ “American Masters” (8 p.m., PBS, check local listings) presents “Woody Guthrie: Ain’t Got No Home,” a profile of the dust-bowl songwriter who inspired several generations of folk singers, artists and activists. Peter Coyote narrates.

In some markets, “Great Performances” (10:30 p.m., PBS, check local listings) follows with “Bruce Springsteen – The Seeger Session Live at St. Luke’s,” a London concert performance of songs popularized by folk legend Pete Seeger.

Tonight’s other highlights

¢ Wannabes audition on “Rock Star: Supernova” (7 p.m., CBS).

¢ A mother’s corpse may provide clues about her missing child on “Bones” (7 p.m., Fox).

¢ Regis Philbin hosts two episodes of “America’s Got Talent” (7:30 p.m., NBC).