Pizza and a movie anyone? Two documentaries celebrate iconic American industries: Hollywood and the fast-food slice. But the more you learn about making pizzas and movies, the more you wonder about their authenticity.

¢ The History Channel takes a cue from the Food Network with the summer series “American Eats” (9 p.m., History). Every Thursday night through Aug. 17, “Eats” offers historical insight, trivia and vintage footage about “Hot Dogs” (July 6), “Ice Cream” (July 13) and “BBQ” (Aug. 17).

“Eats” concentrates on the history and specifically the business history behind each American delicacy.

Tonight’s “Pizza” takes a chronological approach, covering the legendary New Yorkers who brought pizza from their native Italy to their adopted homeland and crowded neighborhoods. According to “Eats,” Pizza remained an Italian-American phenomenon until World War II, when American soldiers stationed in Italy got a taste of cheap, delicious fare. Thousands of soldiers of every ethnic origin returned to open their own pizza shops. When a Kansas entrepreneur’s wife told him that his shop looked like a “hut,” the name (and the chain) Pizza Hut were born.

This history of American pizza is short on culinary aesthetics and long on the development of new ways to mass produce, synthesize, automate and idiot-proof the production of identical pies. We also learn about the evolution of pizza delivery and the development of special boxes and bags to keep them hot.

¢ “BOFFO! Tinseltown’s Bombs and Blockbusters” (8 p.m., HBO) celebrates “Variety” magazine’s 100th birthday. Stars, directors and producers including Jodie Foster, Morgan Freeman, George Clooney, Richard Dreyfuss, Peter Guber, Sherry Lansing, Richard Zanuck and others participate with quips and clips.

They offer a litany of anecdotes and reflect on the mysterious differences between making a hit and making a bomb. Some argue that nobody knew “Howard the Duck” was a stinker until it was released. But Freeman intimates that everybody from cast to crew knew “Bonfire of the Vanities” was in trouble, almost from the beginning. Media experts predicted disaster for “Titanic” on a daily basis – until it broke box-office records.

All of these snippets are wrapped in an addictive confection of clips from movies great and small, successful and abysmal. This is fun to dip into, but at nearly 90 minutes, it begins to feel like one of those endless Oscar-night “Hooray for Hollywood” reels. Except on this one, nobody had the power to yell, “Cut!”

Tonight’s other highlights

¢ On two episodes of “The Office” (NBC), secret-Santa antics (7:30 p.m.), Michael demands pity (8:30 p.m.).

¢ Hip-hop rivals get to chill in the morgue on “CSI” (8 p.m., CBS).

¢ Scheduled on a two-hour “Primetime” (8 p.m., ABC): a best-selling novelist stands accused of his wife’s murder.

¢ Zoe drops a bombshell on “Waterloo Road” (8 p.m., BBC America).

¢ Charlie’s wheelchair-bound status gives the gang something to ponder on the second-season premiere of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” (9 p.m., FX).