Art scenes with inferiority complexes are explored on two interesting documentaries. “The Cool School” on “Independent Lens” (9 p.m., PBS, check local listings) recalls the birth of an art movement in Los Angeles during the 1950s and 1960s, at a time when the city was better known for oil wells and “Dragnet”-like squares than hipsters and painters.

Narrated by Jeff Bridges, “Cool” looks back at the Ferus Gallery, founded by curator Walter Hopps, the center of a tiny community of bohemians. Like any story of this kind, the tone changes as outsiders discover the scene and money begins to flow in and complicate matters. Hopps would partner with a smooth operator named Irving Blum, who would popularize the gallery by inviting more famous New York artists to exhibit their works. Blum would eventually take over the gallery and even marry Hopps’ estranged wife before decamping for greener pastures in Manhattan.

Actors Dennis Hopper and Dean Stockwell and architect Frank Gehry appear time and again like a hipster chorus. “Cool” is as much about Los Angeles as art, depicting a city always looking elsewhere for validation and never appreciating its homegrown talent.

¢ “Comic Books Unbound” (9 p.m., Starz) looks at the once-scorned literary genre that has been become the dominant source for summer-blockbuster movies featuring huge budgets and A-list talent. It wasn’t always like this, we’re assured. Back in the 1940s, comics like “Batman” and “Superman” were adapted into cheap and popular throwaway serials. In the 1950s, comics were demonized in U.S. Senate hearings, and, by the 1960s, the TV version of “Batman” reduced the Caped Crusader to ludicrous camp.

Experts, including comic writers and film directors Guillermo del Toro (“Hellboy”), Richard Donner (“Superman”) and Robert Pulcini (“American Splendor”), discuss different approaches to the genre. Others mourn the passing of the nerdy innocence of the Comic-Con convention now that it has become so tied to films and merchandising, and actors praise the passion of comic readers and the larger-than-life nature of the characters.

It’s interesting to note that the same film era that has brought us live-action adaptations of “Spiderman” and “Iron Man” has coincided with the move in film animation from two-dimensional cells to computer graphics. While live-action films seem to emerge naturally from the storyboard nature of comic books, CGI films have become very joke-driven and retain the feel of movies in which the written word still comes before the image.

Tonight’s other highlights

¢ Steve Carell stars as “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” (7 p.m., USA), a popular combination of romance and raunch.

¢ On two episodes of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” (NBC), teacher’s pet (8 p.m.), the sole witness to an assault may be impaired (9 p.m.).

¢ The Lakers host the Celtics in Game 3 of the NBA finals (8 p.m., ABC).

¢ An altercation with the Coast Guard on “Deadliest Catch” (8 p.m., Discovery).

¢ A supervisor vanishes after an altercation with a fired employee on “Without a Trace” (9 p.m., CBS).

Cult choice

Directed by Christopher Nolan (“Memento”), the 2005 adventure “Batman Begins” (6 p.m., FX) takes comic-book adaptation very seriously.