Cloris Leachman may have an Oscar (“Last Picture Show”) and many Emmy awards, but she’s probably best known for her offbeat presence on “Dancing With the Stars,” a performance that has little on her cracked characters in the Mel Brooks’ favorites “Young Frankenstein” and “High Anxiety.”

Leachman stars in “Loves Takes Wing” (8 p.m., today, Hallmark) the seventh installment in the “Love Comes Softly” series based on a book series by Janette Oke. Any series with “Love” and “Soft” in the title is beyond criticism, so let’s just note that “Wing” also stars Sarah Jones, Haylie Duff, Patrick Duffy and Lou Diamond Phillips, who also directs.

• “In Treatment” (8 p.m., and 8:30 p.m., Sunday, HBO) returns for a second season of surprising therapy sessions and intense and often talky scenes between Dr. Weston (Gabriel Byrne) and his patients and his therapist (Diane Wiest). Few other shows allow the dialogue to do so much heavy lifting. It’s a challenging and rewarding series that may remind viewers more of theater than television and in that way harks back to the great television of the 1950s, when there was a great cross-pollination between New York stage actors and shows such as “Playhouse 90.”

Speaking of theater, look for Hope Davis (now appearing with Jeff Daniels, Marcia Gay Harden and James Gandolfini on Broadway in “God of Carnage”) as a former patient of Weston’s who returns to his orbit after her firm agrees to defend him in a malpractice suit.

• If “In Treatment” offers the austere, pared-down feel of the stage, “The Tudors” (8 p.m., Sunday, Showtime) may remind viewers of the opulent and often over-the-top epics of the 1960s, when film-goers couldn’t get enough of big dramas like “Becket,” “El Cid” and “A Man for All Seasons.”

Season 3 finds King Henry VIII (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) married for the third time. But his wife shows signs of having her own agenda, particularly toward Henry’s daughters and his Catholic subjects, chafing under the religious zealotry of Sir Thomas Cromwell (James Frain) and his radical reformers.

And if a popular rebellion in the hinterlands and a lack of domestic tranquility at court weren’t bad enough, Henry has some health issues that are beginning to fester in the nastiest fashion. And he’s only 27 as this new season begins.

Today’s highlights

• The top four vie for a place in Monday’s National Championship game at the NCAA basketball tournament (5 p.m., CBS)

• The gang returns to visit Carter’s clinic on the series finale of “ER” (7 p.m., NBC).

• Michael Pare, Ja Rule and Jenny McShane star in the 2006 shocker “Furnace” (8 p.m., Sci Fi).

• Seth Rogen hosts “Saturday Night Live” (10:30 p.m., NBC), featuring musical guest Phoenix.

Sunday’s highlights

• Reba McEntire hosts the 44th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards (7 p.m., CBS).

• Silas’s peace offer roils his subjects on “Kings” (7 p.m., NBC).

• Frogs could be the canary in the cave, say the folks on “Nature” (7 p.m., PBS, check local listings).

• Precious hires a young assistant on “No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency” (7 p.m., HBO).

• Amy mulls an unexpected offer on “Little Dorrit” on “Masterpiece” (8 p.m., PBS, check local listings).