Is New Year’s Day a moment to plan ahead or look backward at marathons of past favorites? Is it a time of virtue and resolutions, lying around and surrendering to bowl games and couch-potato status? There are plenty of temptations, from the “Twilight Zone” (through 4 a.m. Friday morning, Sci Fi) marathon already in progress, to the daylong celebration of “Monk” (5 a.m. through 5 a.m. Friday, USA) and even a “Brady Bunch” (11 a.m. to 5 p.m., TV Land) marathon with a special emphasis on Jan Brady. VH1 Classic network hopes its old-school fans can make a serious commitment to their seven-day music-video countdown marathon that began with the stroke of midnight and won’t end for seven days, or until they count down the 2,000 greatest videos ever.

Soapnet doesn’t demand that kind of attention span, but they will be unspooling the entire second season of “Private Practice” (8 a.m., Soapnet) in marathon fashion.

Time is of the essence on “The First 48” (8 p.m., A&E), the documentary series that follows homicide detectives during the crucial first two days following a murder. Tonight’s “First 48” marks the eighth-season opener. And A&E is celebrating by running repeats all day, beginning at 7 a.m.

New year viewers also get a sneak preview of “Dear Genevieve” (12:30 p.m., HGTV), a new advice series starring popular expert Genevieve Gorder, who will answer viewer letters and e-mails about design frustrations. “Dear” will air in prime time, beginning Monday at 7:30 p.m.

• Daniel Barenboim conducts a program of waltzes and polkas by Strauss on “Great Performances: From Vienna: The New Year’s Celebration 2009” (7 p.m., PBS, check local listings), hosted by Julie Andrews.

• The documentary “Cinema’s Exiles: From Hitler to Hollywood” (8:30 p.m., PBS, check local listings) examines the impact and influence of the directors, photographers, composers and actors who fled Nazi Germany and made their way to the American film capital.

At the time Adolf Hitler rose to power, the German film industry was among the world’s most influential and innovative. The Nazis thought they could use directors like Fritz Lang (“Metropolis”) to make their propaganda, but instead he and many like him decamped for Hollywood. Filmmakers Billy Wilder (“Some Like It Hot,” “Sunset Boulevard”) and Fred Zinnemann (“High Noon”) are among the best known. Peter Lorre, who had made his name in the great Fritz Lang drama “M,” would appear in “Casablanca” and other notable Hollywood films.

Composers Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Franz Waxman scored dozens of films from pirate swashbucklers to romances. It’s impossible to listen to Korngold and not hear his influence on John Williams and particularly on the famous “Star Wars” theme.

Tonight’s other highlights

• Cloris Leachman is the grand marshal of the Tournament of Roses Parade (10 a.m., NBC, HGTV).

• Penn State meets Southern California in the Rose Bowl (4 p.m., ABC).

• Experts and prognosticators mull the economy of the coming year on “9 for ’09” (7 p.m., CNBC).

• Cincinnati and Virginia Tech meet in the Orange Bowl (7 p.m., Fox).

• The team discovers that Warrick has been shot on “CSI” (8 p.m., CBS).

• An epic epidemic looms on “Eleventh Hour” (9 p.m., CBS).