“The Women of SNL” (8 p.m., NBC) offers clips of some of the best female performances over the past 35 years. For years, if not decades, “SNL” was thought of as a bad boys’ club. The antics of John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd overshadowed the contributions of Jane Curtin and Gilda Radner. And standup culture of the ’80s and early ’90s had a decidedly angry-male bent. In 1990, cast member Nora Dunne was considered a bad sport when she challenged the crude misogyny of guest Andrew Dice Clay.

But in the past decade, the women of “SNL,” most notably Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Kristen Wiig, have moved to the forefront. Much of this has to do with their talent. But it also reflects the rise of women at the center of national stage and as objects of satire. In 1975, a serious female candidate for president or vice president would have been unthinkable. Fey and Poehler owe much of their success to figures like Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin and probably would be the first to admit it.

• Over the next seven Monday nights, TCM will air the ambitious history documentary series “Moguls & Movie Stars: A History of Hollywood” (7 p.m., TCM). “Moguls” will profile the players and personalities who dominated American film entertainment from the 1880s to roughly 1970, when the studio system collapsed.

Tonight’s offering, “Peepshow Pioneers,” looks at the very invention of motion pictures and their antecedents. For more than 200 years before Edison patented his movie-making systems, viewers in Europe and America were attending Magic Lantern shows featuring colorful images etched on glass and projected before hushed audiences.

• You learn something new every day on reality television. Apparently, in Philadelphia, tow truck drivers are free to compete to find wrecks and collect payment. Up to 2,000 trucks prowl the streets tying to be the first on the site of an accident or abandonment.

This free-market approach has inspired the six-part series “Wreck Chasers” (7 p.m., and 7:30 p.m., Discovery) that follows drivers as they work in conjunction with police and rescue teams in a high-speed competition to be the first on the scene.

Tonight’s other highlights

• Chuck meets his mother’s “handler” (Timothy Dalton) on “Chuck” (7 p.m., NBC).

• The Colts host the Texans on “Monday Night Football” (7:30 p.m., ESPN).

• The Giants and Rangers meet in game 5 of the World Series (7 p.m., Fox)

• A Pearl Harbor monument faces a bomb threat on “Hawaii Five-O” (9 p.m., CBS).

• An exotic dancer in police attire expires on “Castle” (9 p.m., ABC).