As cable networks proliferate, we’ve seen both a glut of imitation and a search for the ever-more peculiar, a focus on the odd that is itself a form of imitation. National Geographic gives TLC a run for the money with “Taboo” (7 p.m., National Geographic). Technically, the behaviors on display here are not so much taboo as downright eccentric.

The search for the bizarre, the weird and the gross predates the cable era. Way back in the early 1960s, moviegoers flocked to “Mondo cane” and other “Mondo” documentaries featuring shocking human behavior and strange rites and rituals from around the globe.

The show’s first hour focuses on body and beauty obsessions, some taken to fatal extremes. In Paris, a model starves herself to a weight of merely 55 pounds before expiring from the effort. A Texas woman pays for breast enlargements that have taken her to something measured as a Triple-K cup. And down under in Australia, a woman no longer needs to wear a corset because she’s had one sewn into her flesh.

A second “Taboo” (9 p.m.) explores fantasy lives that transcend the ordinary. A Japanese kickboxer enjoys dressing as characters out of animation; a Florida father divides his time between his real flesh-and-blood family and his world of amorous avatars. And the next time you call someone a “big baby,” you have to check out a California man who has commissioned adult-sized high chairs and other nursery furniture and lives his days in a diaper, sucking on a pacifier.

l “American Experience” (8 p.m., PBS, check local listings) repeats “Roads to Memphis” a powerful recounting of the separate-but-linked paths of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and his convicted killer James Earl Ray.

For reasons as cruel as history, slain leaders are always linked with their murderers. Booth and Lincoln; Oswald and Kennedy; King and Ray.

King’s story is as well known as it has been well-documented. The loner Ray is more difficult to evoke on screen. But this visual deficiency inspires a stark, minimalist and almost poetic use of still photographs and various props. We’re shown the transistor radio Ray carried with him, hoping to hear of his criminal exploits and resulting notoriety and celebrity.

Tonight’s other highlights

• Cuddy’s mother (Candice Bergen) meddles on “House” (7 p.m., Fox).

• “Dancing with the Stars” (7 p.m., ABC) continues.

• Sophia pulls the strings on “The Event” (8 p.m., NBC).

• The case against Gibbons gathers strength on “The Chicago Code” (8 p.m., Fox).

On three repeats of “Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations” (Travel), Japan (7 p.m.) Haiti (8 p.m.) and Prague (9 p.m.).

• A swimsuit issue photo shoot becomes a crime scene on “Hawaii Five-0” (9 p.m., CBS).

• A bank robber employs a personal touch on “Law & Order: Los Angeles” (9 p.m., NBC).

• A hunt gets personal for Beckett on “Castle” (9 p.m., ABC).