BY CLIF GARBODEN

THURSDAY 8

9:00 (2) Wide Angle: The Russian Newspaper Murders. In the old days, the state ran (and protected) the Russian press. Today, independent journalists are allowed to practice, but when the mob or the government murders one, nobody bothers to investigate. The BBC’s Mishal Husain hosts. To be repeated tonight at 5 a.m., and on Channel 44 at 2 and 4 a.m. (Until 10 p.m.)

5:00 a.m. (44) Soundstage. Music from Ronald Isley and Burt Bacharach. (Until 6 a.m.)

FRIDAY 9

8:00 (10) US Olympic Trials. We presume these are the trials through which US athletes win the right to compete in Athens, as opposed to judicial proceedings left over from Salt Lake City or construction disasters involving Greek building contractors. (Until 9 p.m.)

12:30 a.m. (2) The American Experience: The Kennedys: The Father. Repeated from last week. The first installment of a major documentary series on the Kennedy family. This edition tells papa Joseph P. Kennedy’s story as he moves and shakes through Wall Street, Hollywood, Gloria Swanson, and the Roosevelt administration to position his son to become the US’s first Catholic president. To be repeated on Sunday at 5 p.m. (Until 2:30 a.m.)

SATURDAY 10

11:00 a.m. (44) Globe Trekker: Iran. Trekker Ian Wright (who would win any Fear Factor contest hands down) samples sheep brains and other native delicacies. He also samples Iranian nightlife and visits the tomb of the ayatollah Khomeini. (Until noon.)

1:00 (64) Baseball. Probably the Atlanta Braves versus the Philadelphia Phillies; possibly the Chicago Cubs versus the St. Louis Cardinals. No agonizing over the Sox, in any case.

4:00 (6) Basketball. The Seattle Storm versus the Detroit Shock in WNBA play.

6:00 (44) Masterpiece Theatre: The Jury, parts 1 through 4. A repeat of this compelling four-part drama about the private lives of a British jury at a murder trial involving a teenage Sikh accused of brutally murdering an Anglo classmate with a sword. The racial implications are more obvious to British audiences, but the thrust here is to explain how the jurors arrive at their decision. Derek Jacobi stars with a raft of excellent Brit character actors. Parts one and two will be repeated at midnight. The remaining two installments will run on Sunday, starting at midnight. (Until midnight.)

8:00 (10) US Olympic Trials. The build-up begins. We just have trouble keeping this year’s Games out of the context of Munich. (Until 9 p.m.)

10:00 (5) ABC’s 50th Anniversary Celebration, part one. You can make a lot of mistakes in half a century of broadcasting. Let’s hope they pick some funny ones and not just clips of a bunch of old stars flubbing lines. (Until 11 p.m.)

SUNDAY 11

4:00 (44) Captain Horatio Hornblower (movie). Repeated from last week. Director Raoul Walsh’s 1951 Hornblower film with Gregory Peck as the captain and Virginia Mayo as Lady Barbara Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington’s fair sister. Somehow Horatio and Babs hook up in Central America, where the British navy has sailed to foment a revolution to distract the French from the Napoleonic War. (Until 6 p.m.)

6:00 (44) My Darling Clementine (movie). Repeated from last week. John Ford directed this classic 1946 telling of the O.K. Corral gunfight yarn. Henry Fonda does a cool Wyatt Earp opposite Linda Darnell (as a woman named Chihuahua) and Cathy Downs (as the title’s darling). Alas, somebody accidentally cast Victor Mature as Doc Holliday. Walter Brennan more than makes up for that as a suitably cranky Clanton patriarch. (Until 7:40 p.m.)

7:40 (44) Broadway Danny Rose (movie). One of Woody Allen’s "nostalgia of the imagination" pieces, with the director as a Broadway agent beset by murderous mobsters while out to reclaim the heart of fair maid Mia Farrow. (Until 9:07 p.m.)

7:00 (10) US Olympic Trials. And no tribulations. The sports on trial for tonight are track and field and swimming. (Until 9 p.m.)

8:00 (2) Evening at Pops: Keith Lockhart 10th Anniversary Special. This 35th-season kickoff Evening at Pops is being promoted as "a rare opportunity to meet the man behind the baton." Get real, we’ve met Keith so many times we think he’s our uncle. In any case, it’s hard to believe that he’s been with the Poppers for a decade. Paula Zahn, CNN newswoman and closet cellist, interviews Lockhart and introduces highlights of the past 10 years featuring Nathan Lane, Sarah Jessica Parker, k.d. lang, Penn and Teller, Swan Upshaw, Audra McDonald, and more. To be repeated on Wednesday at 1 a.m. (Until 9 p.m.)

9:00 (2) A Thief of Time: An American Mystery Special. Another Tony Hillerman–novel adaptation featuring the Southwestern detective team of Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee (Wes Studi and Adam Beach). In this one, the crime involves illegal archæology and Native American spiritualism. Peter Fonda and Graham Greene star. To be repeated tonight at 2 and 4 a.m., and on Channel 44 at 1 a.m., and on Wednesday on Channel 44 at 1 and 4 a.m., and on Channel 2 at 4 a.m. (Until 11 p.m.)

9:00 (4) Catch a Falling Star (movie). Now that you have that Perry Como mantra stuck in your head . . . Sela Ward stars as a Hollywood actress who discovers the charms of small-town life thanks to a waitress and a bankrupt steel-mill owner. Rebecca Jenkins, Andrew Jackson, Jane Curtin, and John Slattery help out. (Until 11 p.m.)

9:07 (44) Zelig (movie). Woody Allen is Leonard Zelig, an everyman buttinsky of the early 20th century who shares the public’s stare alongside everyone from Calvin Coolidge to Hitler. Mia Farrow is a doctor protecting this seemingly supernatural fellow from medical inspection. Quite odd all around, and framed as a documentary. (Until 10:27 p.m.)

MONDAY 12

8:00 (44) Globe Trekker: Papua New Guinea. Trekker Jonathan explores one of the world’s least stable societies (we can only assume he traveled with lots of bodyguards) to visit ancient grave sites, hunt crocodiles at night, eat beetles with mustard, hunt sharks, race boats, and be glad to get out of there alive. (Until 9 p.m.)

9:00 (2) History Detectives: The First Movie Studio, Ufa Light, and King Kong Camera. The investigative series that routinely provokes the question "And this is interesting because . . . ?" checks in with three puzzlers: (a) Is the busted-up gate to a Northern Los Angeles park the remains of the entrance to California’s first movie studio?; (b) Why does a lighter that some guy bought at a flea market have WB movie mogul Harry Warner’s name on one side and Ufatone, the name of Germany’s answer to Hollywood, on the other?; and (c) Is an old camera they have really one that was used to film the original King Kong? To be repeated tonight at 2 and 4 a.m., and on Channel 44 at 1 and 4 a.m., and on Wednesday at 8 p.m. on Channel 44, and at 3 a.m. on Channel 2. (Until 10 p.m.)

10:00 (2) The American Experience: Bataan Rescue. A history review is in order here. Bataan is a peninsula in the Philippines, which the US lost to the Japanese in April 1942. The Japanese took thousands of prisoners, most of whom died over the next three years. With the Pacific War on the verge of ending, the good guys sent a commando unit behind enemy lines to rescue the 500 Allied survivors from the prison camp at Cabanatuan. A real-life, as opposed to reality-TV, adventure. To be repeated tonight at 3 a.m. (Until 11 p.m.)

TUESDAY 13

9:00 (44) Indie Select: How’s Your News? Getting a little high-concept here. Five reporters from Martha’s Vineyard’s Camp Jabberwocky for the mentally and physically handicapped set out across America in a van to interview the population. The trip takes them to Nashville bars, the Grand Canyon, an alligator farm, and elsewhere. (Until 10:30 p.m.)

9:30 (2) Grateful Dead: The Closing of the Winter Palace. But don’t get excited. Channel 2 can’t seem to decide what it’s airing tonight, and only one of three official sources lists this concert. So probably not. (Until who knows?)

10:30 (44) P.O.V.: Thirst. Globalization does more than exploit poor people and create more of them. It also ensures that the world’s resources will be controlled for international profit. Water is a good case in point, because when the global corporate forces buy up a country’s water supplies, nobody can take a bath, or grow food, or live very long, for that matter. Global corporate forces suck. They’re just the heartless greedy bastards Marx warned us about run amok. Examples are depicted in Bolivia, India, and Stockton, California. Is there any corporate funding for P.O.V.? To be repeated tonight at 3 a.m. (Until 11:30 p.m.)

BASTILLE DAY 14

8:00 (2) Program About Unusual Buildings and Other Roadside Stuff. Zippy would love this. A visit to Long Island’s Big Duck, a Fishing Hall of Fame (shaped like a fish), and more. All from that master of celebrating the trivial but lovable aspects of American life, Rick Sebak. (Until 9 p.m.)

9:00 (2) The American Experience: The Kennedys: The Sons. Same old story, but it never goes stale. The second installment of this Kennedy–clan chronicle looks at the lives, works, and misfortunes of JFK and RFK. (Until 11 p.m.)

9:00 (44) 1421: The Year China Discovered America? See, the thing about China is that the nation was all set up to rival Europe in every way during the age of exploration and colonization. And then, it went isolationist, which may or may not have been a good idea. In any case, this documentary explores the long-dismissed notion that a fleet of Chinese ships landed on the US mainland years before Columbus came at us from the east. (Until 11 p.m.)

THURSDAY 15

7:30 (2) Basic Black: Robert Honeysucker: Opera’s Honeyed Voice. Host Darren Duarte chats with Boston baritone Robert Honeysucker (Escamillo in Carmen on the Common). Plus a tune or two. (Until 8 p.m.)

8:00 (10) Will & Grace & Will & Grace & Will & Grace & Will & Grace. A four-show marathon. All repeats. (Until 10 p.m.)

9:00 (2) Wide Angle: The Saudi Question. Saudi Arabia is pretty tight with the Bush family, but the country doesn’t get along with itself very well. It does, however, control 20 percent of the world’s oil and thus is the kind of place you don’t want to offend (at least until this alternative-energy thing kicks in for real). Unfortunately, the Saudis often behave like rich anti-democratic pigs and spend a lot of our gas money financing pro-terrorist institutions around the world. Reform is in order, but reform is hard to come by. Wide Angle managed to get close to reform-minded Prince Turki al-Faisal and follow him to Britain for some top-level discussions. Mishal Husain anchors. To be repeated tonight at 2 and 4 a.m. on Channel 44. (Until 10 p.m.)

3:00 a.m. (44) Soundstage. Featuring music from Alanis Morissette. (Until 4 a.m.)