BY CLIF GARBODEN

FRIDAY 4

8:00 (12) The Greatest Commercials: Super Bowl Vs. the World. The deal here is that you get to go to the CBS Web site and watch 30 television commercials from around the Super Bowl and around the world in such categories as "classic," "sexiest," sports," "kids and animals," and "hot spots" and rate them on a scale of 1 to 10, then tune in here and see who the winners are. At least, you would have if we had noticed this in time — the voting closed February 1. Anyone who’s seen the collections of British and international TV commercials that regularly visit the MFA knows that sending Super Bowl ads out against them is like sending the Harvard football team out against the Patriots. Then again, the voters will be the same group who re-elected Bush. (Until 9 p.m.)

8:00 (44) Nature: Cuba: Wild Island of the Caribbean. That’s a reference to Cuba’s wildlife, not its political life. A "high-jumping" Cuban crocodile, the world’s smallest bird, and land crabs by the millions are promised. To be repeated on Saturday at 5 p.m., and at 2 a.m. on Channel 2, and at 3 a.m. back on Channel 44. (Until 9 p.m.)

9:00 (44) American Experience: Fidel Castro. Here’s the political life. He was the Soviet Union’s friend, but he could have been ours. A tale that’s repeated itself many times since. To be repeated on Saturday at 6 p.m., and at midnight on Channel 2, and on Sunday at noon back on Channel 44. (Until 11 p.m.)

SATURDAY 5

1:00 (12) Basketball. Georgia Tech versus Duke.

1:30 (2) Ciao Italia. There are worse ways to spend a snowy Saturday afternoon than watching WGBH’s cooking line-up. Mary Ann Esposito makes "Parmigiano di cipolla," which WGBH describes as "a satisfying casserole of slow-cooked onions, a hearty ragú-and-cream sauce, plus lots of mozzarella and Parmesan cheese." We predict that any ’GBH aide who hands Mary Ann pre-grated "Parmesan cheese" instead of Parmigiano-Reggiano ("Look for the stippling on the rind") will get his head handed back to him. Savoring all that cream and cheese in front of the TV instead of in the kitchen will do less damage to your arteries, but the slow-cooked onions are worth a shot. (Until 2 p.m.)

2:00 (2) Lidia’s Italian American Kitchen. Lidia is from the northeast of Italy, so her cooking has German as well as American influences. In this one, which aired a couple of Thursdays back on Channel 44, she serves up comfort food for her grandchildren: fried potatoes and eggs with broccoli rabe, sausage-and-ricotta frittata. You could do worse for your Super Bowl party. (Until 2:30 p.m.)

2:30 (2) Jacques Pépin: Fast Food My Way. Jacques’s idea of fast food is a little more elaborate than what most of us would whip up, but he does pack a lot of recipes into 24 minutes. On the bill today: baby mozzarella salad, scrambled eggs with mushrooms and truffles, sautéed quail with raita, and cubed potatoes with garlic and sage. Oh and Jacques’s friend Jean-Claude Szurdak drops in to help with dessert, which is pears in honeyed wine. We confess to missing Jacques’s daughter Claudine, who always kept things from getting too serious. (Until 3 p.m.)

8:00 (44) Murder Ahoy (movie). This 1964 film is one of Agatha Christie’s Jane Marple murder mysteries, with Margaret Rutherford as the seventysomething sleuth. The setting is a British naval-cadet training ship that’s being used to rehabilitate juvenile delinquents. George Pollock directs. (Until 9:30 p.m.)

9:30 (44) In the Heat of the Night (movie). They called him Mr. Sidney Poitier after he starred in this Oscar winner from 1967. Sid is African-American police detective Virgil Tibbs, who’s sent from Philadelphia to a small Southern town to help police chief Bill Gillespie (Rod Steiger) solve a murder; no surprise that Bill doesn’t give him a warm welcome. Oscars for the film and director Norman Jewison and Steiger (as Best Actor); Poitier had to be satisfied with his 1963 Oscar for Lilies of the Field. (Until 11:30 p.m.)

11:00 (2) SoundStage. Featuring music from Counting Crows and Shelby Lynne. (Until midnight.)

11:25 (44) Fiesta in the Sky. Gilfaethwy and the gang go out for Chinese food and instead discover America — see Nova on Tuesday at 8 p.m. (Until midnight.)

SUNDAY 6

1:00 (12) Basketball. Indiana versus Illinois.

2:30 (44) Mystery: The Inspector Lynley Mysteries III: Playing for the Ashes. Repeated from last week. Nathaniel Parker plays aristocratic police inspector Thomas Lynley opposite Sharon Small’s street-smart sidekick Barbara Havers in this puzzler involving a cricket star who turns up mysteriously asphyxiated in a philanthropist’s cottage. The Ashes, in case you didn’t catch the reference in the title, are what England and Australia play for in their Test Matches. We used to know whose they are. To be repeated tonight at midnight on Channel 2. (Until 4 p.m.)

3:30 (6) Basketball. The Los Angeles Lakers versus the Houston Rockets.

6:00 (64) Super Bowl XXXIX. The Pats versus the Philadelphia Eagles. Actually, this will be going on all day; just tune in Fox or any ESPN channel and you can find out how many mosquito bites Tom Brady expects to get on his throwing hand and what Bill Belichick had for breakfast.

8:00 (2) Tall Blondes. 20/20’s Lynn Sherr went to Africa in 1973 and fell in love with the giraffes. Not hard to understand, especially if you’ve ever seen them run. Here she visits Kenya and South Africa and an American zoo. To be repeated tonight at 3 a.m., and on Monday at 2:30 and 8 p.m., all on Channel 44. (Until 9 p.m.)

9:00 (2) Masterpiece Theatre: Island at War, part three. The soapy tale of life on a fictitious Channel Island during the Nazi occupation continues. "Eugene makes a bold decision." We’ve already forgotten who Eugene is. To be repeated tonight at 1 and 4 a.m., and at 4 a.m. on Channel 44, and on Monday at 1 p.m. back on Channel 2. (Until 10:30 p.m.)

9:00 (44) Independent Lens: Power Trip. This is the one about the American energy company that buys the formerly state-run electric utility in the former Soviet state of Georgia and then has to figure out how to get former Communists to pay for their electricity. (Until 10 p.m.)

11:00 (44) Austin City Limits. Featuring music from Wilco and Conor Oberst’s Bright Eyes. (Until midnight.)

MONDAY 7

9:00 (2) The American Experience: Building the Alaska Highway. That would be the 1520-mile road American soldiers built through Alaska, British Columbia, and the Yukon Territory starting in May of 1942, when you might have thought they’d be getting shipped off to Europe. To be repeated tonight at 4 a.m. on Channel 44, and on Tuesday at 3 p.m. on Channel 44. (Until 11 p.m.)

9:00 (44) Mystery: The Inspector Lynley Mysteries III: In the Presence of the Enemy. In this one, Best Supporting Actress nominee (for Hotel Rwanda) Sophie Okonedo plays a radical Labour minister whose 10-year-old daughter is abducted; the ransom note demands that she name the father, a prominent tabloid editor. To be repeated tonight at 1:30 a.m. on Channel 2, and on Tuesday at 1 p.m. (Until 10:30 p.m.)

10:00 (2) P.O.V.: Chisholm ’72: Unbought and Unbossed. In 1968, New York Democrat Shirley Chisholm became the first African-American woman to be elected to Congress. In 1972, she ran for the Democratic presidential nomination. Too bad she didn’t get to debate with Nixon. Shola Lynch directs this documentary. To be repeated at 1 a.m., and at 4 a.m. on Channel 44. (Until 11:30 p.m.)

TUESDAY 8

7:30 (2) La Plaza: Conversations with Ilan Stavans: Willie Perdomo. The Puerto Rican author of Where a Nickel Costs a Dime and Postcards of El Barrio holds forth. (Until 8 p.m.)

8:00 (2) Nova: The Viking Deception. Remember the Vinland Map? The piece of parchment that purported to show the East Coast of North America and thereby prove that the Vikings got here before Columbus? Not everyone is convinced it’s authentic; now, new evidence uncovered by Nova’s "exclusive investigation" suggests it’s "one of the cleverest forgeries of all time." Of course, they said that about the Shroud of Turin, and last time we looked, it was back in favor. Anyway, we all know that North America was really discovered by Gilfaethwy the Intrepid But Basically Unpronounceable and Becca the Winsome Blonde and Li’le Bran-Bran on their hot-air-ballooning way to General Chang’s Oriental Palace of Chicken Delights. To be repeated tonight at 3 a.m. on Channels 2 and 44, and on Wednesday at 1 and 3 a.m. on Channel 44, and at 1 p.m. on Channel 44, and on Thursday at 5 p.m. on Channel 44. (Until 9 p.m.)

8:00 (44) Globe Trekker: Washington, DC. Trekker Justine Shapiro does our nation’s capital, something of a comedown after last week’s Rome. We were born in Washington, and trust us, it’s no Rome. To be repeated Wednesday at 3 p.m. and Thursday at 4 p.m.

9:00 (2) Frontline: The House of Saud. Probably more than you’ll feel comfortable knowing about the family who have ruled Saudi Arabia since it was established back in 1932. We’ll also doubtless hear about the family’s relationship to the various American administrations over the past 70 years and its role, if any, in the chronic oil shortages and in September 11. To be repeated tonight at 1 a.m. and 4 a.m., and at 1 a.m. on Channel 44. (Until 10 p.m.)

9:00 (44) Alan Alda in Scientific American Frontiers: Going Deep. Not Tom Brady throwing to Deion Branch but the scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution trying to build a submersible that could reach the ocean floor. What’s more, Alvin actually did it. Alan has not, but he did get an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor last week. So we imagine he and Alvin will have a lot to say to each other. (Until 9:30 p.m.)

10:00 (44) National Geographic Specials: Quest for the Phœnicians. Not the folks who founded this august newspaper but the seafarers of the ancient Mediterranean who lost out to the Romans. Deep-sea archæologist Robert Ballard goes in search of Phœnician shipwrecks; geneticist Spencer Wells tries to trace the Phœnicians’ modern-day descendants. To be repeated on Wednesday at 5 p.m. (Until 11 p.m.)

WEDNESDAY 9

9:00 (2) Slavery and the Making of America: The Downward Spiral and Liberty in the Air. More heart-warming news about the Land of the Free. Part one, covering the period from 1624 through 1739, shows how indentured servitude, which enjoyed some legal rights, evolved into slavery in the Carolinas. Part two, from the 1740s through the 1830s, looks at the beginnings of the emancipation movement. Morgan Freeman narrates. To be repeated tonight at 4 a.m., and at 1 and 4 a.m. on Channel 44, and Thursday at 9 p.m. on Channel 44. (Until midnight.)

9:00 (44) American Experience: Partners of the Heart. The collaboration between white surgeon Alfred Blalock and black "medical genius" Vivien Thomas led to a procedure that saved infants with "blue-baby" syndrome. It was the subject of last year’s HBO special Something the Lord Made; this documentary version is narrated by Morgan Freeman. To be repeated at 3 a.m. on Channels 2 and 44. (Until 11 a.m.)

THURSDAY 10

8:00 (2) The Roman Empire in the First Century: Years of Trial. Caesar Augustus dies, and after Tiberius has his shot, we get Caligula. (Until 9 p.m.)

9:00 (2) Broadway: The American Musical: I Got Plenty o’ Nuttin’ (1929–1942) and Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’ (1943–1969). Here we get the Great Depression, which brought Anything Goes, Of Thee I Sing, and Porgy and Bess, and then the Golden Age of Rodgers and Hammerstein, which was followed by the Not So Golden Age of Sondheim and Lloyd Webber. To be repeated tonight at 1 a.m. (Until 11 a.m.)