Hot Dots

by Clif Garboden

THURSDAY 26

9:00 (2) Mystery: Maigret: Maigret and the Minister. Maigret (Michael Gambon) delves into politics, clean and dirty. (Until 10 p.m.)

10:00 (6) Peter Jennings Reporting: The CIA and Saddam. No details forthcoming, but let's guess. An agency of our stupid government probably gave guns and money to that guy George Bush told us to hate. Or perhaps they tried to slip him an exploding cigar. Either way, we're betting they did something disreputable. (Until 11 p.m.)

FRIDAY 27

10:00 (2) Evening at Pops. An old concert featuring Met star Denyce Graves performing the "Habanera" from Carmen, plus the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet and María Benítez Teatro Flamenco. (Until 11 p.m.)

SATURDAY 28

Noon (10) Tennis. From Wimbledon.

9:00 (2) Isadora (movie). Director Karel Reisz's 1969 biography of modern-dance iconoclast Isadora Duncan proved to be too unimportant, too uninteresting, and way too long to catch on -- despite starring Vanessa Redgrave, James Fox, and Jason Robards. So some Hollywood hack hacked it down by a half-hour and sent it back into the theaters re-titillatingly-titled The Loves of Isadora. Still no sale. Reisz recut the thing for TV. Which version is this? Who the hell knows. To be repeated on Sunday at 1 p.m. (Until 11:30 p.m.)

9:00 (10) Gridlock (movie). An unorthodox cop is exiled to the traffic helicopter, from which lofty perch he foils a plot to tie up Manhattan traffic and rob a bank. Okay, so it's stupid, but the only acting reputations at stake are David Hasselhoff's and Kathy Ireland's. (Until 11 p.m.)

11:00 (36) On Tour. Tonight's concert clips involve Lustre, Beck, and the Refreshments. (Until midnight.)

11:30 (2) Great Performances: Suzanne Farrell: Elusive Muse. Repeated from last week. An Oscar-nominated (when they say that, you can bet it didn't win) documentary covering ballerina Farrell's two decades under George Balanchine's artistic thumb. (Until 1 a.m.)

Midnight (38) Highway 61 (movie). Here's something different -- and worthwhile. Director Bruce McDonald's eccentric 1991 rock road movie about a shy barber from a small town in Ontario and a runaway (female) roadie escorting a coffin from Canada to New Orleans. Don McKellar and Valerie Bughaier star. Watch for Jello Biafra. (Until 2 a.m.)

SUNDAY 29

Noon (10) Tennis. Three hours of action from Wimbledon.

3:30 (2) Shore Things. A pastiche of beach nostalgia designed to convince us that the strip of inhospitable land of parching death between the verdant world and the cruel sea is something enjoyable. If we landed on another planet and it was like the beach, we'd turn around and head back to Earth. (Until 4:30 p.m.)

7:00 (38) Joshua Then and Now (movie). James Woods stars as a Jewish writer/gangster's son living in Canada and married into an upper-crusty family. Alan Arkin plays the gangster dad. From 1985 and adapted from Mordecai Richler's almost-bio. (Until 9 p.m.)

8:30 (6) The Doctor (movie). A 1991 medical drama with William Hurt as a physician who discovers he has cancer. Christine Lahti, Elizabeth Perkins, and Mandy Patinkin also star. (Until 11 p.m.)

9:00 (2) Masterpiece Theatre: Doctor Finlay: Secrecy. Another house call, another macabre secret. What awful lives these Scots live. (Until 10 p.m.)

9:00 (12) Children of the Dark (movie). A 1994 docudrama about two kids with a rare affliction that makes sunlight dangerous for them and also gives rise to ugly rumors. Peter Horton and Tracy Pollan star. (Until 11 p.m.)

9:00 (10) The Babysitter's Seduction (movie). Those darn Kennedys. Not so fast -- this is more complicated and less believable. Mom dies. Dad seduces the babysitter and sets her up to take the heat. Starring Stephen Collins, Keri Russell, and Phylicia Rashad. (Until 11 p.m.)

Midnight (2) American Masters: Isamu Noguchi: Stones and Paper. Repeated from last week. A profile of the sculptor and the dual cultural influences (Japanese and American) on his work. (Until 1 a.m.)

MONDAY 30

10:00 a.m. (10) Tennis. Three hours from Wimbledon.

8:00 (2) Evening at Pops. An old concert featuring Patti LaBelle (the hair! the hair!) with gospel great Edwin Hawkins and the Boston Community Gospel Choir. (Until 9 p.m.)

9:00 (2) The American Experience: Vietnam: A Television History: The End of the Tunnel (1973-'75). The series ends with coverage of the US defeat and escape. Why the heck is Bill Clinton apologizing for slavery when nobody's ever said he's sorry about this fiasco? (Until 10 p.m.)

9:00 (5) Against Their Will: Women in Prison (movie). Judith Light gets sent up and discovers that the Big House guards treat the inmates like "their private harem." Outraged, Judith demands justice. Stacy Keach (lawyer) comes along to help. (Until 11 p.m.)

10:00 (2) A World Beneath the War. And now it can be told how the Vietnamese beat us -- they lived in a secret world underground. That's probably not all there is to it, but this documentary offers a fascinating look at how the other side survived. (Until 11 p.m.)

11:35 (10) Tennis. Wimbledon highlights. (Until 11:50 p.m.)

TUESDAY 1

10:00 a.m. (10) Tennis. Two hours from Wimbledon.

8:00 (2) Nova: Kaboom! Explosives. They sure beat digging if you're building a railroad, but beyond that, they're not really our friend. The history of big bangs, horrific accidents, and intentional destruction. To be repeated on Wednesday at midnight. (Until 9 p.m.)

8:00 (64) Deadly Invasion: Killer Bee Nightmare (movie). The sequel to The Sting. (Until 10 p.m.)

9:00 (2) Cadillac Desert: An American Nile. "How the West Was Irrigated" continues with the history of the Hoover Dam and somebody's current plan to dam the Grand Canyon (which may cut down on tourism). (Until 10 p.m.)

9:00 (12) Robin Cook's Harmful Intent (movie). We warned you about that guy. Anesthesiologist Tim Matheson has been convicted of a patient's death, but he swears he's innocent. One thing for sure: it wasn't an accident, or there wouldn't be any movie. Emma Samms helps out, doubtless by falling for Tim and believing in him. (Until 11 p.m.)

10:00 (2) P.O.V.: Fear and Learning at Hoover Elementary. Fourth-grade teacher Laura Simon's personal look at the fallout of California's Prop 187 (which threw undocumented aliens out of the classroom) won the Sundance Freedom of Expression Award. (Until 11:30 p.m.)

11:35 (10) Tennis. Wimbledon highlights. (Until 11:50 p.m.)

WEDNESDAY 2

10:00 a.m. (10) Tennis. Three hours from Wimbledon.

8:00 (2) The World of National Geographic: Those Wonderful Dogs. Some herd sheep; others rescue earthquake victims; some help the disabled. Of course, most just chew your shoes and wake you up in the middle of the night barking at nothing. (Until 9 p.m.)

9:00 (2) Great Performances: Madame Butterfly. Frederic Mitterrand's movie version of Puccini's opera -- starring Ying Huang as the geisha and Richard Troxell as the Yank sailor who breaks her heart. (Until 11:30 p.m.)

11:35 (10) Tennis. Wimbledon highlights. (Until 11:50 p.m.)

THURSDAY 3

1:00 (10) Tennis. Four hours from Wimbledon.

9:00 (2) Mystery: Maigret: Maigret and the Hotel Majestic. A woman is murdered in the basement of a fancy hotel. George Simenon's detective investigates. (Until 10 p.m.)

11:35 (10) Tennis. Wimbledon highlights. (Until 11:50 p.m.)

The 525th line. Nothing duller than some old guy telling you that the old days were better. Too bad that's so unavoidable these days. TV Guide recently bid farewell to some long-standing sit-coms that have become part of the cultural furniture -- Roseanne, Coach, Wings, and Married . . . with Children. Classics? Well, Roseanne had a shot at being TV history, but they blew it with a final season of self-parody. Wings likewise left a bad taste in America's mouth by repositioning its characters into the least interesting relationships and simply by not being funny anymore. Coach, for all its mature-clown characters, will be remembered mostly for its ability to do the same show every week for almost a decade. And Married . . . with Children? Always was cheap and gross. Thank God it didn't change the direction of television. Viewers still miss M*A*S*H. People still watch I Love Lucy (which achieved legend status in a mere six original-cast seasons). We're betting nobody's going to be rerunning Coach in 2037.