BY CLIF GARBODEN

THURSDAY 2

7:30 (2) Basic Black: A Conversation with Howard Bryant. A chat about the relationship between the Boston Red Sox and the city’s African-American community through history with Bryant, a Boston Herald columnist and the author of Shut Out: A Story of Race and Baseball in Boston. (Until 8 p.m.)

8:00 (64) Baseball. Divisional-playoff action.

8:30 (10) Scrubs. The season opener. Glad it’s back; can’t believe anything this peculiar has good ratings — or at least ratings high enough to ensure its continued existence. Usually anything with a high-concept narrative structure, introspective characterization, oblique dialogue, flawed protagonists, or cultural self-awareness fails because some bottom-liner at the network doesn’t get it. (Until 9 p.m.)

9:00 and 11:00 (2) The Blues: Godfathers and Sons. A chronicle of the production (by Chess Records’ Marshall Chess and Chuck D) of an album featuring traditional blues people and contemporary hip-hoppers. Directed by Marc Levin and featuring music from Koko Taylor, Magic Slim, Otis Rush, Ike Turner, and Sam Lay. (Until 11 p.m.)

9:00 (44) Mystery: Dead Gorgeous. A dark but entertaining yarn based on the novel On the Edge by Peter Lovesey about two women in post-war England plotting to murder their husbands. Helen McCrory and Fay Ripley star. To be repeated tonight at 3 a.m., and on Friday at 2 a.m., both on Channel 2. (Until 11 p.m.)

FRIDAY 3

8:00 (2) Blues Story. A collection of documentary blues autobiographies featuring profiles in the first person and song from Buddy Guy, Bobby "Blue" Bland, R.L. Burnside, Ruth Brown, B.B. King, Little Milton, Koko Taylor, Pinetop Perkins, Rufus Thomas, and Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown. To be repeated tonight at 11 p.m., and on Channel 44 at 1 and 3 a.m. (Until 9 p.m.)

9:00 and 11:00 (2) The Blues: Red, White, and Blues. This is director Mike (Leaving Las Vegas) Figgis’s contribution to this series, and though we’re not sure we agree with the case being made — namely, that the British invasion reintroduced American blues to America — it’s going to be fun watching Van Morrison, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Tom Jones explain it. To be repeated tonight at 1 and 3 a.m. on Channel 44, and at 4 p.m. on Sunday. (Until 11 p.m. and 1 a.m.)

1:00 and 3:00 a.m. (44) Blues Story. Repeated from this evening at 8 p.m.

2:00 a.m. (2) Mystery: Dead Gorgeous. Repeated from Thursday at 9 p.m.

SATURDAY 4

Noon (6) Football. Virginia Tech versus Rutgers.

3:30 (12) Football. Alabama versus Georgia or Ol’ Miss versus Tennessee.

3:30 (6) Football. Michigan at Iowa.

4:00 (64) Baseball. Divisional-playoff action.

7:00 (44) Beyond Borders: John Sayles in Mexico. A behind-the-scenes hype documentary goes on location with director John Sayles in Acapulco, where he shot his just-released low-budget Casa de los Babys (with Lili Taylor, Mary Steenburgen, Rita Moreno, and Daryl Hannah), the story of a group of unrelated women who meet in Mexico, where they’ve all come to adopt children. (Until 8 p.m.)

8:00 (2) Austin City Limits. Featuring music from Shemekia Copeland and Jimmie Vaughan. To be repeated tonight at 3 a.m., and on Channel 44 on Tuesday at 9 p.m. (Until 9 p.m.)

8:00 (6) Lilo & Stitch (movie). Disney’s 2002 animated feature about a mutant from outer space programmed to destroy civilization who makes friends with an Earthling orphan on a tropical island. Alternate title: Lilo and Plot Stretch. (Until 10 p.m.)

8:00 (10) Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (movie). Jim Carrey nonsense from 1994. But it worked and made Carrey a comic superstar. The title character solves animal mysteries; here he’s called upon to locate a missing football-mascot dolphin. With Courteney Cox, Sean Young, and Tone "Where Is He Now?" Loc. (Until 10 p.m.)

9:00 and 11:00 (2) The Blues: Piano Blues. Hosted by closet pianist Clint Eastwood and featuring examples of keyboard blues work from Pinetop Perkins, Jay McShann, Dave Brubeck, and the incomparable Marcia Ball. To be repeated tonight at 1 and 3 a.m. on Channel 44, and on Sunday at 8 p.m. (Until 10:30 p.m. and 12:30 a.m.)

10:30 (2) Great Museums: The Delta Blues Museum. While you’re in the mood. A tour of the museum at Clarksdale, Mississippi. (Until 11 p.m.)

11:30 (10) Saturday Night Live. The season opener, with guest host Jack Black (star of the just-released film School of Rock) and musical guest John Mayer (Heavier Things). (Until 1 a.m.)

SUNDAY 5

10 a.m. (44) The Blues. Here’s where WGBH’s overworked Office of Messing with Viewers’ Brains takes over and things get confusing. Channel 44 is rerunning the entire series today — but not in the same order as the installments aired last week. Further, the show repeats again, nightly at 10 p.m. on Channel 44, starting on Monday — but in yet another order. Okay, in two-hourly installments, today’s run goes: The Soul of a Man (10 a.m.); Warming by the Devil’s Fire (noon); Godfathers and Sons (2 p.m.); Red, White, and Blues (4 p.m.); The Road to Memphis (6 p.m.); Piano Blues (8 p.m.); and Feel like Going Home (10 p.m.) (Until 11:30 p.m.)

1:00 (12) Football. The Pats versus the Tennessee Titans.

4:00 (64) Football. The Washington Redskins versus the Philadelphia Eagles.

6:00 (2) The American Experience: Zoot Suit Riots. The event that may or may not have any real relationship to the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies song. There were real riots, however, in LA in 1942 involving the cops and the local Mexican-American community. To be repeated tonight at 3 a.m. (Until 7 p.m.)

7:30 (64) Baseball? More divisional-playoff action — if necessary.

9:00 (2) Masterpiece Theatre’s American Collection: Our Town. Paul Newman manages the stage in this Westport County Playhouse production of Thornton Wilder’s down-home tale of small-pond life in Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire. To be repeated tonight at midnight, and on Channel 44 at 1 and 4 a.m. (Carolyn Clay’s review is on page TK.) (Until 11 p.m.)

Midnight (44) Globe Trekker: American Rockies. Repeated from last week. Ian Wright tours the American West — from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation to the site of Custer’s Last Stand — in the company of cowboys, Indians, and bikers. (Until 1 a.m.)

1:00 and 4:00 a.m. (44) Masterpiece Theatre’s American Collection: Our Town. Repeated from this evening at 9 p.m.

MONDAY 6

8:00 (64) Baseball? More divisional-playoff action — if necessary.

8:00 (44) Globe Trekker: Southern Mexico. Trekker Ian Wright celebrates the Day of the Dead, watches people dive off cliffs in Acapulco, checks in with the Zapatistas in San Cristóbal, and makes his way through the Lancondon jungle. (Until 9 p.m.)

9:00 (2) Horatio’s Drive: America’s First Road Trip. This could be great — provided Burns isn’t distracted by some PC tangent. (Was Horatio a pawn in the conspiracy to make America dependent on fossil fuel?) The true story of a Vermont doctor named Horatio Nelson Jackson, who drove across America in 1903, before there were any roads across America. To be repeated tonight at 1 a.m., and on Channel 44 at 1 and 4 a.m. (Until 11 p.m.)

9:00 (6) Football. The Indianapolis Colts versus the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

10:00 (44) The Blues: The Soul of a Man. Repeated. (Until midnight.)

1:00 and 4:00 a.m. (44) Horatio’s Drive: America’s First Road Trip. Repeated from this evening at 9 p.m.

3:00 a.m. (2) Globe Trekker: Southern Mexico. Repeated from this evening at 8 p.m.

TUESDAY 7

7:30 (2) La Plaza: Conversations with Ilan Stavans: Paquito D’Rivera. Stavans talks with multi-Grammy-winning Cuban jazz/classical artist and composer D’Rivera (Portraits of Cuba, Tropicana Nights), who holds, among other things, an honorary degree from Berklee. (Until 8 p.m.)

8:00 (2) Nova: Who Killed the Red Baron? Rittmeister Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen, logically shortened in nickname to "Der rote Kampfflieger" (in England to the Red Baron), won 80 dogfights over Europe during World War I. Then on April 21, 1918, the then 25-year-old Blue Max ace was killed over France while ill-advisedly chasing a Brit plane (yes, a Sopwith Camel) low into enemy territory. The Baron was shot in the chest, but nobody seems to know by whom. To be repeated tonight at midnight at 5 a.m. (Until 9 p.m.)

8:00 (64) Baseball. National League championship game #1.

9:00 (2) Ken Burns’s American Stories: Lewis and Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery, part one. We never watched this for fear that it would turn into a lecture on exploiting America’s natural resources and Native Americans. But the L&C trip was both important and exciting, so it might be worth the risk. To be concluded on Wednesday, starting at 9 p.m. To be repeated tonight at 1 a.m., and on Channel 44 at 1 and 4 a.m. (Until 11 p.m.)

9:00 (44) Austin City Limits. Repeated from Saturday at 8 p.m., and with Shemekia Copeland and Jimmie Vaughan.

10:00 (44) The Blues: The Road to Memphis. Repeated. (Until midnight.)

1:00 and 4:00 a.m. (44) Ken Burns’s American Stories: Lewis and Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery, part one. Repeated from this evening at 9 p.m.

WEDNESDAY 8

8:00 (2) Echoes of a Bitter Crossing: Lewis and Clark in Idaho. The overworked Office of Driving Things into the Ground at WGBH (see Great Museums, Saturday at 10:30 p.m.) offers us yet more on the L&C expedition — this one-hour documentary focuses on the tough trekking through Idaho. To be repeated tonight at midnight and 5 a.m. (Until 9 p.m.)

8:00 (64) Baseball. American League championship game #1 (or National League game #2).

9:00 (2) Ken Burns’s American Stories: Lewis and Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery, part two. The conclusion. To be repeated tonight at 1 a.m., and on Channel 44 at 1 and 4 a.m. (Until 11 p.m.)

10:00 (44) The Blues: Warming by the Devil’s Fire. Repeated. (Until midnight.)

1:00 and 4:00 a.m. (44) Ken Burns’s American Stories: Lewis and Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery, part two. Repeated from this evening at 9 p.m.

THURSDAY 9

7:30 (2) Basic Black: The Youth Vote. A survey of local community activists who are out trying to motivate Boston’s youth to vote. (Until 8 p.m.)

8:00 (2) The Greeks: Crucible of Civilization: Revolution. A three-part look at our big fat Greek legacy. The history of the Western civilization that started . . . well, Western civilization. To be repeated tonight at midnight and 5 a.m. (Until 9 p.m.)

8:00 (64) Baseball. American League championship game #2.

9:00 (2) Frontline: Truth, War, and Consequences. Why is Iraq a mess? You know why, because those dumb-asses in Washington didn’t pay attention to the millions of people around the world who tried to explain that waging a needless war would only destabilize an already unsettled region. But Frontline (starting its 22nd season tonight) traces the tragic blunder back to September 11, 2001, when Donny Rumsfeld decided he was going to manufacture a reason to bomb Iraq despite all evidence. From there followed a lot of in-fighting among the CIA, the military, civilians in the Pentagon, and our joke of a State Department. Apparently the squabbling was so distracting that nobody bothered to think about what we’d do after we "won" the invasion. (And, hi, Kate Cohen; hope you like your new job; we miss you here.) To be repeated tonight at 1 a.m. (Until 10:30 p.m.)

10:00 (44) The Blues: Godfathers and Sons. Repeated. (Until midnight.)

2:00 a.m. (44) Soundstage. Featuring music from Peter Cetera and Amy Grant. (Until 3 a.m.)