BY CLIF GARBODEN

THURSDAY 23

7:30 (2) Basic Black: A Reporter’s Notebook. An interview with CBS reporter Byron Pitts, who’s covered the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the WTC attacks from Ground Zero. (Until 8 p.m.)

8:00 (2) Greeks: Crucible of Civilization: Empire of the Mind. Athens (the smart guys) goes to war with Sparta (the jocks) and the thugs win. (Until 9 p.m.)

8:00 (64) Baseball. World Series Game #5. Where would have been the glory in coming out on top of a postseason that, Grady and Pedro aside, will be remembered for the Red Sox making their fans look civilized by comparison, real and imagined beanballs, ugly fan interference, and the already fabled Charge of the Zimmer Brigade?

9:00 (2) Frontline: Failure To Protect: The Taking of Logan Marr. An ugly story about a bunch of Mainers whose lives would make them prime contenders for the Trailer Trash of the Year Award. But amid all the marrying, estranging, molesting, drug abusing, screaming, divorcing, and remarrying, two children ended up being battered around, and one of them was murdered by a human-services worker who was taking care of her. To be repeated tonight at 1 a.m., and, on Channel 44, at 2 and 4 a.m. (Until 10 p.m.)

FRIDAY 24

12:30 a.m. (2) Masterpiece Theatre: Goodbye Mr. Chips. Repeated from last week. James (Lost Horizon) Hilton’s 1934 novel about a schoolmaster at a British boys school adapted for TV. Martin Clunes stars as Chipping. (Until 2:30 a.m.)

SATURDAY 25

Noon (6) Football. Notre Dame versus Boston College.

1:00 (10) Horse Racing. The Breeders’ Cup, live from picturesque Santa Anita Park. (Until 6 p.m. or you pick a winner.)

3:30 (6) Football. Purdue versus Michigan or USC versus Washington.

8:00 (2) Broadway’s Lost Treasures. Not entirely lost. A collection of Tony Awards–ceremony performance clips from 1967 through ’86. Featuring Yul Brynner, Carol Channing, Zero Mostel, Joel Grey, Angela Lansbury, and more. (Until 10 p.m.)

7:30 (64) Baseball? World Series Game #6, assuming it’s dragged out this long.

8:00 (6) Sleeping Beauty (movie). You never know with Disney these days. This might be the classic 1959 animated fairy tale with the borrowed Tchaikovsky soundtrack. Or it could be a live-action remake with Ben Affleck as the bewitched slumbering prince and Thora Birch as the warrior princess who rescues him. Who knows? (Until 10 p.m.)

Midnight (2) Austin City Limits. Featuring music from Robert Plant. (Until 1 a.m.)

2:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time Returns. Fall back. It’s kinda like reliving an hour — except the same stuff usually doesn’t happen the second time through. (Until 2 a.m. on Easter Sunday 2004.)

SUNDAY 26

1:00 (12) Football. The Pats versus the Cleveland Browns.

2:10 (44) The Postman Always Rings Twice (movie). From 1946, when mail came right to the door. Lana Turner and John Garfield star in the classic tragedy about a hired man, his affair with the boss’s wife, and their ill-advised plot to murder hubby. (Until 4:05 p.m.)

4:00 (12) Football. The New York Jets versus the Philadelphia Eagles.

4:00 (64) Football. The San Francisco 49ers versus the Arizona Cardinals.

4:30 (2) Lawrence of Arabia: The Battle for the Arab World. Repeated from last week. The strange life of T.E. Lawrence and the sad legacy of his adventures in the Mideast. That 1962 David Lean epic movie, unlikely as the plot may seem, is largely accurate. (Until 7 p.m.)

7:00 (64) Baseball? The final match-up of this exhausting season, World Series Game #7 — if necessary.

9:00 (2) Masterpiece Theatre: The Hound of the Baskervilles. Richard Roxburgh and Ian Hart (Professor Quirrell) star as Holmes and Watson in this 2002 remake of the Conan Doyle standard. No dogs are listed in the credits, but several animatronics engineers are. Matt Day (Shackleton) plays Sir Henry Baskerville, heir to the Great Grimpen Mire. Ah, those land-poor Brits. To be repeated tonight at midnight and 4 a.m., and on Channel 44 at 1 and 4 a.m. (Until 11 p.m.)

9:00 (12) What Women Want (movie). Mel Gibson stars as a male chauvinist who gets hit on the head and can suddenly read women’s minds. Limps along with the help of Helen Hunt, Marisa Tomei, Valerie Perrine, and Alan Alda. (Until 11:30 p.m.)

11:30 (2) Fiesta in the Sky. The producers of this half-hour film about ballooning have taken hostages from among the families of WGBH executives and are ransoming them one at a time in exchange for the station’s airing this show. To be repeated at least twice this week. (Until midnight.)

MONDAY 27

8:00 (44) Globe Trekker: Spiritual Journeys. Justine Shapiro and other Trekkers appear in this anthology tour of the world of the spirit — from Buddhist monks in the Himalaya to Filipinos who "re-enact" the Crucifixion to Inca worshippers in the Andes and more. (Until 9 p.m.)

9:00 (6) Football. The Miami Dolphins versus the San Diego Chargers.

9:00 (10) Radio Music Awards. Live from Vegas. The best explanation we can come up with as to what this is can be found at www.grammy.ru/intl/ru/gn/articles/200309192336-2741.htm (Until 11 p.m.)

9:00 (44) Chasing the Sun: Heroes and Daredevils and The Visionaries. Half of a four-part series on the history of aviation, aired to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers’ flight. (Until 11 p.m.)

TUESDAY 28

5:30 (44) Fiesta in the Sky. Loyal PBS watchers have seen this show more times than Aunt Mildred’s seen The Sound of Music. (Until 6 p.m.)

7:30 (2) La Plaza: Last Chance DNA. Yet another repeat of this documentary about Benjamin LaGuer, who claimed he was innocent of rape while he spent 19 years in a Massachusetts prison, only to have DNA evidence work against him. (Until 8 p.m.)

8:00 (2) Nova: The Elegant Universe. Brian Greene, physicist, explains string theory, which goes something like this: we have the world on a string; got that string around our finger; every time we move our finger, we can make the rain go. Life is a beautiful thing as long as we hold the string, and we’d be a silly so-and-so if we should ever let go. But without rain, the world would shrivel up and all life would end. So string theory holds that we hang in a balance controlled by a contradiction. Which goes a long way toward explaining why everybody acts like a silly so-and-so every now and then. To be repeated tonight at midnight and 4 a.m., and on Channel 44 at 1 and 3 a.m. (Until 10 p.m.)

8:00 (6) It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Yeah, yeah. Same old story. (Until 8:30 p.m.)

9:00 (44) Indie Select: Shalom Y’All. An exploration of the Jewish experience in the American South. A film by Brian Bain. (Until 10 p.m.)

10:00 (2) Alan Alda in Scientific American Frontiers. The name of this show gets longer every season. Used to be just Scientific American Frontiers. Then it was Alan Alda’s Scientific American Frontiers. Now we’ve added a preposition. Next year it’ll be Host Alan Alda in the TV Science Program Scientific American Frontiers. Tonight Alan digs (in) America at archæological sites at Jamestown, Monticello, and Williamsburg. To be repeated tonight at 2 a.m. (Until 11 p.m.)

10:00 (44) Independent Lens: Shaolin Ulysses: Kungfu Monks in America. The religious/cultural juxtaposition theme continues as we get a look at a band of fighting monks from the Shaolin Monastery who wander through America looking for fresh ass to kick in New York City, Houston, and Las Vegas. If approached, just buy the damn incense. (Until 11 p.m.)

WEDNESDAY 29

8:00 (2) Great Performances: The Los Angeles Philharmonic Inaugurates Walt Disney Concert Hall. Which is the LA Phil’s new Frank Gehry–designed performance place. Esa-Pekka Salonen and — oh dear — John Williams conduct; program to be a surprise, but Josh Groban, Tom Hanks, Audra McDonald, Steven Spielberg, and Catherine Zeta-Jones are scheduled to appear, so we’re guessing it’s not Mahler. To be repeated tonight at 1 a.m. (Until 9:30 p.m.)

9:30 (2) American Masters: James Brown: Soul Survivor. At age 70, the Godfather of Soul surely qualifies as the genre’s Grandfather as well. A celebration of the hardest-working man in show biz. You might quibble with his politics, his personality, and his personal habits, but he gave the world a lot of good times. He also gave the world the lyrics "Way over yonder can you dig that mess?/The sister standing out there dressed up/In a brand new mini dress/Look hey over there!/Do you see that boy playing that horn?/And dig that soul brother; look at him doing the popcorn." Who can forget it? To be repeated tonight at 1 and 4:30 a.m. on Channel 44. (Until 11 p.m.)

Midnight (2) Fiesta in the Sky. This is actually a build-up to a fundraising gimmick. They’re going to take bids on the only existing tape of this program. (Until 12:30 a.m.)

THURSDAY 30

8:00 (2) The Spartans. The rise and fall of that militaristic city state. We’ve always had a hard spot in our hearts for the Spartans, relating them to the thugs and nitwits who used to steal our hat at the bus stop. Hope they’re all dead. To be repeated tonight at midnight. (Until 9 p.m.)

9:00 (2) Frontline/World. The international newsmagazine returns. We never know what’s being covered in advance. Probably good stuff. To be repeated tonight at 1 a.m. (Until 10 p.m.)

The 525th line: Die, Yuppie Scum, Die! Dept. Revisited. The usual trick with TV advertising is to associate your product with a lifestyle to which viewers aspire. So some SUV comes with a no-squabbling vacationing family; some beer invites you to a friendly bar with attractive people who don’t find you repulsive; asthma meds let you love your children (outdoors — in weed fields). And a subscription to the New York Times, it now appears, turns you into a smug, success-driven, obnoxious, single-child family with a sterile upper-middle-class house and two preoccupied working parents. At least that’s the impression of the target audience given by the oft-repeated "busy-family testimonial" TV commercial pushing NYT home delivery. Mom, pretentious in her nouvelle-bitch tailored suit, keeps up with the clan’s investments. Dad, looking like a glorified paper pusher in his tidy self-important business suit, loves that way the Times gives him more than one way to look at a story. (Dad’s very deep — and very very sincere — when he explains this. As if it were connected with his first truly original thought.) And the geeky daughter (who’d never miss the comic pages) relies on the Times to guide her through the frontiers of the Internet. These people suck. These people are the self-absorbed space wasters who invite Satan into our culture. We’d be embarrassed to subscribe to the Times for fear of being associated with them. The NYT ad agency thinks this is what people want to be like?! What’s the pitch — "Subscribe to the Times and you can be the people the rest of us despise!"? We can only hope that they’re mistaken . . . and that mom gets collared for insider trading, dad has a single-car drunk-driving accident, and the geeky daughter runs away and becomes a groupie for a lesbian-biker band called Skull Cruncher.