BY CLIF GARBODEN

THURSDAY 11

7:30 (2) A Dancer’s Life. A special filmed at the American Ballet Theatre School in New York in 1972 and aired to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Rudolf Noreen’s death. Old, old clips include looks at Noreen, Fernando Boones, Michael Suing, and Natalie Makeover. (Until 9 p.m.)

9:00 (2) The Every Brothers Reunion Concert. Don and Phil together again (a few years ago), still waking up Little Susie and wondering when they’ll be loved. (Until 10:30 p.m.)

9:00 (44) Nature: John Denver: Let This Be a Voice. The late smiling’ crooner’s last effort — a personalized nature film. (Until 10:30 p.m.)

FRIDAY 12

3:30 a.m. (2) His Girl Friday (movie). No sign of Fiesta in the Sky tonight, but they are replaying the classic 1940 newspaper comedy with Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell. We never mind listing this one, even if it’s on so late that only very sad people will watch it. (Until 5 a.m.)

SATURDAY 13

2:00 (12) Basketball. Missouri versus Gonzaga. ("Give us a G! . . . )

4:00 (12) Basketball. Kentucky versus Michigan.

6:30 (2) Viewer Favorites. Actually, there aren’t many viewer favorites out of the recent fundraising push. Fiesta in the Sky could be a viewer favorite, but the collection of washed-up music acts and self-help/empowerment clowns and corny European muzak-like performers they’ve been using as bait for contributors just doesn’t cut it. In fact, we’ve had usually loyal Channel 2 viewers swear to us they’re withholding their contributions this year because the fundraising months have been so record-settingly awful in 2003. Gotta feel sorry for public television; it does great work but just can’t attract the audience that watches Average Joe and Eat This Worm and Bachelorettes in Somalia, etc. So when it needs money, it reverts to non-controversial crap that’s so middle-of-the-road, it appeals to nobody. Look, here’s an idea. PBS is a non-profit — a charity. It accepts money from all sorts of foundations and goo-goo enterprises as well as from big-time capitalist pigs like Exxon-Mobil. Why can’t it accept charity from the entertainment industry? How about a movie studio’s donating the first-run TV rights to, say, the Lord of the Rings movies or any of those offbeat foreign comedies that show up at the Kendall Square Cinema, or for that matter any of those tried-and-true cable-viewer draws (The American President, etc.). Why can’t Bravo donate a few choice editions of Inside the Actors Studio to the cause? Would the cast of Will & Grace really object to producing a special PBS episode as a tax write-off? Of course, the automatic objection is that other entertainment outlets compete with PBS and might not want to help, but that’s simpleminded. A Will & Grace episode on PBS would attract viewers and money to PBS stations and act as a free promotion for its producers and for NBC. And run the donated programming with normal commercial breaks, not incessant in-studio sessions with poor John Kerr trying not to make a fool of himself to the tune of a background soundtrack that proves WGBH is the last place on earth where phones actually ring bells. Produce some real commercials begging for money. There are supposed to be all these good-guy liberals in the entertainment industry (and they’re rich). So why can’t Martin Sheen donate some work to public television? We’re betting he’s a bigger draw than Frankie Valli or André Rieu. Just a thought. (Until midnight.)

7:30 (44) Vicar of Dibley Christmas Episode Marathon. The Vicar of Dibley Brit-com grows on you. Star/vicar Dawn French gets easier to take as you embrace the finely tuned character-actor supporting cast (Emma Chambers, John Bluthal, Trevor Peacock). So this recap of Christmas episodes dating all the way back to the early ’90s might be fun. (Until 11 p.m.)

9:00 (6) I’ll Be Home for Christmas (movie). A 1998 Disney movie starring Jonathan Taylor Thomas (son Randy on Home Improvement and the title role in the neglected 2000 film Timothy Tweedle the First Christmas Elf) as Jake, the victim of a college-football-team payback prank where they dress him up in a Santa suit and strand him in the desert. Lacking the resources God gave cats, Jake decides to hitchhike across the country, during which odyssey he plays Santa to a cavalcade of interesting strangers. (Until 11 p.m.)

Midnight (2) Austin City Limits. Featuring music from Patty Loveless and the Del McCoury Band. (Until 1 a.m.)

SUNDAY 14

12:30 (2) Viewer Favorites. Live from Harvard — A Discussion of Russian Poetry . . . in Russian (we stole that joke from somebody; can’t remember who); Learn To Cha-Cha-Cha with Emily Rooney, Make Someone Happy — An Evening with Vic Damone, and One Word at a Time — An Eternity with Chuck Kramer. (Until 11 p.m.)

1:00 (12) Football. The Pats versus the Jacksonville Jaguars.

4:00 (64) Football. The Green Bay Packers versus the San Diego Chargers.

7:00 (44) Viewer Favorites. "Dale a tu cuerpo alegría Macarena" with Emily Rooney, How To Live a Long Life Through Understanding and Embracing the Lessons of AM Radio, Heal Your Soul with André Rieu, and Fiesta in the Burning Bush. (Until midnight.)

MONDAY 15

7:30 (2) Viewer Favorites. Fiesta in the Sky, Fiesta in a Puddle, Fiesta in the Forest, Barbie on Ice, Fiesta in a Cave, Arriverderci Baby — Yet Another Evening with Vic Damone, Fiesta in the Third Sub-Basement of the Kremlin . . . in Russian, A Child’s Christmas in Honolulu, Fiesta in Teapot, Learn To Live Better Through Soy Milk, Fiesta in Cleveland, Arthur on Ice, Teletubbies on Fire, The Night Chicago Died — A Paper Lace Reunion Concert at the Hynes Convention Center, Fiesta in the Gravy, Shouldn’t You Be Watching Something Else?, The Comeback of ’59 — Eddie Fisher at the Empire Room, A Child’s Christmas in Prison, Tonight You Belong to Them — Patience and Prudence Live at Red Rocks, Long Life Through Psycho-Epistemology, Secrets of the Teletubbies’ Diet, Here’s Vic!, Fiesta in the Breakdown Lane, Sha Na Na and Other Avatars of the Undead, and Fiesta in the Pie. (Until 11 p.m.)

8:00 (64) A Rock ’n’ Roll Christmas. You get the idea; they don’t list the performers. (Until 9 p.m.)

8:00 (44) Viewer Favorites. The 12 Days of Christmas in Interpretive Dance with Emily Rooney, Fiesta in the Rue Morgue, and Doo-Wop Ministry. (Until 11 p.m.)

9:00 (6) Football. The Philadelphia Eagles versus the Miami Dolphins.

TUESDAY 16

7:30 (2) La Plaza: Cyro Baptista and Beat the Donkey. This act won a Grammy. (Until 8 p.m.)

8:00 (2) Nova: Wright Brothers’ Flying Machine. The "definitive documentary on the invention of the airplane." Today is December 16. Exactly 100 years ago tomorrow. Orville and Wilbur took to the air for 12 seconds and managed to travel 120 feet. No snacks were served. To be repeated tonight at 1 a.m. (Until 9 p.m.)

9:00 (2) Kitty Hawk: The Wright Brothers’ Journey of Invention. A presumably less definitive (though much longer) documentary on the Wright Brothers’ invention. To be repeated tonight at 2 a.m. (Until 11 p.m.)

9:00 (44) Indie Select: Wanderings: A Journey To Connect. Filmmaker Nikila Cole and her daughter celebrate a "global bat mitzvah" and retrace the steps of Jews around the world. (Until 10 p.m.)

10:00 (44) P.O.V.: What I Want My Words To Do to You. Eve (Vagina Monologues) Ensler talks with 15 female inmates, many of them convicted murderers, at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in Westchester County, New York, about their crimes, crime in general, and their culpability. This won a documentary award at the Sundance Film Festival and will be repeated a lot (late-night) through the rest of the week. (Until 11:30 p.m.)

11:00 (2) Beyond Kitty Hawk: New England’s Pioneers of Flight. Wright Brothers’ Appreciation Night wraps up with filmmaker Al Ward’s documentary profiles of six ingenious Yankees who also flew before the rest of us. To be repeated tonight at 4 a.m. (Until midnight.)

2:00 a.m. (44) Independent Lens: Loaded Gun: Life and Death and Dickinson. That’s Emily "My Life Had Stood — a Loaded Gun" Dickinson, and this sassy indie bio clearly took a turn from documentary formula somewhere in mid production. Call it eccentric. Call it rough-edged. It’s still pretty cool, consisting mostly of auditions for a woman to play Emily. (Until 3 a.m.)

WEDNESDAY 17

8:00 (2) Dickens. A three-hour biography of Charles Dickens — from "Chapter One: I Am Born" (February 7, 1812) to "Edwin Drood: To Be Continued" (June 9, 1870). Your homework assignment is to find and read "A Dinner at Poplar Walk" (a/k/a "Mr. Minns and His Cousin"), Charles’s first published short story, for which he was neither credited nor paid. To be repeated tonight at midnight. (Until 11 p.m.)

8:00 (44) The Greatest Store in the World. Dervla Kirwan (Assumpta in Ballykissangel) stars as the mother of two daughters who live in a department store. Sounds odd; it’s purported to be a holiday heartwarmer. (Until 9:30 p.m.)

9:00 (6) Barbara Walters Presents the 10 Most Fascinating People of 2003. Barbara’s definition of fascinating may need some fine tuning. Not sure who the other seven are, but the show will feature Hillary Clinton, Beyoncé, and the guys from Queer Eye. (Until 10 p.m.)

9:00 (44) A Christmas Carol. A modern 2000 ITV version of the classic tale with Ross Kemp (star of the Brit soap East Enders) as a loan shark named E. Scrooge. (Until 10:30 p.m.)

THURSDAY 18

7:30 (2) Basic Black: Opera’s Honeyed Voice. A profile of baritone Robert Honeysucker. (Until 8 p.m.)

8:00 (2) Frontline: From Jesus to Christ: The First Christians. Just in time to question your faith for Christmas. A revisionist look at the life of Christ and the history of early Christianity that contends that Jesus wasn’t poor; that the Romans executed him because he rocked the boat but that most of his fellow Jews barely noticed his passing; that the Gospels were each written for targeted audiences of potential converts; and that it took centuries for the Jesus cult to become a religious movement. Peace on earth anyway, okay? (Until midnight.)