BY CLIF GARBODEN

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 for you 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 each Gospel was written for a targeted audience of potential converts; and that it took centuries for the Jesus cult to become a religious movement. Peace on earth anyway, okay? The idea is to have faith in ideals, not in some church. (Until midnight.)

FRIDAY 19

3:30 a.m. (2) P.O.V.: What I Want My Words To Do to You. Repeated from last week. 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. (Until 5 a.m.)

SATURDAY 20

Noon (12) Basketball. Kentucky versus Indiana.

1:30 (64) Football. The Atlanta Falcons versus the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

3:00 (44) Drum Corps International Competition 2003. Blaring and beating from the Citrus Bowl in Orlando. The annual competition of the nation’s finest D&B bands. (Until 7:30 p.m.)

5:00 (12) Football. The Kansas City Chiefs versus the Minnesota Vikings.

6:00 (2) The Mystery of the Three Kings. Uh . . . they were really tenors? Who were those turbaned men? What kinds of names are Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar? Where did they get the myrrh? All is explained here. (Until 7 p.m.)

7:00 (2) The Magic Never Ends: The Life and Work of C.S. Lewis. Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963) was an odd man, by all reports, but he gave the world The Screwtape Letters and the child’s Christian allegory The Chronicles of Narnia. A look at his life at Oxford and Cambridge and in other higher-ed circles. And for your youngsters: no, this is not the guy who wrote The Lord of the Rings, but he is famous for reviewing J.R.R. Tolkien’s first Middle Earth novel. To be repeated tonight at 1 a.m. (Until 8 p.m.)

8:00 (2) J.R.R. Tolkien: Master of the Rings. Continuing with Popular British Academics Appreciation Night, we leave Narnia and visit the Shire. A look at John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892-1973) — another Oxford man who wrote bestsellers on the side — and his timeless pop works (not to mention more scholarly but equally influential pieces like "Beowulf, the Monsters and the Critics"). To be repeated tonight at 2 a.m. (Until 9:30 p.m.)

8:28 (6) Football. The Pats versus the New York Jets. (Call it 8:30 p.m.)

9:30 (2) Judy Garland: The Concert Years. Twenty-five numbers from Judy, including "The Man That Got Away," "As Long As He Needs Me," and "Pill-Poppin’ Poppa" (just kidding), and "Over the Rainbow." To be repeated tonight at 3:30 a.m. (Until 11 p.m.)

11:00 (2) In the Life. If this is indeed the December ITL edition, we’ll get a hard look at the religious right’s relentless attack on the gay and lesbian community — including how politicians handle the anti-gay pressure, battles over such children’s books as Heather Has Two Mommies, and (you think you’ve got it bad) the lives of gay Muslims in America. (Until midnight.)

Midnight (2) Austin City Limits: Featuring music from Jason Marz and Fountains of Wayne (name one group you thought you’d never see on Austin City Limits). (Until 1 a.m.)

SUNDAY 21

1:00 (64) Football. The New York Giants versus the Dallas Cowboys.

3:00 (2) Live from Lincoln Center: The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Sir Andrew Davis conducts all six of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos. (Until 5 p.m.)

3:30 (44) The Greatest Store in the World. Repeated from last week. Dervla Kirwan (Assumpta in Ballykissangel) stars as the mother of two daughters who live in a department store. Why? Dunno. Hey, it’s a holiday heartwarmer and probably has something to do with the TMOC (True Meaning of Christmas). To be repeated today at 5:30 p.m. on Channel 2. (Until 5 p.m.)

4:00 (25) Football. The San Francisco 49ers versus the Philadelphia Eagles.

5:00 (44) A Christmas Carol. Repeated from last week. 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. Us, we’re still waiting for the Star Trek Christmas Carol, where the Enterprise encounters an alien ship captained by a greedy interstellar merchant named Ecc-Scrooge (a/k/a Ol’ Three Eyes) who’s forcing the Gargumption anti-matter miners to work on Christmas until Spock induces a mind-meld vision that shows the evil trader the error of his ways. (Until 6:15 p.m.)

6:15 (44) Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (movie). Big Daddy Burl Ives deals with a host of non-traditional family values in this 1958 Tennessee Williams adaptation. Liz Taylor (before she turned into a total freak) stars as Maggie le Chat; Paul Newman plays her drunken hubby. (Until 8:05 p.m.)

8:05 (44) Quo Vadis? (movie). None of your business. A 1951 Mervyn LeRoy epic from the novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz about revolt, intrigue, politics, religion, disloyalty, and love in Nero’s Rome. Robert Taylor plays the Centurion; Deborah Kerr wears her most fetching tunics as his forbidden Christian love. Peter Ustinov plays Nero to the hilt. (Until 11 p.m.)

9:00 (2) Masterpiece Theatre: The Forsyte Saga, part one. A replay of last year’s remake of John Galsworthy’s Victorian saga of life among the much-too-rich in London. This reprise is designed to lure new fans to the upcoming The Forsyte Saga, Series 2 that will show up on PBS in February. (Until 11 p.m.)

MONDAY 22

8:00 (44) Globe Trekker: Austria and Switzerland. This must be the start of a new series of shows. Trekker Zay (whoever he is) wanders through the Alps, where he dredges up some Nazi relics and takes a 700-foot bungee jump. (Until 9 p.m.)

9:00 (6) Football. The Green Bay Packers versus the Oakland Raiders.

9:00 (44) Bud Greenspan’s Kings of the Ring: Legends of Heavyweight Boxing. Profiles of our larger famous fighters — Ali, Joe Louis, Jack Johnson, and Jack Dempsey. (Until 10:30 p.m.)

10:00 (2) Great Performances: Andrea Bocelli: Sacred Arias. The Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, under Myung-Whun Chung (of the Sicilian Chung family), backs Andrea in a collection of serious holiday songs from Rome. (Until 12:30 a.m.)

1:00 a.m. (2) Great Performances: Bernstein’s "Wonderful Town" in Concert. Audra McDonald, Thomas Hampson, Kim Criswell, and Brent Barrett join Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic in tunes from the 1953 eight-Tony-winning musical about a pair of Midwestern sisters who move to Greenwich Village. (Until 2 a.m.)

TUESDAY 23

8:00 (2) Nova: Sinking City of Venice. We’ll have to eat upstairs; it’s almost high tide. As the ice caps melt and the seas rise, the idea of building a port city on a collection of coastal islands amid a network of canals seems less of a good idea than it did back in the year 452. Here comes the Adriatic. (Until 9 p.m.)

8:00 (44) Jack Paar: Smart TV. Before there was Carson and Leno, there was Jack Paar on late-night TV. Before there was Jack Paar, there was Steve Allen, but this isn’t about him. Although Allen did more and better comedy bits, Paar pretty much invented the desk/guest/couch/musical-interlude format that survives to this day. And he didn’t just interview celebs out to promote their latest. He brought on Robert Kennedy, Fidel Castro, and Muhammad Ali — as well as a collection of regulars whose primary claim to fame outside Manhattan was that they were Paar regulars. This new tribute show — with commentary and reflections on the Jack they knew by Dick Cavett (TV’s only other intelligent talk-show host), Regis Philbin, and Jonathan Winters — replays some highlight moments from his 1957-1965 late-night show. (Until 9 p.m.)

9:00 (2) Christmas at Baylor. It’s not just about football any more. They have musical organizations that do Christmas songs. (Until 10 p.m.)

9:00 (44) Nuncrackers. We never really delighted in watching nuns cut up. Perhaps that’s because we remember the nuns from the old hood for the sadists that they were. But here’s more in the Nunsense vein, with Rue McClanahan (also one our least-favorites) back as Mom Superior. With an appearance by the late John Ritter. (Until 11 p.m.)

WEDNESDAY 24

8:00 (2) Arthur’s Perfect Christmas. If anyone can uncover the TMOC (True Meaning of Christmas), it’s that lovable whatever the heck he is, Arthur. (Until 9 p.m.)

8:00 (44) The Three Tenors Christmas. Caspar Carreras, Melchior Domingo, and Balthasar Pavarotti do "White Christmas" really too damn loud. (Until 9:15 p.m.)

9:00 (2) Great Performances: The Nutcracker from the Royal Ballet. Alina Cojocaru stars in the current standard PBS Nutcracker, Anthony Dowell’s Royal Ballet Covent Garden production. (Until 11 p.m.)

9:15 (44) Classic Drama Encores: The Royal Family. That’s the Edna Ferber/George S. Kaufman comedy about an oddball theatrical family. This is a 1977 production starring Rosemary Harris, Eva Le Gallienne, Ellis Rabb, and Sam Levene. (Until 11:15 p.m.)

CHRISTMAS 25

5:30 (6) Basketball. The Dallas Mavericks versus the Sacramento Kings.

8:30 (6) Basketball. The Houston Rockets versus the Los Angeles Lakers.

9:00 (2) Marvin Hamlisch’s Salute to the Troops. Christ is born! Kill an Iraqi! Marvin, like other washed-up personalities before him, cashes in on the sentimentality of having military troops stationed in some unwelcoming foreign country when they should be home celebrating with their families. Look, Marvin, and the rest of you caring and concerned folks: give the whole world a Christmas present and bring our guys home. Just say, "Ooops, sorry, Iraq, didn’t mean to make such a fuss. Bye." Take some oil if you must, but get out of there soon, and come home to protect Marvin Hamlisch. (Until 10 p.m.)

10:00 (2) Christmas at Belmont. Actually, it’s in Nashville. Brenda "Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree" Lee hosts this down-home musical concert. (Until 11 p.m.)