BY CLIF GARBODEN

THURSDAY 22

5:30 a.m. (2) Fiesta in the Sky. Martin Moonrock’s salt-encrusted Saab rounded the corner fast and haphazardly. Panicked, Martin was driving like an Asian nun on a cell phone, and it’s no wonder he couldn’t stop in time to avoid the hot-air balloon that had landed, without explanation, on Route 28. In the confusion that followed, three of the balloon passengers were severely injured, and one lost his sunglasses. Several small animals cowered in the breakdown lane, fearing for their furry little lives. When the police finally arrived, they had no idea what could have happened. "What the bejeezus is all this!" exclaimed Officer Craemer. (Until 6 a.m.)

FRIDAY 23

9:30 (2) The American Experience: Citizen King. Repeated from last week. A chronicle of the last five years (1963-’68) of Dr. Martin Luther King’s life documented through eyewitness accounts of his friends, movement associates, journalists, cops, and historians — but not, we presume, from the FBI operatives who spied on him. To be repeated tonight at 1:30 a.m. (Until 11:30 p.m.)

10:00 (44) Coupling, "Unconditional Sex." Cell-phone farce is one of this show’s best gambits, and this episode raises the art form to a new level. Jeff has a drink with a woman named Wilma who wants to borrow him from his girlfriend, Julia, who has the flu. A tour de force for Richard Coyle as Jeff (check out a clip at

www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/coupling/series3_clip3.html), who resolves the episode’s situation by confessing to murder. By the way, there’s lots of truly fun stuff for Coupling fans at www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/coupling/. And from that site, we learn that there’s a fourth series in the works that’ll be taping Wednesdays (at 7 p.m.) on February 25 and March 3, 10, 17, 24, and 31. Those of you with private jets may want to apply for tickets (see the BBC Web site). (Until 10:30 p.m.)

SATURDAY 24

2:00 (12) Basketball. Duke versus Georgetown.

4:00 (12) Basketball. Auburn versus Florida.

5:00 (2) JFK: Breaking the News. An excellent documentary about the reporting of the John F. Kennedy assassination. What’s totally remarkable is the casual access that the media had to crime scenes and police stations. It was almost as though the cops acknowledged that their work wasn’t meant to be secret. My, how times have changed. (Until 6:30 p.m.)

6:30 (2) James Taylor: Pull Over. A Taylor concert pushing his new album but relying on classics from the "Sweet Baby James" era. (Until 8 p.m.)

8:00 (2) Broadway’s Lost Treasures. A collection of ancient production numbers performed on televised Tony Awards shows featuring Zero Mostel, Yul Brynner, Carol Channing, Joel Grey, Angela Lansbury, and more. (Until 10 p.m.)

8:00 (44) Roy Orbison and Friends: A Black and White Night. Over and over they show this. And it’s still a great concert, but it’s rapidly approaching the replay record set by Fiesta in the Sky. Old Roy croons and rocks along with Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne, Elvis Costello, k.d. Lang, Bonnie Raitt, Jennifer Warren, and lots of other recognizable faces. (Until 10 p.m.)

10:00 (2) The Grateful Dead: The Closing of Winterland. A memorable finale at the Winterland Ballroom with Jerry and the gang as lit up as they got. (Until midnight.)

Midnight (2) Austin City Limits. Featuring music from Keith Urban and Rodney Crowell. (Until 1 a.m.)

SUNDAY 25

Noon (2) Frontline: From Jesus the Christ. If you got your history of Christianity from The Robe and a pack of Twice-Blessed Devotion Cards ("Collect the Whole Set or Go to Hell"), you’ve been seriously misled. The early church was hardly a unified movement, and what we have today is as much the result of politics and military conquests as of theosophical debate and faith. Now it can be told. And it’s pretty interesting. To be repeated this evening at 7 p.m. on Channel 44. (Until 5 p.m.)

12:30 (6) Basketball. The Sacramento Kings versus the Dallas Mavericks.

2:00 (12) Basketball. Michigan versus Purdue.

4:00 (12) Basketball. Kentucky versus Notre Dame.

7:00 (10) Golden Globes Arrival Special. Celebrities walk into a building. Remarkably, most of them know who made their clothes. (Until 8 p.m.)

8:00 (10) The 61st Golden Globe Awards. For those who can’t wait for the Oscars, here’s what the Hollywood foreign press has to say about Hollywood. (Until 11 p.m.)

9:00 (2) Masterpiece Theatre: The Forsyte Saga, part six. Soames wants Irene back. Say goodnight, Irene. To be repeated tonight at midnight, and on Channel 44 at 1 and 4 a.m. (Until 10 p.m.)

9:00 (4) Deep Impact (movie). One of 1998’s several apocalyptic films. This one has our planet threatened by a colliding comet. Robert Duvall and Morgan Freeman bail us out. (Until 11 p.m.)

Midnight (10) Golden Globes — Backstage Access. Celebs hold press conferences; TV interviewers pretend they actually know the people they’re talking to. (Until 1 a.m.)

MONDAY 26

8:00 (6) Armageddon (movie). The end of the world doesn’t seem so bad compared with this 1998 explosion fest about a team of crazy oil drillers saving the earth from a giant asteroid. Careers jeopardized by this effort included those of Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler, Bruce Willis, and Billy Bob Thornton. (Until 11 p.m.)

8:00 (44) Globe Trekker: Tuscany. Trekker Megan McCormack basks in the Tuscan sun, tours the Duomo in Florence, survives the Palio in Siena, leans into Pisa, samples the local wine, and parties with the jet set. (Until 9 p.m.)

9:00 (2) The American Experience: John Brown’s Holy War. A tempestuous man with a righteous cause and a violent streak that made him the Osama bin Laden of the 1850s, John Brown later became an anti-slavery icon and a black hero. Slave revolts are never pretty. To be repeated tonight at 4:30 a.m., and on Channel 44 at 1 and 4 a.m. (Until 10:30 p.m.)

TUESDAY 27

7:30 (2) La Plaza: Conversations with Ilan Stavans: Rubén Martínez. A chat with the author of Crossing Over, which is a history of Mexican immigration into the US. (Until 8 p.m.)

8:00 (2) Nova: Lost King of the Maya. A long, long time ago in the once thriving kingdom of Copán (now northern Honduras), a left-handed warrior seized control and began a dynasty that held out for four centuries. The Copán site was first stumbled over by white men in 1839, but archæologists are just now beginning to decipher the hieroglyphs that tell this ancient ruler’s story. To be repeated tonight at 2:30 a.m., and on Channel 44 at 1 and 4 a.m. (Until 9 p.m.)

9:00 (2) Alan Alda Scientific American Frontiers: Losing It. Even SAF has jumped on the obesity bandwagon. This is the second show devoted to weight loss — a sequel to last season’s "Fat and Happy," which looks at shedding pounds and keeping them shed. To be repeated tonight at 1:30 a.m., and on Channel 44 at 2 and 5 a.m. (Until 10 p.m.)

9:00 (44) Indie Select: The Diary of Sacco and Vanzetti. David Rothauser, a Brookline filmmaker, used the real-life locations for this docudrama about the trial of Nicola and Bartolomeo, who were executed in 1927 for murder, immigration, and presumed Bolshevism. Rothauser takes the part of Bart Vanzetti, upon whose letters and speeches this version is based. (Until 10 p.m.)

10:00 (2) Kids: Trying To Trim Down. We are indeed the fat nation, and our chubby ways begin in childhood. This special looks at what makes kids fat and how the little porkers can be treated. The Bush administration, of course, has suggested repealing the child-labor laws, on the ground that you never see a fat 12-year-old coal miner. To be repeated tonight at 12:30 a.m. (Until 11 p.m.)

10:00 (44) Independent Lens: Why Can’t We Be a Family Again? and Downpour Resurfacing. A cinéma-vérité Oscar winner from filmmakers Roger Weisberg and Murray Nossel about a pair of brothers who long for a reunion with Mom. Also on the bill, we have a interview with poet/therapist Robert Hall filmed by Frances Nkara. (Until 11 p.m.)

WEDNESDAY 28

8:00 (2) Art Close Up. We’re told (with considerable pride) that "WGBH’s monthly arts series returns in January with a new look and a new name." Okay. What was the old name? And if it’s a different show with a different name, how can it represent the return of the old show? Anyway, we figure they’re talking about Greater Boston Arts, which was always confusing because of that Emily Rooney program. Whatever. Tonight’s show includes features on how choreographer Twyla Tharp saved her new musical, Movin’ Out; how Pat Keck makes her kinetic human-form sculptures; and how Danica Phelps (who for all we know is a tuba player) "blurs the line between everyday life and art." Following those bit, we have a half-hour on photographic manipulation. (Until 9 p.m.)

8:00 (44) The Civil War: Simply Murder (1863) and The Universe of Battle (1863). The remastered replay of the Ken Burns documentary masterpiece continues with the siege of Vicksburg and the Battle of Gettysburg. To be repeated tonight at 1:30 a.m. on Channel 2. (Until 10:30 p.m.)

9:00 (2) Live from Lincoln Center: New York Philharmonic: Mozart, Muti, and Quasthoff. Riccardo Muti conducts some Mozart arias performed by bass/baritone Thomas Quasthoff. To be repeated tonight at 4 a.m., and on Channel 44 at 1 and 4 a.m. (Until 11 p.m.)

THURSDAY 29

8:00 (2) Islam: Empire of Faith: The Ottomans. Why Suleiman was Magnificent and how the Ottoman Empire grew strong, sustained learning and civilization, and threatened the European bosses despite barbarian invasions. To be repeated tonight at 12:30 a.m. (Until 9 p.m.)

9:00 (2) Frontline: Beyond Baghdad. Reporter Martin Smith tours what’s left of Iraq — from the border with Turkey through the Sunnis of central Iraq and on to the holy cities of the south — to discover a profile of the country outside its seat of power. Sort of like visiting Minnesota and Mississippi and Oregon instead of getting your impression of America from Washington, DC. To be repeated tonight at 12:30 a.m. (Until 10 p.m.)

5:30 a.m. (2) Fiesta in the Sky. "Where is the Brittle Mermaid?!" cried the distraught housekeeper. "What’s the matter?" asked the wizened, toad-like pilot of the shimmering silver hot-air balloon. "My fingernails are dirty," she answered. "I have beach tar on my feet. My refrigerator is broken. And I feel lost in a wilderness where the trees have leaves of prisms that break the light in colors that no one knows the names of." "Ah, you’ll get over it," the pilot reassured her. "Life’s a running brook," he added, as he slowly ascended toward a cloud shaped like a waltzing racehorse. (Until 6 a.m.)