BY CLIF GARBODEN

THURSDAY 27

9:00 (2) Frontline: The Way the Music Died. This hour makes the case that the modern pop recording industry was born at Woodstock (and in terms of mass marketing and universal exposure, that’s true enough) but that the combined forces of industry consolidation, MTV, CDs, the Internet, and corporate greed have doomed it to extinction. To be repeated tonight at 5 a.m., and on Channel 44 at 2 and 4 a.m. (Until 10 p.m.)

FRIDAY 28

8:00 (64) Someone Like You (movie). A 1997 anti-romantic comedy (jilted woman writes a nasty newspaper column about her ex and true love travels a rocky road) with a fun cast: Ashley Judd, Greg Kinnear, Hugh Jackman, Marisa Tomei, and Ellen Barkin. (Until 10 p.m.)

9:30 (2) Alan Alda in Scientific American Frontiers: Worried Sick. The job, the car, the kids, the aged parents, the local election, the roofer, and a thousand more things. You got stress? Is it making you sick? Did Abraham Lincoln have stress, or is this overload of responsibilities a modern condition brought to us by faster communication? Relax, Alan Alda tries to answer these questions and more. (Until 10:30 p.m.)

SATURDAY 29

1:00 (64) Baseball. The Sox versus the Seattle Mariners.

4:00 (6) Basketball. The Los Angeles Sparks versus the Detroit Shock.

4:00 (44) Colonial House: Regime Change, Shake Up, The Reckoning, and Judgment Day. Repeated from last week. The band of re-creators trying to live life in a reconstructed 17th-century American colony lose their governor (who simply packs up and leaves) just in time to be visited by an agent from their Old World sponsors, who rearranges the indentured servants and tries to whip the place into shape. Then, the colonists are delighted with their successful harvest. To wrap things up, a panel of experts (though we’re not sure who alive today would be more expert on living in a 17th-century colony than the participants) judges the re-creators’ performance. To be repeated tonight at 9 p.m. and on Sunday at 3 p.m., both on Channel 2. (Until 8 p.m.)

8:00 (12) Ali (movie). Michael Mann’s 2001 bio of the Greatest starring Will Smith as the butterfly-floating, bee-stinging champ. Not the most coherent film ever made, but there’s lots of spirit, and Smith does a fantastic job of imitating Muhammad Ali’s walk and posture. With Jamie Fox, Jon Voight, and Mario Van Peebles (as Malcolm X). We’re surprised that the Bush administration is letting CBS show this. After all, Ali, besides being a universally beloved boxing legend, was a Muslim and a conscientious objector. (Until 10 p.m.)

8:00 (6) Hockey. The Calgary Flames versus the Tampa Bay Lightning in game #3 of the Stanley Cup final.

8:00 (10) Face/Off (movie). John Woo’s 1997 yarn about the ultimate plastic surgery — an operation that allows a cop to look exactly like the criminal he’s chasing. One of the faces is John Travolta’s, the other’s in Nicolas Cage’s. (Until 11 p.m.)

11:00 (2) In the Life: The Art World. Frank DeCaro (The Daily Show) hosts a show about gay and lesbian art. Among the featured segments are a look at the traditional (and not-so) Broadway theater (via Hairspray) and a visit with an HIV-positive Pueblo who makes Native American–based artworks out of pills. Plus, the politics of gay art and a profile of writer/publisher E. Lynn Harris, who began his career selling books out of the trunk of his car. (Until midnight.)

SUNDAY 30

11:00 a.m. (6) Auto Racing. The Indianapolis 500 in a spin. (Until 3:30 p.m.)

5:27 (44) Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (movie). Repeated from last week. Robert Redford and Paul Newman pretty much invented the modern buddy movie with director George Roy Hill’s 1969 Western. Co-starring the ever-fetching Katharine Ross. (Until 7:18 p.m.)

7:18 (44) The Making of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Repeated from last week. A behind-the-scenes show made back when the film was new. (Until 8 p.m.)

8:00 (2) National Memorial Day Concert. Ossie Davis hosts this year’s tribute, which, we hear, will dwell on wars we’ve already won, as opposed to the one we’re currently losing. There will be a special tribute to (US) service people who’ve been injured in Iraq. Those inbred sadists who served their country at Abu Ghraib prison likely won’t be mentioned. Erich Kunzel conducts the National Symphony Orchestra. Guest performers include Alison Krauss, Charles Durning, wanna-be WW2 vet Tom Hanks, Joshua Bell, Brian Stokes, and Joe Mantegna — some of whom will sing, some of whom will do inspirational readings. To be repeated tonight at 3 a.m., and on Channel 44 at midnight and 3 a.m. (Until 9:30 p.m.)

8:00 (44) The Miracle Worker (movie). The title role (Anne Bancroft) is based on Perkins School for the Blind’s Annie Sullivan, the woman who trained young Helen Keller to communicate through the dual disabilities of being deaf and blind. Patty Duke stars as Keller in Arthur Penn’s super-powerful adaptation of William Gibson’s play of the same name. (Until 9:47 p.m.)

9:00 (12) Tomorrow Never Dies (movie). A new high in oblique and illogical Bond-film titles. In a fairly accurate picture of contemporary mainstream media, Jonathan Pryce stars as a network exec willing to start a world war to bump up his ratings. Pierce Brosnan does better than most trying to be James Bond. (Until 11 p.m.)

9:00 (6) Line of Fire (movie). Leslie Bibb stars in what could be a TV pilot for a show about the (conspicuously not Italian) mob in Richmond, Virginia, and the FBI agents stationed nearby. (Until 11 p.m.)

9:47 (44) Mrs. Miniver (movie). It was 1942, and the deal was to promote the plight of the brave Brits in the face of assault from Nazi Germany. William Wyler’s movie about the relentlessly sacrificing middle-class Miniver clan is pure propaganda — but even the British believed it for a while. Greer Garson stars with Walter Pidgeon, Dame May Whitty, and Reginald Owen. (Until midnight.)

MONDAY 31

8:00 (6) Hockey. The Calgary Flames versus the Tampa Bay Lightning in game #4 of the Stanley Cup final.

8:00 (44) Globe Trekker: Southern Italy. Anything’s possible. We just received a program-schedule update that included no fewer than 28 changes in the Globe Trekker schedule. But this time and show weren’t mentioned, so we’re going with what we had. Trekker Justine Shapiro does Rome and the Vatican, then heads out of town to meet a famous miracle worker (who turns out to be dead) and takes a scenic ride along the Amalfi Coast. (Until 9 p.m.)

9:00 (2) The American Experience: War Letters. Every time there’s a war holiday, PBS drags out this poignant piece based on Andrew Carroll’s collection of letters to and from various fronts from the Revolution through Gulf War I. It’s probably best to stop the project now, so we don’t get: "Dear Mom, Sure is hot over here. Good thing we can turn on the showers while we’re interrogating the prisoners. Big opportunity yesterday — I tied a leash around a naked Iraqi’s neck and dragged him down the hall for the cameras. Snaps to come. Say hi to my uncle/brother Cletus and all our kids. . . . " To be repeated tonight at 5 a.m., and on Channel 44 at 2 and 4 a.m. (Until 10 p.m.)

9:00 (44) A Hot Dog Program. One of those "aren’t we Americans cute and folksy" documentaries about the national love of hot dogs, coverage of which includes everything from a gorging contest at Coney Island to a guy who sells reindeer dogs at the Iditarod. (Until 10 p.m.)

TUESDAY 1

8:00 (2) Nova: Death Star. Looking way out into space is, if you remember your laws of relativity, like looking into the past. So when astronomers locate violent explosions of gamma rays at the edge of the universe (as we know it), they get a peek at where we all began. To be repeated tonight at 4 a.m. (Until 9 p.m.)

8:00 (64) Summer Music Mania 2004. Jessica Simpson hosts this year’s pop fest. Featuring Ludacris, J-Kwon, the Black Eyed Peas, Rooney, 3 Doors Down, and more. (Until 10 p.m.)

9:00 (2) Alan Alda in Scientific American Frontiers: Mysteries of the Deep. Something about submarines. Here’s all we’ve been told: "From the recently discovered Hunley to the world-famous Alvin, here are stories of submarines and their pioneering crews." Got that? To be repeated tonight at 2 and 5 a.m. on Channel 44. (Until 10 p.m.)

9:00 (12) Miss Universe Pageant. Billy Bush (whoever he is) and Daisy Fuentes host this year’s intergalactic contest from Quito, Ecuador. (Until 11 p.m.)

9:00 (44) Independent Lens: The Weather Underground. Some three decades ago, political radicals Bernadine Dohrn, Bill Ayers, Mark Rudd, David Gilbert, decided that the only hope for the US government was for them to overthrow it. How this was expected to happen is still not entirely clear, but in the context of their times (and, unfortunately, ours), they may have had a point. Except for the violence stuff — that didn’t provide them with a very broad base. Anyway, in this film from Sam Green and Bill Siegel, the above-mentioned revolutionaries discuss the past in the context of the present. (Until 10:30 p.m.)

10:30 (44) P.O.V.: What I Want My Words To Do to You. Eve Ensler (The Vagina Monologues) conducts a playwriting class with 15 women inmates (mostly murderers) of the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in New York. The class includes Weather Undergrounders Kathy Boudin and Judith Clark. And in the end, the prisoners’ work is performed by Glenn Close, Marisa Tomei, Rosie Pérez, Hazelle Goodman, and Mary Alice. From filmmakers Madeleine Gavin, Judith Katz, and Gary Sunshine. (Until midnight.)

WEDNESDAY 2

8:00 (2) When I Fall in Love: The One and Only Nat King Cole. A most enjoyable collection of crudely recorded 1950s TV appearances by Mr. Unforgettable. (Until 9:30 p.m.)

9:00 (44) American Masters: Robert Capa: In Love and War. A fine profile of fabled war photographer Bob Capa, who documented the madness of the Spanish Civil War, World War II (he was the only civilian photog on the D-Day scene), and the early Indochina conflict (during which he was killed). (To be repeated tonight at 3 a.m. (Until 10:30 p.m.)

9:30 (2) Deacon John’s Jump Blues. NOLA blues legend Deacon John Moore pays tribute to the musicians who made the Big Easy the musical heartbeat of America. Guest performers include Dr. John, Allen Toussaint, Wardell Quezergue, and the Zion Harmonizers. (Until 11 p.m.)

THURSDAY 3

7:30 (2) Basic Black: After Freedom. Interviews with some of the artists whose work is being shown in the Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists’ show "A Decade of Democracy: Witnessing South Africa" in Roxbury. (Until 8 p.m.)

8:00 (2) The British Empire in Colour: Winds of Change. More historic (and sometimes rare) color footage of 20th-century British history. In tonight’s clips, we see the Empire fade into the Commonwealth as the Brits screw things up in Palestine and the Suez, butt heads with Commies in Malaysia, and crown a new queen. (Until 9 p.m.)

8:00 (6) Hockey. The Calgary Flames versus the Tampa Bay Lightning in if-necessary game #5 of the Stanley Cup final.

10:00 (2) Frontline: The Wall Street Fix. Yes, it’s true what you’ve suspected. Wall Street is a corrupt running-dog-capitalist institution designed to benefit only banks and insiders. You, the average investor, are just a pawn in their game. Want proof? This explanation of the WorldCom racket should persuade you to stuff that spare cash into your mattress. (Until 11 p.m.)