BY CLIF GARBODEN

THURSDAY 9

7:30 (2) Basic Black: No Parent Left Behind. Karen Mapp, Boston’s deputy school superintendent, discusses what may be the most important aspect of education reform — parental involvement — with local school parents. (Until 8 p.m.)

8:00 (10) Joey. Matt LeBlanc, extending his Joey character from Friends, and the totally appealing Drea de Matteo (Adriana on The Sopranos) try to make it on their own. (Until 8:30 p.m.)

9:00 (2) Wide Angle: Young, Muslim, and French. French schools recently banned the wearing of traditional Islamic garb. French Muslims take a dim view of this religion-based restriction. The BBC’s Mishal Husain explores the issue up close at a school outside Paris. (Until 10 p.m.)

9:00 (6) Football. The Pats versus the Indianapolis Colts.

10:00 (10) Medical Investigations. Riding the CSI bandwagon, this is the pilot season opener of a show about National Institute of Health investigators who respond to threatening outbreaks of dread diseases. Boomtown’s Neal McDonough and The Practice’s Kelli Williams star. (Until 11 p.m.)

FRIDAY 10

11:00 a.m. (4) Tennis. The US Open men’s doubles final and the women’s singles semifinals. (Until 6 p.m., with a half-hour break for news at 12:30 p.m.)

9:00 (44) Nova: Why the Towers Fell. Repeated from last week. An engineering look at the World Trade Center towers and why they couldn’t withstand being clobbered by giant passenger planes full of explosive fuel. No big surprise to us, but it seems some buildings would have fared better. (Until 10 p.m.)

10:00 (10) Medical Investigation. The series finds it time slot. See Thursday at 10 p.m. (Until 11 p.m.)

10:00 (44) Frontline: Sacred Ground. Repeated from last week. A report on the first year of negotiations to decide what sort of memorial to build on the site of the WTC attacks, this focuses on the travails of Freedom Tower architect Daniel Libeskind, who saw the project dissolve into partisan politics and ideological squabbling. (Until 11 p.m.)

SATURDAY 11

Noon (12) Tennis. The US Open men’s semi-finals. (Until 6 p.m.)

Noon (6) football. UCLA versus Illinois.

3:30 (6) Football. Marshall versus Ohio State, or North Carolina versus Virginia.

3:30 (10) Football. Notre Dame versus Michigan.

4:55 (44) John Lennon’s Jukebox. Repeated from last week. A collector in Bristol, England, has an old jukebox that once belonged to J. Lennon, and it’s still programmed with his top 41 faves from the early days. These include Wilson Pickett’s "Midnight Hour," Fontella Bass’s "Rescue Me," and Otis Redding’s "My Girl." This special reviews those fabulous ’60s singles and traces their influence on the Beatles’ œuvre. To be repeated tonight at 2 a.m. on Channel 2, and on Sunday at 5 p.m. on Channels 2 and 44. (Until 5:52 p.m.)

6:24 (44) Blithe Spirit (movie). Go figure: this film is listed under the heading "Woody Allen Film Package," though Woody wasn’t packaging much film in 1945 when David Lean directed this adaptation of Noël Coward’s play about a man whose second marriage is haunted by his first wife’s ghost. Margaret Rutherford, Rex Harrison, and Constance Cummings star. (Until 8 p.m.)

6:30 (2) Mystery: The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, Series 3: Playing for the Ashes. Repeated from last week. Nathaniel Parker and Sharon Small return as the aristocrat detective and his low-class sidekick to investigate the sordid demise of a beloved cricket player. To be repeated on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. on Channel 44. (Until 8 p.m.)

8:00 (12) Tennis. The US Open women’s final — in prime time. (Until 10 p.m.)

8:00 (44) Radio Days (movie). Now this makes sense as part of the Woody Allen Film Package. A pretty well-done nostalgia piece about life on the fringe of Manhattan in the days when people first adapted radio into their daily lives and their world view. Some good moments and some funny characterizations (some a bit broad). Starring Michael Tucker, Julie Kavner, Don Pardo, Seth Green, and Josh Mostel. Yeah, it’s a Jewish-American thing. (Until 9:30 p.m.)

9:30 (44) Stardust Memories (movie). Charlotte Rampling, Jessica Harper, and Sharon Stone are the Allen Girls (as opposed to Bond Girls) in this self-indulgent 1980 film about a film director trying to redefine his art and his relationships. Meant to be an homage to Fellini’s 8-1/2. (Until 11:02 p.m.)

11:00 (2) Soundstage. Featuring the totally peculiar talents of Cyndi Lauper. (Until midnight.)

SUNDAY 12

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

1:00 (64) Football. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers versus the Washington Redskins.

4:00 (12) Tennis. The US Open men’s final. (Until 7 p.m.)

4:00 (64) Football. The New York Giants versus the Philadelphia Eagles.

7:00 (2) Evening at Pops. The Pops opens its 34th TV season with Keith Lockhart welcoming long-time bluegrass star Ricky Skaggs. (Until 8 p.m.)

8:00 (10) The Perfect Storm (movie). But an imperfect film featuring not just lame acting but really bad dialogue. From Sebastian Junger book about the 1991 Andrea Gail sea tragedy and starring George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg. (Until 11 p.m.)

9:00 (2) Mystery: The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, Series 3: In the Presence of the Enemy. Lynley and Havers dive into mess that begins when a radical politician’s illegitimate daughter is kidnapped and ransomed for the public identification of her newspaper-editor father. Things get worse from there: the daughter turns up dead and the editor’s son disappears. To be repeated tonight at 4 a.m., and at 1 and 4 a.m. on Channel 44, and on Tuesday at 1 a.m. on Channel 2. (Until 10:30 p.m.)

9:00 (12) John Grisham’s A Painted House (movie). Scott Glenn stars in this adaptation of Grisham’s novel about a struggling cotton-growing clan and their migrant workers. (Until 11 p.m.)

9:00 (44) P.O.V.: Wattstax. Filmmaker Mel Stewart’s 1973 cult documentary about the 1972 Los Angeles music festival that came to be nicknamed the Black Woodstock. The Reverend Jesse Jackson hosted the show from the scene of the infamous 1960 riots in Watts. Featuring concert footage of Carla Thomas, Rufus "Funky Chicken" Thomas, the Staple Singers, the Emotions, the Bar-Keys, and other Stax record-label stars. This recently restored movie has never been on TV before. Worth a look for sure. (Until 11 p.m.)

11:00 (44) Austin City Limits. Featuring music from Steve Winwood. (Until midnight.)

MONDAY 13

9:00 (2) History Detectives: Pretty Boy Floyd Handgun, Paul Cuffee Muster Roll, and Pop Lloyd Baseball Field. Another collection of weak investigation topics. Did a Colt revolver owned by a man in California ever belong to Depression-era outlaw Pretty Boy Floyd? Does a 1780 Falmouth muster roll owned by a guy in Las Vegas and containing the name Paul Cuffee refer to the African-American shipbuilder Paul Cuffee who championed the Back to Africa Movement? And finally, why is a baseball field in New Jersey named after Negro League shortstop John Henry Lloyd given that it was dedicated in 1949, when people didn’t usually name things after African-Americans? To be repeated tonight at 4 a.m., and at 1 and 4 a.m. on Channel 44. (Until 10 p.m.)

9:00 (6) Football. The Green Bay Packers versus the Carolina Panthers.

9:00 (44) Colonial House: City of God and The Outsiders. Our historic re-creators struggle along duplicating life in a 1600s American colony. The governor returns and becomes a religious zealot, only to discover that 20th-century people can’t be driven to church by force. In the second hour, new colonists arrive and there’s not enough of anything — including bedrooms — to go around. (Until 11 p.m.)

10:00 (2) Extreme Oil: The Pipeline. This series considers the world’s unreasonable thirst for oil and the extremes to which the oil industry will go to get some. Tonight’s edition follows the pipeline that carries Caspian oil from Azerbaijan to Turkey. To be repeated tonight at 5 a.m., and at 2 and 5 a.m. on Channel 44. (Until 11 p.m.)

10:00 (10) LAX. The season opener. Is there still life in Heather Locklear and Blair Underwood? This show gives them control over a major metropolitan airport so we can all find out. (Until 11 p.m.)

TUESDAY 14

7:30 (2) La Plaza: Conversations with Ilan Stavans: Patricia Cardoso. The Colombian-born director of Real Women Have Curves talks about her film. (Until 8 p.m.)

8:00 (44) Globe Trekker: Southern Mexico. Trekker Ian Wright (the best sport by far of the GT gang) parties all night on the Day of the Dead, hangs out with some Mexican cowboys, indulges in the mad nightlife of Acapulco, and checks in with the Zapatistas in San Cristóbal. (Until 9 p.m.)

9:00 (2) Frontline: Ghosts of Rwanda. A program made to mark the 10th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide and featuring interviews with survivors and diplomats. Pretty rough to watch. (Until 11 p.m.)

9:00 (44) Alan Alda in Scientific American Frontiers: Forever Wild? The concept here has not been well explained. Alda meets with scientists "who are attempting to re-create ‘wild places’ and test the effects of atmosphere changes on rain forests and coral reefs." Meaning? (Until 10 p.m.)

WEDNESDAY 15

8:00 (2) National Geographic Special: Dawn of the Maya. A series of recent discoveries in the Guatemalan jungles — a giant pyramid, a mural, etc. — suggests to archæologists that the Mayan culture advanced and flourished hundreds of years before what’s been called its "classic period." (Until 9 p.m.)

9:00 (2) The Question of God: C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud with Dr. Armand Nicholi, part one. Heady stuff this, and all based on a Harvard course taught by The Question of God author Nicholi. You have your basic human issues: the inevitability of death; love versus sex; how to get happy; and what’s it all about anyway? Now you bring in the atheist über-shrink and the world’s most convincing faith-by-reason theologian and let them go at it. Except Freud and Lewis are dead, so there’s some sleight of hand at work. This show is said to be four hours long — two of which are aired tonight. To be repeated tonight at 1 and 4 a.m. on Channels 2 and 44. (Until 11 p.m.)

9:00 (10) NBC Special: Siegfried & Roy — The Miracle. We really don’t want to know anything about this. And we wouldn’t tell you if we did. Imagine the worst. (Until 10 p.m.)

THURSDAY 16

7:30 (2) Basic Black: A Conversation with Michael Eric Dyson. A chat with "new breed" race historian Michael Eric Dyson. (Until 8 p.m.)

8:40 (10) Will & Grace. The season opener. (Until 9:20 p.m.)

9:00 (2) Wide Angle: An Honest Citizen. Exposing corruption is one thing; continuing to work for the corrupt and brutal government you’re exposing is another. A profile of a Colombian minister of justice who fully expects to be exiled or murdered for his honesty in the face of a relentless civil war that claims 3500 lives a year. To be repeated tonight at 5 a.m., and at 2 and 4 a.m. on Channel 44. (Until 10 p.m.)

10:00 (2) Stealing Home. A documentary on the state of contemporary Cuban baseball. (Until 11 p.m.)

5:00 a.m. (44) Soundstage. Featuring music from Steve Winwood. (Until 6 a.m.)