BY CLIF GARBODEN

THURSDAY 21

7:30 (2) Basic Black: A Conversation with Diane Wilkerson. State Senator Wilkerson (the first and thus far only black woman in the Massachusetts Senate) discusses her early career as a lawyer without black/female role models, her ambitions both as a politician and as a self-defined "professional agitator," her split with some black churches over the gay-marriage debate, and her views on the presidential election. (Until 8 p.m.)

8:00 (64) Baseball? National League Championship Series game #7, if needed.

9:00 (2) Broadway: The American Musical Tradition (1957-1979 and Putting It Together (1980–The Present). Julie Andrews hosts this pro-Broadway history of Broadway, from the immigrant theater of turn-of-the-century America to the Great White Way’s current "renewed popularity" (albeit largely in revivals). The first hour considers West Side Story to be a turning point between the vaudeville-based/WW2-grounded (read "corny") musicals and a new era of relevant musical theater. Of course, Broadway will do anything to remain irrelevant, so the pendulum soon swung (as demonstrated in hour two) to musically peculiar imports, like Cats and Les Miz, which had the combined artistic virtues of trivializing literature and offering no memorable melodies. All of which brings us to The Lion King, which this documentary would have us believe is the emblem of a new way off-stage wonderment. We, like most people, can’t afford to see Broadway shows, so we wouldn’t know for sure. To be repeated at 4 a.m., and at 1 and 4 a.m. on Channel 44. (Until 11 p.m.)

FRIDAY 22

8:00 (44) Nova: Neanderthals on Trial. The Neanderthal Anti-Defamation League (NADL) loves this documentary that 1) gives credit to that race of Dawn Age brutes for at least being smarter than trees and 2) dares to suggest that some of their genes got mixed in with our Cro-Magnon ancestors’ and survive in us to this day. No big surprise there. Just watch the crowd in Kenmore Square pouring into a Red Sox game. The "there are two types of people" distinction is obvious: fat guys in T-shirts (older editions of the young guys with their hats on backwards) versus the population that looks before it crosses streets and avoids sausage vendors. (Until 9 p.m.)

9:00 (12) Genius: A Night for Ray Charles. A tribute to the late soul man hosted by Jamie Foxx and featuring performances by a big-tent-ful of talent including Al Green, Elton John, Reba McEntire, Stevie Wonder, and Mary J. Blige. (Until 10 p.m.)

9:00 (44) The American Experience: The Fight. Courtney B. Vance narrates this recounting of the June 22, 1938, heavyweight-championship fight between African-American Joe Louis and German symbol of the Master Race Max Schmeling. Neither contender exactly chose his symbolic role, but with WW2 on the way and Hitler bragging about how white people were best and America mired in racism, the larger implications were difficult to avoid. To be repeated on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. and 2 a.m. on Channel 2. (Until 10 p.m.)

SATURDAY 23

2:30 (10) Football. Notre Dame versus BC.

3:30 (12) Football. Alabama versus Tennessee, or Georgia versus Arkansas.

3:30 (6) Football. Michigan at Purdue, or Florida State at Wake Forest.

4:25 (44) The Ox-Bow Incident (movie). Henry Fonda and Dana Andrews head the ensemble in this theatrical 1943 adaptation of Walter Van Tilburg Clark’s Western novel about a lynch mob’s mistake. (Until 5:41 p.m.)

5:41 (44) Henry V (movie). Repeated from last week. The WGBH program-schedule blurb writer took the "Shakespeare for Everyone" approach to describing this pretty-darn-good 1989 cinematic adaptation. Nothing too challenging here; we’re told: "King Henry V of England (Kenneth Branagh) is insulted by the King of France. As a result, he leads his army into battle against France. Along the way, the young king must struggle with the sinking morale of his troops and his own inner doubts. Based on the play by William Shakespeare and directed by Kenneth Branagh, this film also stars Ian Holm and Derek Jacobi." (Until 8:10 p.m.)

8:00 (64) Baseball. World Series game #1.

8:10 (44) The Candidate (movie). Robert Redford has the title role in this 1972 comedy/commentary about a longshot US Senate candidate from California who takes the short path between good guy and two-faced pol. Long and a bit tiresome, but almost as worth rewatching as Wag the Dog in this election year. (Channel 2’s ever-authoritative program-schedule description for this, by the way, is taken word for word from the user-supplied capsule on the Internet Movie Database.) (Until 10:05 p.m.)

10:05 (44) Lifeboat (movie). Classic 1944 Alfred Hitchcock adaptation from a John Steinbeck story about survivors of a passenger ship sunk by the Germans during WW2 floating around the Atlantic with a rescued Nazi sailor. It’s all in the cast here, with one memorable over-delivered line after another from Tallulah Bankhead, William Bendix, and Walter Slezak. (Until midnight.)

11:00 (2) Soundstage. Featuring 35th-anniversary music from Yes. (Until midnight.)

SUNDAY 24

1:00 (64) Football. The St. Louis Rams versus the Miami Dolphins. (Only one game on Fox this week because of the Pats game at 4 p.m. on WBZ.)

4:00 (12) Football. The Pats versus the New York Jets.

6:00 (44) Masterpiece Theatre: The Lost Prince, part one. Repeated from last week. This is Stephen Poliakoff’s based-in-fact drama about Britain’s secret prince. By the time George V and Mary had kids, the royal gene pool was getting pretty shallow. So in addition to giving the world two somewhat impaired and ill-prepared kings — Edward VIII and George VI — they had a third, epilepsy-plagued son named John, who to save the family further embarrassment in the less-enlightened early 20th century was sent off with his devoted nanny to live out of public view. Gina McKee stars as Prince John’s caretaker. (Until 8 p.m.)

8:00 (64) Baseball. World Series game #2.

9:00 (2) Masterpiece Theatre: The Lost Prince, part two. The conclusion. To be repeated tonight at midnight and 4 a.m., and at 1 and 4 a.m. on Channel 44. (Until 11 p.m.)

9:00 (4) The Dead Will Tell (movie). Anne Heche stars in this TV-movie based on the works of medium James Van Praagh. Anne gets a used engagement ring, and things go paranormal from there. Also starring Chris Sarandon, Kathleen Quinlan, and Jonathan LaPaglia. (Until 11 p.m.)

11:00 (44) Austin City Limits. Featuring music from Rosanne Cash and Neko Case. (Until midnight.)

MONDAY 25

9:00 (2) The American Experience: The Crash of 1929. Black Monday (October 19, 1929) was the day that capitalist greed got what it deserved. Unfortunately, a lot of not-especially-greedy people whose only sin was going along with the only economic system available lost their holdings as the big-business men and the market manipulators collapsed all over each other. (The potential for repeating such a disaster has since been mitigated by a bunch of regulations that allow Wall Street bandits to rob the rest of us a little at a time without bad publicity or going out of business.) This show looks at the long-term economic and psychological impact of the Day the Dollar Died and explains the crash’s relationship to the Great Depression. To be repeated tonight at 4 a.m., and at 1 and 4 a.m. on Channel 44, and on Wednesday at 10 p.m. (Until 10 p.m.)

9:00 (6) Football. The Denver Broncos versus the Cincinnati Bengals.

9:00 (10) The Radio Music Awards. (Until 11 p.m.) Live prizes for musicians who do well over the airwaves. Lots of celeb presenters, plus performances by Elton John, Lenny Kravitz, Shakira, Sugar Ray, Jay-Z, Mariah Carey, Mick Jagger, and more. (Until 11 p.m.)

9:00 (44) Mystery: Inspector Morse: Masonic Mysteries. John Thaw plays Morse in this old drama in which the inspector himself is suspected of murder when he’s found holding a bloody knife over a dead body. To be repeated tonight at 1 a.m. on Channel 2. (Until 11 p.m.)

TUESDAY 26

7:30 (2) La Plaza: Getting to Fenway. Please, don’t drive. There’s no place to park. The story (from 2000) of local high-school ballplayer Manny Delcarmen’s negotiations with his father, the college he planned to attend, and the Red Sox. (Until 8 p.m.)

8:00 (6) It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Another year; same old pumpkin. (Until 8:30 p.m.)

8:00 (64) Baseball. World Series game #3.

8:00 (44) Globe Trekker: Cuba and Haiti. Trekker Ian Wright explores the delights and detractions of Cuba before moving on to the considerably less delightful island of Haiti, where the political and economic mess tends to overshadow the tourist opportunities. (Until 9 p.m.)

9:00 (2) Frontline: Rumsfeld’s War. Military guys like to fight. At least, the bosses who never pull a trigger do. So it’s no surprise that the Pentagon is in a major squabble with Defense Secretary (and closet fascist) Donald Rumsfeld over control of the nation’s over-taxed and over-deployed armed forces. (Until 10:30 p.m.)

1:00 a.m. (2) Independent Lens: The Political Dr. Seuss. A file that reveals that famed children’s-book author Ted Geisel drew political cartoons in the 1940s, long before he went on beyond zebra, and that some of his beloved works are actually geo-political allegories. (Check out http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/speccoll/dspolitic/ for some examples of the cartoons.) (Until 2:30 a.m.)

WEDNESDAY 27

8:00 (64) Baseball. World Series game #4.

9:00 (2) The Survivor’s Guide to High School. The pilot show for a possible series aimed at getting teens through those Wonder Years of high school, during which adults demand things they don’t really want, set high standards and then slap you down if you excel, and pit you against your peers so you’re sure to be psychologically scarred for life. In this edition, a team of five experts (life coach, time organizer, etc.) move in on a confused high-school girl and help her adjust to her chaotic life. Sounds good, but anyone who actually adjusts to high school has got to be a loser. (Until 10 p.m.)

10:00 (2) Great Performances: Carnegie Hall Opening Night. This appears to be the 2002 CHON celebration of music by Manuel de Falla (Nights in the Gardens of Spain) and Maurice Ravel (Boléro and Rapsodie espagnole) featuring pianist/conductor Daniel Barenboim and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra rather than the 2004 concert with Christoph Eschenbach and the Philadelphia Orchestra in Richard Strauss’s Don Juan, Don Quixote (with Yo-Yo Ma), and Vier letzte Gesänge (with Renée Fleming). Why is another matter. To be repeated tonight at 2 and 4 a.m., and at 1 and 4 a.m. on Channel 2. (Until midnight.)

THURSDAY 28

8:00 (2) Broadway: I Got Plenty o’ Nuttin (1930-1942) and Oh, What a Beautiful Morning (1943-1960). Why this series is working backward through Broadway history is unclear. Tonight we look at the escapist Depression-era fare and the more sobering plays of the day, like Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. The second hour moves on to the Rodgers & Hammerstein age, from Oklahoma! to The Sound of Music. (Until 10:30 p.m.)

8:00 (64) Baseball. World Series game #5, if needed.

The 525th line. The "Hey, Where Were You?" Dept.: regrets on missing last week’s column. We were hospitalized (yes, the wheels fall off as we drive) just as we were sitting down to write the thing, and it was too late to go to the bullpen. We’ll try not to let it happen again; and thanks for those precious (and cherished) few of you who actually missed us enough to contact the paper.