BY CLIF GARBODEN

THURSDAY 18

9:00 (2) The Six Wives of Henry VIII: Jane Seymour and Anne of Cleves and Catherine Howard and Catherine Parr. Documentary treatment of the final four, as it were. Those of you who’ve been following the latest Masterpiece Theatre need not be reminded: Henry marries Jane Seymour, who actually gives him what he wants (a son, Prince Edward) and then dies unexpectedly. The never-satisfied Henry then marries a painting of Anne of Cleve, who survives the experience without even consummating the union. From there, the queen’s crown is passed to 17-year-old Catherine Howard, and this one turns out (very, very) badly. Then at last, Catherine Parr weds his highness and sees his reign out to the end. To be repeated on Saturday at 2 p.m. and on Sunday at 4:30 p.m. (Until 11 p.m.)

FRIDAY 19

8:00 (44) Nova: Great Escape. Repeated from last week. The true story of the famous World War II flight from Stalag Luft III (in Upper Silesia, now part of Poland) immortalized in the 1963 Steve McQueen movie The Great Escape. In this, archæologists, plus a couple of long-ago escapees, return to the scene of the POW camp to explore the one surviving tunnel (out of three that the prisoners dug) and document the tricks and the tools that got the Allied flyers out of there. (Until 9 p.m.)

10:00 (44) Hitler’s Victory. It took a few years, but G.W. Bush was finally re-elected and Hitler’s fascist dream is closer to reality than it’s been in decades. This is a computer-enhanced look what the Nazis might have done with England if they’d succeeded in invading it in 1940. All based on ancient documents. (Until 11:30 p.m.)

SATURDAY 20

Noon (6) Football. BC versus Temple.

3:30 (12) Football. Auburn versus Alabama.

6:00 (2) Masterpiece Theatre: Henry VIII, part two. Repeated from last week. Details on the wifely roster given above. (See Thursday 9 p.m.) This turns out to be kind of a grim retelling of what is admittedly a grim yarn — made all the grimmer by Ray Winstone’s choice to portray Henry as a sort of puffed-sleeved Tony Soprano. But perhaps that’s accurate. (Until 8 p.m.)

6:00 (44) Casablanca (movie). Never out of date. (Until 8 p.m.)

8:00 (6) Football. Washington versus Washington State.

8:00 (10) Erin Brockovich (movie). Julia Roberts takes on the polluters and wins. (Until 11 p.m.)

8:00 (44) Great Performances: Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! Not Danielle Steele’s. Hugh Jackman is spunky amid a spunky cast in this Trevor Nunn Royal National Theatre revival of the all–American tale of farmer/cowman harmony, prairie love, and rough justice. (Until 11 p.m.)

11:00 (2) Soundstage. Featuring music from Sheryl Crow, part two. (Until midnight.)

SUNDAY 21

Noon (2) They Made America: Newcomers. Repeated from last week. Harold Evans narrates the bios of Amadeo Giannini, an immigrant who founded a populist bank that evolved into the money-grubbing Bank of America, and immigrant Russian seamstress Ida Rosenthal, who made it big marketing the mass-produced bra. (Until 1 p.m.)

1:00 (12) Football. The New York Jets versus the Cleveland Browns.

1:00 (64) Football. The St. Louis Rams versus the Buffalo Bills.

1:00 (44) Globe Trekker: World History — The Middle East. Repeated from last week. Multiple trekkers explore the east end of the Mediterranean looking for all the civilizations that have been cradled there. Trekker Estelle Bingham does Egypt’s Giza plateau; Trekker Megan McCormick heads down the Nile to the Valley of the Kings; Trekker Ian Wright explores the Tombs of Naqsh-e-Rostam, where all the best Persian royalty are buried, then heads to Baalbek and the Temple of Bacchus (whose exterior starred in the last scene of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade); and Trekker Justine Shapiro looks at mosaics in Turkey. (until 2 p.m.)

4:00 (64) Football. The Atlanta Falcons versus the New York Giants.

9:00 (2) Masterpiece Theatre: Bertie & Elizabeth. Juliet Aubrey stars as the Queen Mother (Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon) in this love story (set against the drama of pre-WW2 England) between the future mother of Elizabeth and Margaret and the future George VI. The tale goes all the way up to Bertie’s death in 1952. With Alan Bates as George V. To be repeated tonight at midnight. (Until 11 p.m.)

11:00 (44) Austin City Limits. Featuring music from Damien Rice ("Volcano") and Patty Griffin ("Kite Song," "Long Ride home"). (Until midnight.)

MONDAY 22

8:00 (44) Buffalo War. The West can still be wild, it seems. Each year, members of the nation’s last real bison herd stray out of Yellowstone National Park and allegedly threaten domestic cattle with a disease called brecellosis, which prompts ranchers to shoot the buffalo, which prompts Native Americans to protest and environmentalists to take drastic counter-measures. (Until 9 p.m.)

9:00 (2) They Made America: Gamblers. The last installment of this Harold Evans–inspired series on influential Americans you might not have thought of without Harold’s help. First we meet Juan Trippe, who founded Pan American Airlines and encouraged the development of the 707, which made overseas travel practical. And finally, we consider Ruth Handler, who has a lot of ’splainin’ to do for her contribution to American culture, the Barbie doll, which currently sells in 150 countries at a rate of two dolls per second — and that’s sad. (To be repeated tonight at 4 a.m., and at 1 a.m. on Channel 44. (Until 10 p.m.)

9:00 (6) Football. The Pats versus the Kansas City Chiefs.

9:00 (44) Thief of Time. Another Tony Hillerman Navajo-tribal-cops-mystery adaptation with Wes Studi as Joe Leaphorn and Adam Beach as Jim Chee. As in all of these, the pace is maddening, the side stories are distracting, the acting is vague, and the plot is convoluted. This one confronts the issue of the illegal trading of archæological artifacts and features a puzzling guest appearance by Peter Fonda. To be repeated tonight at 1 a.m. on Channel 2. (Until 11 p.m.)

2:00 a.m. (44) Independent Lens: Afghanistan Unveiled. Repeated from last week. This is a film by the first team of Afghan-trained female video journalists, and the subject is, no surprise, the plight of Afghan women under the Taliban idiots and then during and after the US bombing. It’s not a pretty picture. To be repeated tonight at 5 a.m. on Channel 2 (Until 3 a.m.)

TUESDAY 23

8:00 (2) Nova: Ancient Refuge in the Holy Land. A complicated story and a complicated theory, but fascinating. In 1960, near the Dead Sea, archæologists found a bag of letters written by ancient Jewish anti-Roman rebel Bar-Kokhba. A second look into the cave and its contents now suggests that stuff stored there could have been rescued from the Jerusalem temple destroyed by Roman invaders in AD 70. (Until 9 p.m.)

8:00 (44) Globe Trekker: Ultimate France. Another triple-teamed episode, with Trekkers Justine Shapiro, Ian Wright, and Christina Chang eating their way through France and more. Ian ends up being rescued by helicopter from the Corsican mountains; Christina dresses up like a mediæval wench for a wine fest; and Justine tries her hand at cordon bleu cooking. To be repeated tonight at 3 a.m. on Channel 2. (Until 9 p.m.)

9:00 (2) Frontline: The Secret History of the Credit Card. A look at the credit-card industry, which has convinced America that it is a privilege to be in debt. Credit-card lenders make $30 billion a year from people who can’t pay their bills on time. And there’s no legal limit on the interest they can charge. They should be imprisoned in cells next to pharmaceutical-company execs, yet the feds actually encourage this sort of stupid consumer spending. Here’s a tip: pay your bill off every month. Don’t buy what you can’t afford. Screw these bastards back. To be repeated tonight at 5 a.m., and at 2 and 4 a.m. on Channel 44. (Until 10 p.m.)

9:00 (44) National Geographic Specials: Civil War Gold. The story of locating the sunken remains of the SS Republic, which sank en route to NOLA in 1865 carrying $75 million (at today’s rates) in gold and silver coins. (Until 10 p.m.)

10:00 (2) The Mystery of Chaco Canyon. Robert Redford explains the complexities of an ancient site in northwest New Mexico that corresponds (physically somehow) to the annual sun cycle and the 19-year moon cycle. How did they do it?! And why? (Until 11 p.m.)

3:00 a.m. (44) Independent Lens: Los Angeles Now. From nothing grew the second-largest city in the US. It was once all white; now it’s the most diverse place in the country. What’s next for LA? (Until 4 a.m.)

WEDNESDAY 24

8:00 (2) Regency House Party. This reality-like show actually isn’t horrible. It has a group of singles spending nine weeks together at a country estate and reliving the decadent lives of their 1811-ish counterparts, who took their wine-women-and-song social cues from the wastrel son of mad George III. Better than you’d expect and flecked with humor. To be repeated tonight at 4 a.m., and at 1 and 4 a.m. on Channel 44. (Until 9:30 p.m.)

THURSDAY 25

9:00 a.m. (12) Thanksgiving Day Parades. Sure, they’re boring and badly broadcast and overly commercial, but ain’t that America? (Until noon.)

10:00 a.m. (6) Thanksgiving Day Parades. Sure, they’re boring and badly broadcast and overly commercial, but ain’t that America? (Until 11 a.m.)

12:30 (12) Football. The Indianapolis Colts versus the Detroit Lions.

4:30 (64) Football. The Chicago Bears versus the Dallas Cowboys.

7:30 (2) Basic Black. An unexplained encounter with Bobby McFerrin. Most likely the show where he inspires a group of people to sing for joy. (Until 8 p.m.)

8:00 (2) Frontline: From Jesus to Christ: The First Christians: Pax Romana, A Light to the Nations, Let the Reader Understand, and Kingdoms in Conflict. You fundamentalist Bush supporters shouldn’t watch this — too much information for you. A look at the social and political historic Jesus, the movement he started, its uses and abuses, the influence of the Apostle Paul, and the eventual rifts between Christians and Jews and Christians and Christians that led to the development of the orthodoxy that way too many people take way too seriously. (Until midnight.)

8:00 (64) Spider-Man (movie). Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, and Willem Dafoe star in the 2002 Spidey epic. Predictable but fun, and with spectacular effects we now take for granted. (Until 10:30 p.m.)

8:30 (6) Dr Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas (movie.) He couldn’t have done it without Max — or perhaps Alan Greenspan. With Jim Carrey. (Until 11 p.m.)

9:00 (12) Back When We Were Grown-Ups (movie). A widow calls up an old boyfriend to see whether life could have been different. Starring Blythe Danner, Faye Dunaway, and Peter Fonda — all of whom have had better roles. (Until 11 p.m.)