BY CLIF GARBODEN

THURSDAY 30

8:00 (6) My Best Friend’s Wedding (movie). Jules (Julia Roberts) wants to marry her best friend now that he’s marrying someone else. With Dermot Mulroney and Cameron Diaz. From 1997. (Until 10 p.m.)

10:00 (44) Jack Paar: Smart Television. Where now there is The Rebel Billionaire’s Search for the Fat Obnoxious Boss Who Wants To Marry the Biggest Loser (or an Andrea Bocelli concert), we once had mild-mannered Jack Paar talking with Muhammad Ali, Fidel Castro, Woody Allen, Richard Nixon, and Bobby Kennedy. It was entertaining and informative, and nobody got hurt. Memories of Paar from Regis Philbin, Hugh Downs, Jonathan Winters, and the Smothers Brothers. To be repeated on Friday at 1 a.m., and on Sunday at 1 p.m., and, on Channel 2, on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. (Until 11 p.m.)

NEW YEAR’S EVE 31

2:00 (12) Football. Arizona State versus Perdue in the Vitalis Sun Bowl.

8:00 (44) Divine Magic: The World of the Supernatural. Ooga-booga time on PBS as this five-part series (aired in seriatim) explores the history of the human need to believe in things we don’t understand. How’s your cosmology of choice holding up? (Until the witching hour.)

9:00 (2) Bob Hope: The Road to Laughter. After years of referring to Bob Hope as the King of the Undead, we have to concede that he’s finally passed on. And so as not to offend the Undead (who we’re told has a hauntingly powerful anti-defamation organization), we’ll simply describe him as the Late Mr. Hope. This retrospective includes clips from the LMH’s Road movies plus fond memories from his survivors. To be repeated on Sunday at 2:30 p.m., and, on Channel 44, at noon. (Until 10 p.m.)

10:00 (2) Frank Sinatra: Ol’ Blue Eyes Is Back. A 1973 NBC special that welcomed Frankie back from reputed retirement. The blue-eyed boy is joined by hoofin’ pal Gene Kelly to do things "My Way." To be repeated on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. (Until midnight.)

10:00 (6) Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve. Without Dick Clark (which is sad; and best wishes for recovery to the ageless traditional New Year’s host), but with fill-in Regis Philbin (couldn’t they find a substitute a little less out there — like Keith Richards?) anchoring the music and merriment in NYC, and Ashlee Simpson out in California, where they get 2005 a few hours later. This season’s crop of Where Are They the Rest of the Year? guest stars includes Billy Idol; Earth, Wind & Fire; and Los Lonely Boys. (Until 2:05 a.m., with an 11 p.m. break for news.)

10:00 (10) New Year’s Eve with Carson Daly. Hey, the Dick Clark special isn’t the only game in town this year. Live from Rockefeller Center, Carson hosts Maroon 5, Avril Lavigne, and Duran Duran and their original bass player, Donald Trump. (Until 11 p.m.)

11:35 (10) The Tonight Show. Welcome in 2005 from the West Coast, where it’s still 2004, with Jay Leno. (Until 12:35 a.m.)

NEW YEAR’S DAY 1

11:00 a.m. (6, 10) The 117th Annual Tournament of Roses Parade. Large trucks covered in flowers drive through Pasadena. Mum’s the word. (Warning: Al Roker will anchor this for NBC.) (Until 1:30 p.m.)

11:00 a.m. Football. Tennessee versus Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl.

12:30 (10) Football. Florida State versus West Virginia in the Gator Bowl.

1:00 (6) Football. LSU versus Iowa in the Capital One What’s In Your Wallet? Bowl.

4:00 (10) Brian Boitano’s Holiday Skating Spectacular. Taped in Las Vegas on December 18. (Until 6 p.m.)

4:30 (6) Football. Texas versus Michigan in the Rose Bowl.

8:30 (6) Football. Utah versus Pitt in the Fiesta Bowl.

9:27 (44) Annie Hall (movie). Woody Allen’s memorable and influential 1977 social-commentary three-way wisecrack grudge-match pitting the New York Jews against the Wisconsin WASPs versus the West Coast Losers. Nobody actually wins, but after years of change the comic struggle remains a classic. With Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts, Carol Kane, Paul Simon, Shelley Duvall, Janet Margolin ("David, David . . . David I see . . ."), Colleen Dewhurst, and Christopher Walken. (Until 11:02 p.m.)

9:30 (2) From Vienna: The New Year’s Celebration 2005. Anyone for a galop? Walter Cronkite checks in from Austria for the 21st consecutive year, hosting a selection of year-igniting tunes from the Vienna Philharmonic (under Lorin Maazel). And it looks to be a good year for polka lovers, with Vladimir Malakhov (of the American Ballet Theatre) and members of the Vienna State (6 and 8 in regular-season play) Opera Ballet stepping up to the "One Heart, One Mind" polka at the Coburg Palace, and the Opera Ballet accompanying the "Fata Morgana" polka at the Todesco Palace. Plus, we get a polka tribute to apfelstrudel called "Viennese Specialité," some Tales from the Vienna Woods (performed in the woods), and the Opera Ballet three-stepping to the inevitable "Blue Danube Waltz." (Until 11 p.m.)

11:00 (2) Soundstage. Featuring music from Alanis Morissette. (Until midnight.)

SUNDAY 2

1:00 (64) Football. The Pats versus the San Francisco 49ers.

2:00 (44) The American Experience: Abraham and Mary Lincoln: A House Divided, parts one, two, and three. Repeated from last week. The entire Lincoln presidency, and more, as seen through the prism of Abe’s relationship with his life partner. (Until 8 p.m.)

4:00 (12) Football. The Indianapolis Colts versus the Denver Broncos.

9:00 (12) Behind Enemy Lines (movie). After those murderous Bosnians! Starring Gene Hackman and Owen Wilson. (Until 11 p.m.)

9:00 (2) Masterpiece Theatre: Othello. An Andrew Davies modernization of the Shakespeare tale, starring Eamonn Walker as London’s police commissioner and Keeley Hawes as Dessie, the love he rejects at the suggestion of the professionally jealous Jago, played by Christopher Eccleston. To be repeated tonight at 4 a.m., and, on Channel 44, at 1 and 4 a.m. (Until 11 p.m.)

9:00 (6) The Making of Dynasty. Never watched the show ourselves, but this reunion recap will probably be more entertaining anyway. (Until 11 p.m.)

Midnight (2) Three Globe Trekker City Guides: Tokyo, Paris, and Amsterdam. Repeated from last week. Trekker Ian Wright does Tokyo’s karaoke-bars circuit, sleeps in a capsule hotel, eats raw fish at dawn, and ventures out to Mount Fuji. Trekker Justine Shapiro has a similar but more civilized experience in Paris, without the karaoke or the raw fish. And trekker Jonathan Atherton bikes around Amsterdam from one gay event to another. (Until 3 a.m.)

MONDAY 3

8:00 (6) Football. Auburn versus Virginia in the Sugar Bowl.

9:00 (2) American Masters: Judy Garland: By Myself. Words from Judy Garland’s unpublished autobiography narrate this bio-doc of the troubled superstar. Surprisingly well done. To be repeated tonight at 1 a.m. (Until 11 p.m.)

9:00 (44) Mystery: Foyle’s War (Series Two): Fifty Ships. Confusing as all hell — war is, that is. Michael Kitchen stars as DCI Chris Foyle, who works through World War II policing the home front in a small English town. In this episode, local sabotage and looting put Foyle and his good-gal Sam (Honeysuckle Weeks) on the trail of a mysterious body on the beach and runs them afoul of Imperial efforts to lure the United States into the Battle of Britain. (Until 10:30 p.m.)

2:30 a.m. (44) Still Life with Animated Dogs. A film by animation artist Paul Fierlinger (creator of Sesame Street’s "Teeny Little Super Guy" and the PBS film Drawn from Memory) paying tribute to his dogs — Roosevelt, Ike, Johnson, and Spinnaker — who kept him company during the long depressive years in the 1950s before he escaped the iron-heeled jackboot of Communist oppression in Prague. To be repeated tonight at 5:30 a.m. on Channels 2 and 44. (Until 3 a.m.)

TUESDAY 4

7:30 (2) La Plaza: Young Blood M?sica. Profiles of three Boston-area Latin musicians on the cusp of success — Marta G?mez, Rafael Alcalá, and Robert Rosario — featuring rehearsal scenes and interviews about their struggle toward the top. (Until 8 p.m.)

8:00 (2) Nova: Welcome to Mars. How they found water on Mars possibly millennia after it evaporated. Following up on Nova’s earlier documentary Mars Dead or Alive, we continue to follow the fortunes of Spirit and Opportunity, our unmanned rovers to the Red Planet, as Spirit begins speaking in tongues and Opportunity flops down next to an ancient fountain. To be repeated tonight at 1 and 4 a.m., and, on Channel 44, at 1 and 3 a.m. (Until 9 p.m.)

8:00 (6) Football. USC versus Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl.

8:00 (44) Globe Trekker: Great Festivals 2. Another GT-anthology show touring celebrations around the planet — Carnivale in Trinidad, Italy’s Battle of the Oranges (during which the citizens of the town of Ivrea re-enact the ancient war that liberated them by throwing oranges at each other), Scotland’s Clanloddoch Games, and Mexico’s Day of the Dead. (Until 9 p.m.)

9:00 (2) Frontline: The Jesus Factor. We all know that "President" Bush has jumped in front of the evangelical bandwagon and openly panders to the deluded born-againsters who kept him in office. Nobody really thinks he believes in all that bullshit, but then again, he claims to pray through major decisions, and we know he’s not a bright man. So it’s possible that he has some sort of perverted death-dealing notion of Christianity that sustains him and endangers the rest of the world. A look at the man and his beliefs. To be repeated tonight at 2 and 4 a.m. on Channel 44. (Until 10 p.m.)

9:00 (44) Alan Alda in Scientific American Frontiers: Coming to America. Alda recaps the latest theories on who first populated the Americas. To be repeated tonight at 2 a.m. on Channel 2. (Until 10 p.m.)

WEDNESDAY 5

8:00 (44) The Civil War: Valley of the Shadow of Death (1864) and Most Hallowed Ground (1864). Ken Burns’s remarkable CW documentary (in re-mastered form) continues with a comparison of the careers and strategies of Grant and Lee and a look at the hotly contested election of 1984, in which voters almost dumped Lincoln. (Until 10:30 p.m.)

9:00 (6) Alias. By any other name, Jennifer Garner’s back for a new season. (Until 11 p.m.)

THURSDAY 6

7:30 (2) Basic Black: From Port au Prince to Mattapan. A panel discussion among leaders of Boston’s Haitian community (the third largest in the US, after New York’s and Florida’s) about the immigrants’ shared hopes for peace in their native country. Guests include Judith Alexandre, Association of Haitian Women of Boston board member; Alexandra Celestin, director of the Haitian youth-and-cultural organization the LaKou Association; and William Dorcena, former publisher of the Boston Haitian Reporter. (Until 8 p.m.)

8:00 (2) Queen Victoria’s Empire: Engines of Change. A series looking back on the forces that made the world what it is today — from the Industrial Revolution, which crowded the underpaid into filthy urban settings, to visions of global domination/exploitation, which divided the world into ruling and conquered nations. (Until 9 p.m.)

10:00 (44) Sandwiches That You Will Like. One of those fun-and-trivial travelogues — this one touring the nation’s oddest and most popular meals on bread. (Until 11:30 p.m.)