BY CLIF GARBODEN

THURSDAY 10

1:00 a.m. (2) Globe Trekker. Hungary and Romania, Great Festivals, and The American Rockies. Three shows take us around the world overnight. (Until 4 a.m.)

FRIDAY 11

1:00 (44) Suze Orman: For the Young, Fabulous, and Broke. Repeated from last week. Gee, Suze, what broke us? (Until 4:30 p.m.)

4:30 (44) Ageless Skin: Secrets from Dr. Denese. Repeated from last week. The best infomercial on PBS. Clear up that skin and you won�t mind being fabulous and broke. (Until 6 p.m.)

8:00 (44) Viewer Favorites. Which, we pray, will not include the Orman show or the skin-care show. Are we alone in our outrage here? Why are critics � and presumably viewers � so willing to turn a blind eye to such wholesale corruption of the PBS mission? It�s one thing to showcase hillbilly operatics and bad culture. If you close your eyes real hard, the case could be made that we�re somehow holding Yanni and Bocelli up to mass-cultural examination. But selling skin-care products on public TV has got to be seen as an outrageous breach of the public trust. And then to surround such garbage with fundraising as if to suggest that people crave this kind of programming and are willing to support Channel 2 in order to keep it coming . . . Hey, what�s the point, guys? We feel silly even pointing it out. Is there some massive boycott movement we missed? Does anyone else care? How about at least a few letters of complaint. Keep in mind that nobody who works for public television got into the charity end of the broadcasting business to undermine it. The people at WGBH don�t really support this crap. But a few phony classical concerts slip by as "necessary evils" and pretty soon we�re shilling for viewers to bid on the last three remaining cubic-zirconium tiaras in the studio. Will somebody �x this, please? (Until 11 p.m.)

SATURDAY 12

11:30 a.m. (12) Basketball. The Conference USA championship game. (Until 1:45 p.m.)

2:00 (2) Viewer Favorites. Meanwhile, Viewer Favorites means we get to have some fun with pseudo-surrealist imaginary TV (often an improvement). The slightly nerdish Rodney hadn�t seen Becca the Winsome Blonde in some time, and he missed her. He missed her girlish smile, he missed rescuing her from the jaws of real and imagined disasters, he missed watching her feed he father�s chickens, and he missed the way she said, "Hey, Rodney, shut up," when he inevitably talked too much. "Sigh," he sighed. To be continued next at the next array of Viewer Favorites below. (Until midnight.)

1:45 (12) Basketball. The Big Ten semi�nal match-ups. (Until 6 p.m.)

5:00 (44) California Dreamin�: The Story of the Mamas and the Papas. Repeated from last week. A history of the remarkably in�uential West Coast band who transitioned radio pop into drug music before the grown-ups even noticed. Classic performances, clips, and interviews featuring John Phillips, Michelle Phillips, Denny Doherty, and Cass Elliot, plus commentary from record producer Lou Adler and fellow �60s survivors John Sebastian and Barry McGuire. To be repeated on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. on Channel 2. (Until 6:30 p.m.)

6:00 (12) Basketball. The Pac 10 championship game. (Until 8 p.m. or it�s over.)

8:00 (44) Viewer Favorites. Meanwhile, on the other side of Bayport, Becca the Winsome Blonde was having her nails done by a cheerful Hispanic woman named Ida and rehearsing the possible meanings of her short but eventful life. "Sigh," she too sighed. "What�s is all about?" "For you, it�s all about being more careful when you open pop-top cans," answered Ida. Continued on Sunday at noon. (Until midnight.)

8:00 (6) Minority Report (movie). From 2002. Steven Spielberg�s Minority Report is based on a 1956 story by Philip K. Dick, one of the few science-�ction writers who can be called visionary. The year is 2054, and crime has been eliminated by a system whereby "precogs" � latter-day crack babies whose birth disorders have given them the ability to see the future � envision crimes that are about to be committed and the "pre-perpetrators" are then arrested. But then Pre-Crime chief Paul Anderton (Tom Cruise, his grin looking reptilian) is touched by an alluring fetal-faced precog named Agatha (Samantha Morton), who �ngers him as a future killer. Has he been set up? The plot (and we�re quoting Peter Keough�s Phoenix review here), engaging even when it becomes predictable, is secondary to the densely layered, multiply allusive mise-en-sc�ne, a cinematic, pop-cultural collage of image and quips that is sardonic, dazzling, and hilarious. (Until 11 p.m.)

1:30 a.m. (2) My Music: The �60s Experience. Repeated from last week. The dif�cult-to-explain side of the 1960s with old performances clips and remakes of Procol Harum�s "A Whiter Shade of Pale," Janis Joplin�s "Piece of My Heart," and Hendrix�s "Purple Haze." The roster of performers includes Roger McGuinn (the Byrds), Eric Burdon (the Animals), Chuck Negron (Three Dog Night), and John Kay (Steppenwolf). (Until 4 a.m.)

SUNDAY 13

1:00 (12) Basketball. The SEC championship game. (Until 3:30 p.m.)

Noon (44) Viewer Favorites. Her nails all red and glistening, Becca the Winsome Blonde headed toward the old high school, where she happened upon the annual Bayport/West Creu hurling match. As she squinted to decipher the score, Becca caught a glimpse of the slightly nerdish Rodney high in the grandstand. "Rodney!" she cried out, waving furiously. See Wednesday at 9 p.m. (Until midnight.)

1:00 (5) Basketball. The Dallas Mavericks versus the Minnesota Timberwolves.

3:30 (12) Basketball. The Big Ten championship game. (Until 6 p.m.)

3:30 (6) Basketball. The Houston Rockets versus the Sacramento Kings.

4:00 (2) John McDermott: A Time To Remember. The ever-memorable White Bread Concert from exotic Toronto. We�re promised that tenor McDermott will "embrace Celtic, European, and North American Traditions." Novelty! Far out! To be repeated on Thursday at 1 p.m. on Channel 44. (Until 5:30 p.m.)

5:30 (2) Life and Times of Foster and Allen. Two Irish guys do the songs you�d expect. Foster, to top things off, is the All�Ireland Accordion Champ. We�re promised "toe-tapping tunes" and "treats for music lovers everywhere" (even Toronto). To be repeated on Thursday at 3 p.m. on Channel 44. (Until 8:30 p.m.)

6:00 (12) Basketball. The NCAA-tournament selection show. (Until 7 p.m.)

8:00 (2) Alone in the Wilderness. This fundraising season�s sleeper. A home-movie feature by and about Richard Proenneke, who left civilization back in 1968 and built a home in the Alaskan wilderness. Thoroughly charming, and the only fundraising show that deserves a pledge. To be repeated on Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. on Channel 44. (Until 10 p.m.)

9:00 (12) Saving Milly (movie). Madeleine Stowe and Bruce Greenwood star in a drama based on the bestselling book by political journalist Mort Kondracke about the dramatic challenges that arise when Mort�s activist wife, Milly, is diagnosed with Parkinson�s disease. (Until 11 p.m.)

2:00 a.m. (2) Magic Moments: The Best of �50s Pop. Repeated from last week. A combo concert of old clips and "live on stage again just the way they were before your forgot them" reunions � the McGuire sisters, Debbie Reynolds ("Tammy"), Patti Page ("Old Cape Cod"), the Crew Cuts ("Sh-Boom"; do they have crew-cut wigs?), the Four Lads, Aces, and Coins, and Gogi Grant. Plus tributes to 1950s icons Dean Martin, Perry Como, Rosemary Clooney, and Johnny Ray. Taped at Trumps place in Atlantic City. (Until 4 a.m.)

MONDAY 14

1:00 (44) My Music: Funky Soul Superstars. Repeated from last week. Patti LaBelle, Isaac Hayes, and Vivica A. Fox host fellow FSSs. Hayes does the Shaft theme (accompanied by comments from Richard Roundtree himself); Cuba Gooding Sr. resurrects the original Main Ingredient for "Everybody Plays the Fool"; and original Stylistic Russell Thomkins Jr. sings high and tight on "You Are Everything." (Until 5 p.m.)

7:00 (2) Savvy Senior. Something for the old folks. Columnist Jim Miller discusses maximizing Social Security and other issues that clobber you when you get old. We�d much rather see a show about how to grow old socially responsibly than more tips of grabbing for every last crumb of entitlement as we circle the drain. To be repeated on Wednesday at 9 p.m. on Channel 44. (Until 8:30 p.m.)

8:30 (2) The Great American Songbook. Michael Feinstein hosts a collection of pop numbers covering the 20th century and the songwriters who set the tone for the era, as it were. To be repeated on Tuesday at 4 p.m. on Channel 44. (Until 10:30 p.m.)

1:00 a.m. (2) Globe Trekker. Tuscany, Trekking in Vietnam and Laos, and Vienna City Guide. A long road tonight. (Until 4 a.m.)

TUESDAY 15

8:30 (2) Great Performances: Eric Clapton�s Crossroads Guitar Festival. Repeated from last week. Clapton invited a bunch of blues musicians he wanted to jam with to the Cotton Bowl in Dallas � and they all showed up. A sweltering show featuring Robert Cray, Vince Gill, Buddy Guy, Hubert Sumlin, John Mayer, Carlos Santana, James Taylor, Jimmie Vaughan, Joe Walsh, and ZZ Top. To be repeated on Wednesday at 1 p.m. on Channel 44. (Until 10:30 p.m.)

9:30 (44) John Denver: The Wildlife Concert. Repeated from last month. That is, a 1995 bene�t concert for the Wildlife Conservation Society at which John sings "Rocky Mountain High," "Country Roads," "Sunshine on My Shoulders," and the rest of the usual suspects and talks about his commitment to nature. If he were alive today, would he be invited to sing at the Bush White House? (Until 11 p.m.)

1:00 a.m. (2) Globe Trekker. Northern France, Morocco II, and London City Guide. Three more overnight adventures. (Until 4 a.m.)

WEDNESDAY 16

7:00 (2) Great Performances: Andrea Bocelli: Sacred Arias. We have nothing to say. We are afraid of Andrea Bocelli�s fans. They really love him. They seem to dislike us. So we�ll stop in the name of love. C�mon people now, smile on each other; everybody get together and leave us alone. (Until 9 p.m.)

8:00 (10) American Dreams. This (previously) Sunday�night Dick Clark�driven drama about teen-life transition through the Vietnam era takes a suicide dive against Lost. The thing is, for all that American Dreams has the potential to be politically and culturally wrong and apologetic and conservative, it � to our amazement � isn�t. The all�American Pryor family, who graze and carom among the icebergs of anti-Vietnam politics, crises of Catholicism, civil disobedience, abortion, urban violence, war, feminism, police corruption, inter-racial dating, post-traumatic stress disorder, unwed parenthood, social breakdown, gay rights, drugs, co-habitation, race and economic prejudices, and upward mobility, manage to wend their way gracefully through the torrents of change without insulting either the old-school values being challenged or the righteousness of the upheavals. And (most remarkable for any TV plot) the characters pay the price for their mistakes and misfortunes. For all its comic-book fa�ade (with its exaggeration of the role of American Bandstand in everyday life) and the breadth of controversial issues it�s taken on, AD has been a good show that�s seldom pandered and never really found an audience. Now, we fear it will lose its teen viewers (featuring young stars Brittany Snow, Will Estes, and Vanessa Lengies, the show centers on teen issues � albeit the heavy geopolitical teen issues of the late �60s) and lose its curious boomer audience (who watched expecting to be offended but wasn�t) and be buried in the grim shadows of week-night prime time. Plus, there�s some product-placement subplot about a Campbell�s Soup essay contest in the works that could turn the entire project into trash overnight. (Until 9 p.m.)

9:00 (2) Viewer Favorites. Through the deafening cheer "Hurl like the tempest, Bayport!", Rodney heard Becca�s faint voice. Spotting her near the Make Your Own Kielbassa stand at the far end of the �eld, Rodney forced his way through the crowd shouting, "Becca! Becca! Please wait up!" And on to Thursday at 8 p.m. (Until 11 p.m.)

1:00 a.m. (2) Globe Trekker. Hong Kong and Taiwan, Globe Shopper, and Best Beaches. Tonight�s overnight treks. (Until 4 a.m.)

THURSDAY 17

12:10 (12) Basketball. First-round NCAA tournament action. (Until 5 p.m.)

7:00 (12) Basketball. More �rst-round NCAA tournament action. (Until midnight.)

8:00 (44) Viewer Favorites. Becca spotted Rodney; Rodney braved the increasingly rabid mob of hurling hooligans and made his way to the outskirts of the �eld. See 9 p.m. below for the inconclusion. (Until 11 p.m.)

9:00 (2) Viewer Favorites. And thus were Becca the Winsome Blonde and the slightly nerdish Rodney reunited over heaping kielbassa subs on rye. "I�ve missed you so," confessed Becca. "And I you," replied Rodney, getting right to the point for a change. "Let�s have a touching, sentimental moment." "This then is why men hurl?" Becca complied. "You are my only viewer favorite," surrendered Rodney. A kielbassa kiss? Continued anon. (Until 11 p.m.)