BY CLIF GARBODEN

THURSDAY 23

7:30 [2] BASIC BLACK | BREAKING THE HABITS OF RACE: A CONVERSATION WITH DEBRA DICKERSON | Guest host Howard Manly talks with the author of The End of Blackness about her contention that African-Americans can progress only if they stop evaluating themselves in terms of their relation to whites. Perhaps easier said than done. [Until 8 pm]

8:30 [6] BASKETBALL? | The Detroit Pistons versus the San Antonio Spurs in NBA championship game #7, if necessary. If not, The Mexican, starring not-Mexicans Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts. [Until 11 pm]

FRIDAY 24

9:00 [2] DECLINING BY DEGREES: HIGHER EDUCATION AT RISK | John Merrow reports (and narrates), so this is probably worth your time even if it’s not being exactly oversold by PBS. From what we gather, the program looks at higher education at four campuses — a private liberal-arts college, a major state university, a regional public university, and a community college — from the perspectives of students, faculty, and parents. Amid all this, we find risk, though risk of what is not specified. To be repeated tonight at 1 am. [Until 11 pm]

SATURDAY 25

Noon [10] TENNIS | First-round action from Wimbledon.

6:30 [2] JUDY GARLAND — DUETS | The story here is that more than 100 audio and video tapes were discovered in a damp New Jersey basement where they’d been stored under the most destructive conditions for 30 years. The story continues: " . . . these master recordings not only survived, they remained in mint condition." Okay, so perhaps dank New Jersey basements are, in fact, the ideal conditions under which to store old tapes. It would seem so. But anyway, they rescued the tapes — all from Judy Garland’s 1960s TV show — and shipped them off to "ideal" conditions in California, where they’ve been digitally remastered. So now we have Judy teaming up with Count Basie, daughter Lisa Minnelli, Tony Bennett, little Babs Streisand, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Ethel Merman, Bobby Darin, Peggy Lee, Lena Horne, Jack Jones, Vic Damone, and Mel Torme. And then they’re showing it again at 7:30. [Until 8:30 pm]

8:00 [6] POCAHONTAS | movie | As we were colonizing Native American lands in preparation for the genocide that would forever remove the threat of an indigenous population, we white guys also had our way with their women. Some called it romance, and in this case, who knows? Disney’s 1995 animated PC reworking of the Pocahontas yarn. That’s Mel Gibson giving voice to Captain John Smith. [Until 10 pm]

9:00 [2] SUPER TROUPERS: THIRTY YEARS OF ABBA | Fortunately not nonstop for 30 years. A documentary on the rise and fall of Agnetha, Frida, Benny, and Björn. Featuring scenes from Abba: The Movie, which covered their first Australian tour and a London reunion on the Mamma Mia! stage. [Until 10:30 pm]

9:00 [44] MAGIC MOMENTS — THE BEST OF ’50s POP | As the summer series Hit Me Baby, One More Time has proved, even stars of the 1970s and ’80s can age gracelessly, and these guys are a lot older. Not that that’s a fault, but not all pop performances are age-appropriate behavior for 60-year-olds. Anyway, this familiar fundraising special features the McGuire Sisters, Pat Boone, Patti Page (holds up well), the Crew Cuts, Debbie Reynolds, and the Four Lads, Aces, and Coins. Not for the faint-hearted. To be repeated on Sunday at 6 pm. [Until 11 pm]

SUNDAY 26

9:00 [2] MYSTERY! | THE INSPECTOR LYNLEY MYSTERIES: IN PURSUIT OF THE PROPER SINNER | Elizabeth George’s odd-couple Brit-detective team return in typical guise — Nathaniel Parker as the aristocratic DI Thomas Lynley and Sharon Small as the blue-collar-born Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers. The twist for this fourth series of Lynley puzzlers is that Havers is now behind a desk and the two aren’t getting along even as well as they used to. In fact, he leaves her behind that desk as he dashes off to Manchester to investigate a ritual murder. Havers figures out a way to follow, of course. To be repeated tonight at 1 am on Channel 44, and at 4 am on Channels 2 and 44. [Until 10:30 pm]

9:00 [12] CHANGING LANES | movie | Movies come and go so fast these days, you forget they were ever made. Ben Affleck and Samuel L. Jackson star as drivers involved in a minor collision. That’s it? Well, no, there’s an ever-escalating road-rage theme that carries the rest of the plot. [Until 11 pm]

9:00 [44] INDEPENDENT LENS | DOUBLE DARE AND PIKI AND POCO: TAKING THE DARE! The first of these is a documentary exploring the treacherous lives of two stunt women; the second is an animated short about the "Eternal Martial Arts Warriors from Another World" (two of them) and their efforts to save the universe from . . . we don’t know, something ugly. [Until 10:30 pm]

10:30 [44] INDEPENDENT LENS | CHAVEZ RAVINE: A LOS ANGELES LOVE STORY | A film about the Latino neighborhood destroyed to build Dodger Stadium. [Until 11 pm]

11:00 [44] AUSTIN CITY LIMITS | Polyphonic Spree and Ozomatli. [Until midnight]

MONDAY 27

8:00 [44] MASTERPIECE THEATRE | POLLYANNA | This TV edition of the ridiculously popular 1913 novel Eleanor H. Porter is every bit as cloying and cringe-inducing as you might suspect. Georgiana Terry (age 11) plays the orphan who in the face of any difficulty (including a debilitating accident) insists on finding something to be glad about. You can imagine how well this goes over with the dour and the sour of the town where the kid’s been sent to live with her grim Aunt Polly. You can also imagine that they all see it her way in the end. Having imagined those things, you needn’t watch this. [Until 10 pm]

9:00 [2] THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE | THE FIGHT | An excellent background yarn about the 1938 heavyweight bout between African-American Joe Lewis and German superman Max Schmeling. With all the overtones of Nazism and racism, this couldn’t help but be a major event. And in fact, it was listened to by the largest radio audience to that date, and witnessed by more that 90,000 spectators in Yankee Stadium. To be repeated tonight at 1 am. [Until 10:30 pm]

9:00 [6] AIR FORCE ONE | movie | Harrison Ford is president. Hijackers seize his plane. Little do they know he’s really Indiana Jones. [Until 11 pm]

TUESDAY 28

7:30 [2] LA PLAZA | CONVERSATIONS WITH ILAN STAVANS: JORGE CASTAÑEDA | No details provided, so this could be a chat with Jorge Castañeda the Latino cop or something, or it could be a conversation with Jorge Castañeda, Mexico’s foreign minister. The latter, we assume. [Until 8 pm]

8:00 [2] NEW HEROES | DREAMS OF SANCTUARY | "New hero" here is defined as an activist who overcomes anything and everything in the name of reform and social progress. This program’s profiles include Moses Zulu, a African who’s established a home and a school for AIDS orphans; Kailash Satyarthi, in India, who rescues enslaved children and crusades to end the market for products made by child labor; and the Delancey Street project, in San Francisco, which runs a restaurant and a moving company to help former addicts and criminals reintegrate. Another edition follows. To be repeated tonight at 1 and 4 am on Channels 2 and 44. [Until 9 pm]

8:00 [44] GLOBE TREKKER | NEW ORLEANS CITY GUIDE | Trekker Justine Shapiro visits NOLA, where she goes to a voodoo wedding, pays respects at a Creole cemetery, checks out some nearby plantations, does Lundi Gras (the day before Mardi Gras) in the French Quarter, and celebrates Mardi Gras with the city’s African-American population. [Until 9 pm]

9:00 [2] NEW HEROES | TECHNOLOGY OF FREEDOM | More determined folks. Here the focus is on helpful technologies: an Indian/American effort to prevent blindness through 200,000 cataract surgeries a year; the inventors of a low-cost water pump to help Kenyans irrigate their farmland; and Fabio Rosa, who spent 20 years fighting to bring electricity to rural Brazil. Small victories? Not if you’re the one being helped. To be repeated tonight at 2 and 5 am on Channels 2 and 44. [Until 10 pm]

9:00 [44] HISTORY DETECTIVES | This often disappointing show returns for another round of investigations. Did someone’s uncle really build the engine for Charles Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis? Is that really Geronimo in that picture? Are these odd pins prototypes for "suicide pins" spy-plane pilot Francis Gary Powers carried on his U2 flight over Russia? Interesting topics; contrived ways of covering them. [Until 10 pm]

WEDNESADAY 29

9:00 [2] AMERICAN MASTERS | SWEET HONEY IN THE ROCK: RAISE YOUR VOICE | The all-woman African-American sextet perform their spiritual-infused, civil-rights-inspired a cappella pieces. Bound to be powerful. [Until 10:30 pm]

THURSDAY 30

9:00 [2] P.O.V. | BROTHER OUTSIDER: THE LIFE OF BAYARD RUSTIN | A biography of activist Bayard Rustin, who worked quietly behind the scenes of the American civil-rights movement because he was gay. [Until 10:30 pm]

5:00 am [44] SOUNDSTAGE | Michael McDonald and Toni Braxton.

THURSDAY 23

7:30 [2] BASIC BLACK | BREAKING THE HABITS OF RACE: A CONVERSATION WITH DEBRA DICKERSON | Guest host Howard Manly talks with the author of The End of Blackness about her contention that African-Americans can progress only if they stop evaluating themselves in terms of their relation to whites. Perhaps easier said than done. [Until 8 pm]

8:30 [6] BASKETBALL? | The Detroit Pistons versus the San Antonio Spurs in NBA championship game #7, if necessary. If not, The Mexican, starring not-Mexicans Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts. [Until 11 pm]

FRIDAY 24

9:00 [2] DECLINING BY DEGREES: HIGHER EDUCATION AT RISK | John Merrow reports (and narrates), so this is probably worth your time even if it’s not being exactly oversold by PBS. From what we gather, the program looks at higher education at four campuses — a private liberal-arts college, a major state university, a regional public university, and a community college — from the perspectives of students, faculty, and parents. Amid all this, we find risk, though risk of what is not specified. To be repeated tonight at 1 am. [Until 11 pm]

SATURDAY 25

Noon [10] TENNIS | First-round action from Wimbledon.

6:30 [2] JUDY GARLAND — DUETS | The story here is that more than 100 audio and video tapes were discovered in a damp New Jersey basement where they’d been stored under the most destructive conditions for 30 years. The story continues: " . . . these master recordings not only survived, they remained in mint condition." Okay, so perhaps dank New Jersey basements are, in fact, the ideal conditions under which to store old tapes. It would seem so. But anyway, they rescued the tapes — all from Judy Garland’s 1960s TV show — and shipped them off to "ideal" conditions in California, where they’ve been digitally remastered. So now we have Judy teaming up with Count Basie, daughter Lisa Minnelli, Tony Bennett, little Babs Streisand, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Ethel Merman, Bobby Darin, Peggy Lee, Lena Horne, Jack Jones, Vic Damone, and Mel Torme. And then they’re showing it again at 7:30. [Until 8:30 pm]

8:00 [6] POCAHONTAS | movie | As we were colonizing Native American lands in preparation for the genocide that would forever remove the threat of an indigenous population, we white guys also had our way with their women. Some called it romance, and in this case, who knows? Disney’s 1995 animated PC reworking of the Pocahontas yarn. That’s Mel Gibson giving voice to Captain John Smith. [Until 10 pm]

9:00 [2] SUPER TROUPERS: THIRTY YEARS OF ABBA | Fortunately not nonstop for 30 years. A documentary on the rise and fall of Agnetha, Frida, Benny, and Björn. Featuring scenes from Abba: The Movie, which covered their first Australian tour and a London reunion on the Mamma Mia! stage. [Until 10:30 pm]

9:00 [44] MAGIC MOMENTS — THE BEST OF ’50s POP | As the summer series Hit Me Baby, One More Time has proved, even stars of the 1970s and ’80s can age gracelessly, and these guys are a lot older. Not that that’s a fault, but not all pop performances are age-appropriate behavior for 60-year-olds. Anyway, this familiar fundraising special features the McGuire Sisters, Pat Boone, Patti Page (holds up well), the Crew Cuts, Debbie Reynolds, and the Four Lads, Aces, and Coins. Not for the faint-hearted. To be repeated on Sunday at 6 pm. [Until 11 pm]

SUNDAY 26

9:00 [2] MYSTERY! | THE INSPECTOR LYNLEY MYSTERIES: IN PURSUIT OF THE PROPER SINNER | Elizabeth George’s odd-couple Brit-detective team return in typical guise — Nathaniel Parker as the aristocratic DI Thomas Lynley and Sharon Small as the blue-collar-born Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers. The twist for this fourth series of Lynley puzzlers is that Havers is now behind a desk and the two aren’t getting along even as well as they used to. In fact, he leaves her behind that desk as he dashes off to Manchester to investigate a ritual murder. Havers figures out a way to follow, of course. To be repeated tonight at 1 am on Channel 44, and at 4 am on Channels 2 and 44. [Until 10:30 pm]

9:00 [12] CHANGING LANES | movie | Movies come and go so fast these days, you forget they were ever made. Ben Affleck and Samuel L. Jackson star as drivers involved in a minor collision. That’s it? Well, no, there’s an ever-escalating road-rage theme that carries the rest of the plot. [Until 11 pm]

9:00 [44] INDEPENDENT LENS | DOUBLE DARE AND PIKI AND POCO: TAKING THE DARE! The first of these is a documentary exploring the treacherous lives of two stunt women; the second is an animated short about the "Eternal Martial Arts Warriors from Another World" (two of them) and their efforts to save the universe from . . . we don’t know, something ugly. [Until 10:30 pm]

10:30 [44] INDEPENDENT LENS | CHAVEZ RAVINE: A LOS ANGELES LOVE STORY | A film about the Latino neighborhood destroyed to build Dodger Stadium. [Until 11 pm]

11:00 [44] AUSTIN CITY LIMITS | Polyphonic Spree and Ozomatli. [Until midnight]

MONDAY 27

8:00 [44] MASTERPIECE THEATRE | POLLYANNA | This TV edition of the ridiculously popular 1913 novel Eleanor H. Porter is every bit as cloying and cringe-inducing as you might suspect. Georgiana Terry (age 11) plays the orphan who in the face of any difficulty (including a debilitating accident) insists on finding something to be glad about. You can imagine how well this goes over with the dour and the sour of the town where the kid’s been sent to live with her grim Aunt Polly. You can also imagine that they all see it her way in the end. Having imagined those things, you needn’t watch this. [Until 10 pm]

9:00 [2] THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE | THE FIGHT | An excellent background yarn about the 1938 heavyweight bout between African-American Joe Lewis and German superman Max Schmeling. With all the overtones of Nazism and racism, this couldn’t help but be a major event. And in fact, it was listened to by the largest radio audience to that date, and witnessed by more that 90,000 spectators in Yankee Stadium. To be repeated tonight at 1 am. [Until 10:30 pm]

9:00 [6] AIR FORCE ONE | movie | Harrison Ford is president. Hijackers seize his plane. Little do they know he’s really Indiana Jones. [Until 11 pm]

TUESDAY 28

7:30 [2] LA PLAZA | CONVERSATIONS WITH ILAN STAVANS: JORGE CASTAÑEDA | No details provided, so this could be a chat with Jorge Castañeda the Latino cop or something, or it could be a conversation with Jorge Castañeda, Mexico’s foreign minister. The latter, we assume. [Until 8 pm]

8:00 [2] NEW HEROES | DREAMS OF SANCTUARY | "New hero" here is defined as an activist who overcomes anything and everything in the name of reform and social progress. This program’s profiles include Moses Zulu, a African who’s established a home and a school for AIDS orphans; Kailash Satyarthi, in India, who rescues enslaved children and crusades to end the market for products made by child labor; and the Delancey Street project, in San Francisco, which runs a restaurant and a moving company to help former addicts and criminals reintegrate. Another edition follows. To be repeated tonight at 1 and 4 am on Channels 2 and 44. [Until 9 pm]

8:00 [44] GLOBE TREKKER | NEW ORLEANS CITY GUIDE | Trekker Justine Shapiro visits NOLA, where she goes to a voodoo wedding, pays respects at a Creole cemetery, checks out some nearby plantations, does Lundi Gras (the day before Mardi Gras) in the French Quarter, and celebrates Mardi Gras with the city’s African-American population. [Until 9 pm]

9:00 [2] NEW HEROES | TECHNOLOGY OF FREEDOM | More determined folks. Here the focus is on helpful technologies: an Indian/American effort to prevent blindness through 200,000 cataract surgeries a year; the inventors of a low-cost water pump to help Kenyans irrigate their farmland; and Fabio Rosa, who spent 20 years fighting to bring electricity to rural Brazil. Small victories? Not if you’re the one being helped. To be repeated tonight at 2 and 5 am on Channels 2 and 44. [Until 10 pm]

9:00 [44] HISTORY DETECTIVES | This often disappointing show returns for another round of investigations. Did someone’s uncle really build the engine for Charles Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis? Is that really Geronimo in that picture? Are these odd pins prototypes for "suicide pins" spy-plane pilot Francis Gary Powers carried on his U2 flight over Russia? Interesting topics; contrived ways of covering them. [Until 10 pm]

WEDNESADAY 29

9:00 [2] AMERICAN MASTERS | SWEET HONEY IN THE ROCK: RAISE YOUR VOICE | The all-woman African-American sextet perform their spiritual-infused, civil-rights-inspired a cappella pieces. Bound to be powerful. [Until 10:30 pm]

THURSDAY 30

9:00 [2] P.O.V. | BROTHER OUTSIDER: THE LIFE OF BAYARD RUSTIN | A biography of activist Bayard Rustin, who worked quietly behind the scenes of the American civil-rights movement because he was gay. [Until 10:30 pm]

5:00 am [44] SOUNDSTAGE | Michael McDonald and Toni Braxton.