BY CLIF GARBODEN

FRIDAY 1

9:00 [2] FRONTLINE | THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE CREDIT CARD | Here’s the secret — they’re trying to rip you off and bleed you for every penny you own. Thanks to some misguided federal regulation, lenders are allowed to charge interest up to the maximum allowed by the state from which the loan was issued. So, if some opportunistic state (say, South Dakota) decides to make the sky the limit, then all the banks will set up shop in that state and you’ll end up borrowing money for lunch at 19 percent. What can you do? Always pay off your credit-card bills in full. [Until 10 pm]

10:00 [2] FRONTLINE | THE PERSUADERS | Correspondent Douglas Rushkoff tours what he calls the "persuasion industries," by which he means advertising and public relations (previously known as the "liars’ professions"). Since there are so many of them placing ads on everything from lamp posts to parking tickets, and since everyone has always been suspicious of these people in the first place, it’s harder and harder for them to get their message to stand out. Perhaps the PR flack who comes right out and says "This car gets pretty poor mileage, but we figured you’d buy it anyway because of the comfortable seats" might get our attention. Instead, it’s just more "Pop! Zap! Pow!", and one screams drowns out the next. [Until 11 pm]

SATURDAY 2

9:00 am [10] TENNIS | The ladies’ final from Wimbledon. [Until 3 pm]

8:00 [6] TOY STORY | movie | Director John Lasseter’s 1995 animated . . . er, toy story attracted as many adults as kids into the theaters, and not without good reason. The combo soap-opera/comedy/adventure/satire has enough of all that for everyone. Tom Hanks does the voice of down-to-earth cowboy doll Woody; Tim Allen speaks for the self-deluded spaceman action figure Buzz Lightyear. [Until 10 pm]

11:00 [2] IN THE LIFE | IMAGE CONSCIOUS | This month’s edition of this magazine-format series devoted to gay and lesbian issues looks at the LGBT image on TV, focusing on reality TV, advertising, and Showtime’s The L Word. Laura Linney hosts. [Until midnight]

MIDNIGHT [44] SOUNDSTAGE | Featuring music from Michael McDonald and Toni Braxton. [Until 1 am]

SUNDAY 3

9:00 am [10] TENNIS | The gentlemen’s final from Wimbledon. [Until 3 pm]

8:00 [2] FORCES OF THE WILD | PLAYING WITH FIRE | A new series about probing the Earth and defining the forces of nature and their roles. Tonight’s intro edition looks at the tools scientists use. [Until 9 pm]

9:00 [2] MYSTERY | THE INSPECTOR LYNLEY MYSTERIES IV: A TRAITOR TO ME | Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers (Sharon Small), alienated from Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley (Nathaniel Parker) and convinced she’s unappreciated, decides to resign from the force. But a violinist may have murdered his mother, so the interpersonal stuff takes a back seat for another episode. To be repeated tonight at midnight, and at 1 am on Channel 44, and at 4 am on Channels 2 and 44. [Until 10:30 pm]

9:00 [12] SHANGHAI NOON | movie | Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson kick up the dust through the Old West in search of a kidnapped Chinese princess in this stunt-filled "Eastern Western." With Lucy Liu. [Until 11 pm]

9:00 [44] INDEPENDENT LENS | RED HOOK JUSTICE | A look at the benighted Brooklyn neighborhood of Red Hook and an experimental 2000 plan under which criminals were sentenced to drug counseling, job training, and community service instead of jail. Might work; jail doesn’t. [Until 10 pm]

10:00 [44] INDEPENDENT LENS | A HARD STRAIGHT | Proof that getting out of jail is progress but no picnic — as told through the experiences of a paroled gang member and hustler and drug dealer. [Until 11 pm]

11:00 [44] ROADTRIP NATION | A travelogue series of sorts following the cultural fortunes and automotive misfortunes of three teams of young Americans who set out to find America from LA, San Francisco, and Seattle in rickety bright-green RVs. Along the way, they meet and interview a wide variety of folk, including the Blue Man Group’s founder, a CNN Latina anchorwoman, the WNBA’s president, and a surfboard shaper. Another episode follows at 11:30 pm. [Until midnight]

MIDNIGHT [44] AUSTIN CITY LIMITS | Modest Mouse and Guided by Voices. [Until 1 am]

MONDAY 4

8:00 [2] CAPITOL FOURTH | Barry Bostwick hosts the 25th televised July 4 concert from the US Capitol. The National Symphony Orchestra, under Erich Kunzel, backs various guest performers, the only one we know of being Irish tenor Ronan Tynan. But expect the usual racial, gender, and culture-war balance. It’ll be interesting to see whether anyone pipes up and insults the Iraqis this year. To be repeated tonight at 1 am on Channel 44, and at 4 am on Channels 2 and 44. [Until 9:30 pm]

9:00 [2] ON STAGE AT THE KENNEDY CENTER | THE 2004 MARK TWAIN PRIZE. This has been aired before, but it’s entertaining. The Twain winner is Lorne Michaels, creator and sustainer of Saturday Night Live. Tributes and gags are provided by Steve Martin, Dan Aykroyd, Tina Fey, Senator John McCain, Paul Simon, David Spade, Christopher Walken, Senator Chris Dodd, and more. With G.E. Smith back leading the band. [Until 11 pm]

10:00 [6] AN AMERICAN CELEBRATION AT FORD’S THEATER SALUTE TO THE TROOPS | Bring them back over here so we can salute them in person. [Until 11 pm]

10:00 [44] P.O.V. | BIG ENOUGH | Filmmaker Jan Krawitz’s follow-up to her 1982 Little People revisits the people "affected with dwarfism" to see how they’ve changed in 20 years and offer viewers realistic perspective on a little-understood subculture. [Until 11 pm]

TUESDAY 5

7:30 [2] LA PLAZA | CONVERSATIONS WITH ILAN STAVANS: DAVID HAYES-BAUTISTA | A discussion of new trends — make that alarming new trends — in Latino health with David Hayes-Bautista, founding director of the Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture at the University of California/Los Angeles. [Until 8 pm]

8:00 [2] NEW HEROES | THE POWER OF ENTERPRISE | This series on people who make differences continues with profiles of a man who founded a bank to lend money to poor families in Bangladesh; a woman in Rio de Janeiro who runs a fair-labor-practices sewing collective; and a man who stepped in where the Peruvian government failed and organized garbage collection for millions in that country. Another edition follows. To be repeated tonight at 1 am on Channels 2 and 4, and at 4 am on Channel 2, and at 4:30 am on Channel 44. [Until 9 pm]

8:00 [44] GLOBE TREKKER | RIO DE JANEIRO CITY GUIDE | Trekker Ian Wright visits the beach at Copacabana, the Christ on Corcovado, an inner-city tropical rain forest, shanty towns, open-air markets, and a soccer match at Maracana Stadium. Plus a little hang-gliding and a lot of samba and Carnivale. To be repeated on Wednesday at 1 am on Channel 2. [Until 9 pm]

9:00 [2] NEW HEROES | THE POWER OF KNOWLEDGE | This show’s heroes include an Indian schoolteacher who brought lessons to the local train platforms where truant students were begging for money; a woman whose experiences with her Down-syndrome son made her determined to guarantee all Egyptian pre-schoolers a decent educational start; and a Thai educator who offers young women alternatives to prostitution through schooling. To be repeated tonight at 2 am on Channels 2 and 44, and at 5 am on Channel 2. [Until 10 pm]

WEDNESDAY 6

8:00 [44] BATTLEFIELD BRITAIN | NASEBY — 1645 | Father/son historians Peter and Dan Snow revisit the decisive battle of the English Civil War, where Oliver Cromwell and his New Model Army put Charles I’s monarchists away for good. [Until 9 pm]

9:00 [2] AMERICAN MASTERS | JULIA! AMERICA’S FAVORITE CHEF | The "French Chef" was neither French nor a chef. Julia McWilliams was born and raised in California, and it wasn’t until her husband, Paul Child, introduced her to fine cuisine that she really started to cook. The entire Julia Child story. [Until 10 pm]

1:00 [44] AMERICAN MASTERS | SATCHMO: THE LIFE OF LOUIS ARMSTRONG | Ken Burns’s documentary series on jazz may have oversold Armstrong as the greatest jazz musician ever, ever, ever, but he was (despite Hello, Dolly!) an important and influential figure in the history of American music. To be repeated tonight at 4 am on Channels 2 and 44. [Until 2:30 am]

THURSDAY 7

7:30 [2] BASIC BLACK | UNEQUAL EXPOSURE | Guest host Howard Manly and an expert panel consider why people of color are nine times more likely to be exposed to toxic wastes. Topics include brown-field clean-up and EPA funding, extraordinary asthma rates in certain inner-city neighborhoods, and Boston’s University’s plan to build a bio-weapons lab in the South End/Lower Roxbury. [Until 8 pm]

9:00 [2] AMERICAN MASTERS | JUILLIARD | A rare look inside the fabled New York conservatory following current students and checking in with alums Itzhak Perlman, Wynton Marsalis, Robin Williams, Leontyne Price, and Kevin Spacey. [Until 11 pm]

10:00 [44] SOUNDSTAGE | John Mayer and Buddy Guy. To be repeated tonight at 5 am. [Until 11 pm]

THE 525TH LINE | This week’s "Oh Dem Shiftless Darkies Award" goes to Blockbuster for its ad for the video store’s "no late fee" policy. In this "testimonial," a sloppily dressed African-American man rejoices that it’s okay to be late — even by a week — and then quips that you can watch even those "boring English movies" in that much time. The no-deadline return policy must appeal to the lazy, irresponsible, and ignorant of all races and creeds; casting a black man as spokesperson for that demographic is more than a little insensitive.