BY CLIF GARBODEN

THURSDAY 29

9:00 (2) THE ’60S: THE YEARS THAT SHAPED A GENERATION | A documentary on the social, cultural, and political upheavals of the late 1960s. Back then, we spent a lot of time bragging that we’d never grow old and brag about how things were better in our day. And, unlike the Greatest Generation, we’ve kept that promise pretty well. Of course, it’s only now, when we real boomers are in our 50s, that we begin to feel the sting of history’s neglect. So watch out: the ’60s Generation deluge may just be beginning. To be repeated tonight at 4 am, and, on Channel 44, at 1 and 4 am | Until 11 pm

FRIDAY 30

10:00 (2) ART IN THE 21ST CENTURY | STRUCTURES | The premise probably make more sense as presented than as described. The artists profiled are Matthew Ritchie, Fred Wilson, Richard Tuttle, and Roni Horn. What ties them together, according to the press release, is their use of "unconventional devices to create systems." Perhaps you’ve got to see it to understand it. | Until 11 pm

10:00 (44) GET UP, STAND UP: THE STORY OF POP AND PROTEST | Repeated from last week. The history of protest music from Joe Hill to the present, focusing on the tunes that spurred the union movement, the civil-rights movement, the anti-war movement, and more. Featuring Bob Dylan; John Lennon; Bob Marley; Woody Guthrie; James Brown; the Ramones; Peter, Paul & Mary; Pete Seeger; Nina Simone; and Sly Stone. | Until midnight

SATURDAY 1

3:30 (12) FOOTBALL | College play. Teams unannounced at press time.

6:00 (2) AMERICAN MASTERS | BOB DYLAN: NO DIRECTION HOME | parts one and two | Repeated from last week. The entire Martin Scorsese bio-doc covering Bob Dylan’s explosion into the American culture. Danger: this is a four-hour movie and it’s running here for five hours. We suspect something bad is afoot. To be repeated (the five-hour "version") on Sunday at 6 pm on Channel 44. | Until 11 pm

8:00 (44) THE QUILLER MEMORANDUM | movie | From 1967, and starring George Segal as a secret agent on the trail of a neo-Nazi organization in Berlin. Script by Harold Pinter. | Until 9:45 pm

9:45 (44) DIAL M FOR MURDER | movie | A premise that only Alfred Hitchcock could make plausible — never mind threatening. Ray Milland plots to murder his wife (Grace Kelly) using state-of-the-art technology, the telephone. From 1954. | Until 11:31 pm

SUNDAY 2

1:00 (12) FOOTBALL | The Pats versus the San Diego Chargers.

4:00 (64) FOOTBALL | The Dallas Cowboys versus the Oakland Raiders.

6:00 (2) EVENING AT POPS | JOHN WILLIAMS’S TRIBUTE TO BERNARD HERRMANN AND HENRY MANCINI | Boring old John Williams returns to force the Pops to play movie scores. This year, he tackles soundtracks by Bernard Herrmann, whose tunes accompanied many Hitchcock films, including Psycho. Then guests Julie Andrews, Blake Edwards, Broadway’s Brian Stokes Mitchell, and Henry’s daughter Monica Mancini gather to celebrate The Days of Wine and Roses and, inevitably, The Pink Panther. | Until 7 pm

7:00 (2) EVENING AT POPS | A TRIBUTE TO JERRY HERMAN | Keith Lockhart and the Poppers play stage hits from Hello Dolly!, La cage aux folles, Mame, and more. Guest performers include Faith Prince, Marin Mazzie, and John Barrowman. | Until 8 pm

9:00 (2) MYSTERY | FOYLE’S WAR, SERIES 3: A WAR OF NERVES | An unexploded bomb sets DCS Foyle (Michael Kitchen) off on another convoluted chase around England’s WWII home front. To be repeated tonight at 4 am, and, on Channel 44, at 1 and 4 am, and on Monday at 8 pm | Until 10:30 pm

11:00 (44) INDEPENDENT LENS | THE WORST POSSIBLE ILLUSION: THE CURIOSITY CABINET OF VIK MUNIZ | Artist, photographer, author (Seeing Is Believing), and magician, Muniz fools us with pictures. | Until midnight

MONDAY 3

8:30 (12) HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER | Wannabe Friends, anyone? We can safely predict that this new sit-com will end before showing its "young" stars as grandparents. The title sums up the premise, although the time-frame is a little unclear. Propelling the effort, personality-wise, is supporting player Alyson Hannigan (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the American Pie movies). Dragging it down mightily is forever-young Neil Patrick Harris, more awkward playing an adult than ever. | Until 9 pm

9:00 (2) THE 12TH VAN CLIBURN INTERNATIONAL PIANO COMPETITION | You can probably expect to hear some truly competitive performances here, but all that the press material tells us is that the show looks at the people who come to Texas to compete and why they bother. Could fame and a career have anything to do with it? To be repeated tonight at 1 am. | Until 10:30 pm

9:00 (12) TWO AND A HALF MEN | The Charlie Sheen/Jon Cryer/plus comedy is back with the same droll scripting and deadpan delivery. Is it our imagination, or did the producers add a laugh track this season? At very least, they amplified it so that the disproportionate merriment steps on the jokes. The result of some damn focus group, we suspect. It’s a shame. | Until 9:30 pm

9:00 (6) FOOTBALL | The Green Bay Packers versus the Carolina Panthers.

TUESDAY 4

7:30 (2) THINKING BIG | REBECCA MACKINNON: NEWS IN THE DIGITAL AGE | Former CNN Asia correspondent MacKinnon discusses how modern interactive communication — specifically blogs — has changed the way people consume news. Ah yes, the institutionalization of the unreliable reporter. | Until 8 pm

8:00 (64) BASEBALL | Divisional-series playoff action.

8:00 (44) GLOBE TREKKER | MEXICO CITY GUIDE | Trekker Justine Shapiro does Mexico City, where, in addition to the markets and architecture, she samples too much tequila, a bullfight, and the Virgin of Guadalupe Festival. | Until 9 pm

9:00 (2) FRONTLINE | THE O.J. VERDICT | Ten years after footballer O.J. Simpson got away with murder, the infamous "trial" still influences the way people look at our criminal-justice system. Which is to say that now even white people don’t trust the courts to work. Personally, we’ve been holding out hope that such nonsense could happen only in LA. To be repeated tonight at 2 and 5 am, and, on Channel 44, at 2 am | Until 10 pm

9:00 (10) MY NAME IS EARL | Jason Lee tackles an original (gasp!) TV premise: a comedy about a not-too-bright hick in search of redemption, and it works. Danger: if the writers "evolve" Earl’s character and make him any brighter or more sophisticated, they could ruin a very good thing. | Until 9:30 pm

10:00 (2) WIDE ANGLE | I 1-800-INDIA | It’s bad enough that we outsource low-paying jobs to India, where the people we hire often work 80 hours a week for even less than minimum wage. Now that practice is beginning to change the culture, as well as the economy, of India. To be repeated tonight at 3 am | Until 11 pm

WEDNESDAY 5

7:30 (2) THINKING BIG | JAMES MCLURKIN: ALMOST HUMAN | Actually, McLurkin is (as far as anyone knows) completely human. But he works at MIT’s AI Lab and envisions a future where sophisticated robots will do all our dirty work — like searching for bodies in collapsed buildings and going to the Registry of Motor Vehicles. | Until 8 pm

8:00 (2) GREAT PERFORMANCES | FROM SHTETL TO SWING | A look at the children of Jewish immigrants to New York’s Lower East Side who made it big in American music by modernizing (and African-Americanizing) their Yiddish musical roots. To be repeated tonight at 3 am on Channel 44. | Until 9 pm

THURSDAY 6

7:30 (2) THINKING BIG | ROSALIND WILLIAMS: TECHNOLOGY, SCIENCE, AND HUMANITIES | MIT historian Williams discusses the necessity for the sci-tech crowd to get in touch with everyone else’s feelings. | Until 8 pm

8:00 (64) BASEBALL | Divisional-series playoff action.