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[Hot Dots]

by Clif Garboden

THURSDAY

7:30 (5) An American Salute. God bless us, everyone. Please? With the BSO and the Pops. (Until 9 p.m.)

8:00 (2) Local News: A Working Team. This series about one Southern TV station’s efforts to upgrade its news department continues with a look at how a natural disaster (in this case a hurricane) can boost news ratings. (Until 9 p.m.)

9:00 (2) Frontline: Trail of a Terrorist. Correspondent Terence McKenna pores over the testimony of Ahmed Ressam, who was convicted of a Y2K terrorist bombing plot, to look inside a bin Laden training camp in Afghanistan. (Until 10 p.m.)

10:00 (2) They Drew Fire. Brian Lanker (I Dream a World) directed this look at five combat photographers and what it takes to document real war. Jason Robards narrates. (Until 11 p.m.)

FRIDAY

10:00 (44) Austin City Limits. Featuring music from Richard Thompson and Eliza Gilkyson. (Until 11 p.m.)

SATURDAY

1:00 (7) Racing. The Breeders Cup. (Until 6 p.m. — that’s one long race.)

3:10 (44) The Stranger (movie). A 1946 thriller with Orson Welles as a Nazi-in-hiding discovered in Connecticut by fed Edward G. Robinson just as the unsavory war refugee is about to marry Loretta Young. (Until 4:50 p.m.)

4:50 (44) The Third Man (movie). The 1949 Orson Welles spy classic starring Joseph Cotten as a unemployed writer looking for Welles’s killer (or even his body) in post-WW2 Vienna. From a Graham Greene yarn. (Until 6:40 p.m.)

6:40 (44) Suddenly (movie). Frank Sinatra wants to ambush the president from a house by the side of the road somewhere in Middle America (a town named Suddenly, actually). From 1954 and directed by Lewis Allen. (Until 8 p.m.)

7:30 (25) Baseball. The Arizona Diamondbacks versus the New York Yankees in World Series game #1.

8:00 (44) Dashiell Hammett: Detective Writer. Thin Man and Maltese Falcon creator Hammett led a rough life — a lot of it in a bar in San Francisco. A fascinating biography. Worth catching. (Until 9 p.m.)

9:00 (5) My Best Friend’s Wedding (movie). Everybody agrees that America needs to be cheered up, and who better for the job than the apparently lovable Julia Roberts? She stars here as Dermot Mulroney’s best friend, whom she’s agreed to marry if everyone’s still single at age 28. Then he gets engaged to Cameron Diaz and you can guess (and possibly enjoy) the rest. (Until 11 p.m.)

9:00 (7) In and Out (movie). Matt Dillon plays an actor who outs his old high-school teacher during a thank-you speech. And the teacher has to deal with the fallout. With Kevin Kline, Joan Cusack, Tom Selleck, and Debbie Reynolds. Frank "Muppet Man" Oz directed in 1997. (Until 11 p.m.)

9:00 (44) The Lives of Lillian Hellman. Following up on the Dashiell Hammett bio, WGBX gives us a profile of his wife/companion/whatever, playwright Lillian Hellman (Toys in the Attic, The Children’s Hour, The Little Foxes). (Until 10 p.m.)

SUNDAY

8:00 a.m. (44) Halloween on WGBX. A seven-film spooky marathon: John Barrymore’s 1920 silent Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (8 a.m.); Lon Chaney’s 1925 silent The Phantom of the Opera (9:25 a.m.); F.E. Murnau’s 1922 classic silent Nosferatu (11:15 a.m.); Carl Dreyer’s 1932 classic Vampyr (12:40 p.m.); Bela Lugosi in Haiti in 1932’s White Zombie (1:55 p.m.); Roger Corman’s 1960 Little Shop of Horrors (3:05 p.m.); and Roland Young playfully playing Cosmo Topper in 1941’s Topper Returns at 4:20 p.m. (Until 6 p.m.)

1:00 (25) Football. The New Orleans Saints versus the St. Louis Rams.

1:00 (4) Football. The New York Jets versus the Carolina Panthers.

4:15 (4) Football. The Pats versus the Denver Broncos.

7:00 (5) Toy Story (movie). John Lasseter’s 1995 animated adventure is the kind of kids’ movie that respects kids. So adults love it as well. Voiced by Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Don Rickles, Wallace Shawn, and Annie "Bo Peep" Potts. (Until 9 p.m.)

7:00 (25) Baseball. The Arizona Diamondbacks versus the New York Yankees in World Series game #2.

8:00 (44) The Fountainhead (movie). Gary Cooper stars in the 1949 screen adaptation of Ayn Rand’s politically questionable epic. (Until 10 p.m.)

9:00 (2) The American Experience: The Wizard of Photography. George Eastman (of Kodak fame) hardly invented photography, but after a lot of trial and error, he did figure out how to put the medium in the hands of just plain folk. (Until 10 p.m.)

9:00 (7) Law & Order: Criminal Intent. We can’t blame L&O series creator Dick Wolf for trying to capitalize on the success of his original series (though if he watched the reruns from the first four seasons on cable, he’d be ashamed of the episodes he’s producing now), but this variation on the theme just blows. Not only is following the "mind of the criminal" boring (because the criminals get their motivation from scriptwriters, not from believable circumstances), but Vincent D’Onofrio, who maniacally chews the scenery into a fine pulp, is just a disturbing person. Looks like an overgrown kid who just got his haircut for First Communion. (Until 10 p.m.)

10:00 (2) American Masters: Vaudeville. It’s all about the Banana Man. Gotta see this. To be repeated tonight at 1 and 4 a.m. on Channel 44, and on Monday at 1 a.m. on Channel 2. (Until midnight.)

10:00 (44) The Best of Everything (movie). Women seek fortune and love in New York publishing. Made in 1959 from a Rona Jaffe novel. Starring Joan Crawford and Hope Lange. (Until 11:40 p.m.)

1:00 and 4:00 a.m. (44) American Masters: Vaudeville. Repeated from this evening at 10 p.m.

MONDAY

9:00 (2) Masterpiece Theatre: The Cazalets, part two. A family saga from Elizabeth Jane Howard (Kingsley Amis’s wife) about a Sussex family confronting the dawn of World War II. Stephen Dillane and Ursula Howells star. To be repeated on Tuesday at 1 a.m. (Until 10 p.m.)

9:00 (5) Football. The Tennessee Titans versus the Pittsburgh Steelers.

10:30 (2) American Roots Music: When First unto This Country. They called it "folk," but then somebody realized that folk was like blues, and Cajun music was folk to some folk, and Tejano was folk in another language, and the pigeonhole got so crammed and crowded that critics created an umbrella genre called Americana. This new four-part series covers all that grouping’s subsets. With commentary from Pete Seeger, Bonnie Raitt, Willie Nelson, Arlo Guthrie, Ricky Skaggs, Marty Stuart, Rufus Thomas, and Keb’ Mo’. (Until 11:30 p.m.)

1:00 a.m. (2) American Masters: Vaudeville. Repeated from Sunday at 10 p.m.

TUESDAY

7:30 (2) La Plaza: Notes from the Mambo Inn. A bio of Cuban jazz pioneer Mario Bauz‡. (Until 8 p.m.)

8:00 (2) Nova: Sex: Unknown. A report on the scientific aspects of a sad case of a botched circumcision that launched the victim on a roller-coaster ride of medical intervention. (Until 9 p.m.)

8:00 (5) Halloween Annuals. The inescapable It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown followed by the less-familiar Boo! To You, Too, Winnie-the Pooh. (Until 9 p.m.)

8:00 (25) Baseball. The Arizona Diamondbacks versus the New York Yankees in World Series game #3.

9:00 (2) Scientific American Frontiers: Dead Men’s Tales. Host Alan Alda tags along as scientists probe excavated remains to reconstruct the circumstances of ancient demises. (Until 10 p.m.)

10:00 (2) Nova: The Killer’s Trail. Following up on SAF, WGBH gives us a report on forensic scientists who are re-examining evidence from the notorious 1954 Sam Sheppard murder case. (Sheppard was the Cleveland doctor convicted of killing his pregnant wife; The Fugitive was based on his insistent protests of innocence.) (Until 11 p.m.)

1:00 a.m. (2) Masterpiece Theatre: The Cazalets, part two. Repeated from Monday at 9 p.m.

WEDNESDAY

8:00 (2) Hunt for the Battleship Hood. On May 24, 1941, the battle cruiser HMS Hood engaged the German warship Bismarck in the Denmark Strait (between Greenland and Iceland). The under-armored Hood was sunk quickly; 1400 died and just three survived. This show follows the search for the Hood and for the Bismarck, which, on its maiden voyage, was hunted down and sunk a few days later. (Until 9 p.m.)

8:00 (25) Baseball. The Arizona Diamondbacks versus the New York Yankees in World Series game #4.

9:00 (2) Sweeney Todd in Concert: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. A concert version of Stephen Sondheim’s tedious musical about London’s killer barbershop. Taped in July and featuring Patti LuPone, George Hearn, and the San Francisco Symphony and Chorus. (Until 11:30 p.m.)

THURSDAY

7:30 (2) Basic Black: Conversations with John Edgar Wideman. Darren Duarte talks with UMass prof, Rhodes scholar, and novelist Wideman about how he escaped poverty in Pittsburgh. (Until 8 p.m.)

8:00 (2) Local News: Grace Under Pressure. The story of North Carolina’s WCNC and its efforts to upgrade its news department continues with the unveiling of a new format and technical difficulties beyond their imagination. (Until 9 p.m.)

8:00 (25) Baseball. The Arizona Diamondbacks versus the New York Yankees in World Series game #5 — if necessary.

9:00 (2) Frontline: Ambush in Mogadishu. An updated edition of a 1998 Frontline report on the ambush of Army Rangers in Somalia by troops under the command of warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid. Those same US outfits are now in Afghanistan chasing the guy who, evidence suggests, may have trained their abushers, Osama bin Laden. To be repeated tonight at 12:30 a.m. (Until 10 p.m.)

9:00 (44) Mystery: Mrs. Bradley Mysteries: Speedy Death. Diana Rigg herself plays feisty detective Adela Bradley in this adaptation of a 1929 yarn by Gladys Mitchell. (Until 10:30 p.m.)

10:30 (44) 1900 House: The Time Machine. This Brit reality show, which moved a modern couple back into a world of Victorian inconveniences, was a dud, but the first installment, covering the restoration of the house, is fun. (Until 11:30 p.m.)

The 525th line. Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered on that Christmas-present-for-Mom thing. Getting it out just in time for the annual desperate quest, Globe Pequot Press has released Main Streets and Back Roads of New England, a text-and-Kodachrome rehash of Channel 5’s Chronicle’s most enduring recurring segment. Okay, so Chronicle can wax a little quaint with the lovable Yankee lore, but admit it: said lore is charming as hell. Besides, Chronicle is a remarkably smart show — and a local show abut local stuff, which makes it all the more valuable (bordering on precious . . . or perhaps, alas, extinction). MS/BR/NE includes some cool things: a beer-can museum in Northampton, the giant milk bottle of Raynham, the story of Turners Falls’ petrified Indian boy, and New England ghost lore. You also get the story of the 1944 Hartford Circus Fire and atmospheric departures like "Winnipesaukee Winter." And the story behind that 1969 Chevy they make Peter Mehegan drive. And, alas, the obligatory schlock about Martha’s Vineyard. It’s all so damn nice, it’s irresistible; the chapter-opening scenics are gorgeous; Mom will love it; and for 30 bucks, you could do worse than support one of our last TV half-hours that reflects the way New Englanders see themselves — subtly eccentric and quietly proud of it. A class act on tape and in print.

Issue Date: October 25 - November 1, 2001