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by Clif Garboden

THURSDAY

7:30 (2) Basic Black: Isaiah Jackson. The music director of Boston’s Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra discusses his life and honors — which include being the first African-American to take the podium before the Pops and the Cape Town Symphony. (Until 8 p.m.)

9:00 (2) Frontline: The Saudi Time Bomb. An effort to answer the question, whose side are the Saudis on? George "Bully Boy" Bush says the friends of our enemies are our enemies, and Saudi Arabia hasn’t exactly jumped into his anti-Taliban campaign feet first. What’s a warmaker to do? (Until 10 p.m.)

9:00 (5) Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. If it were really a secret, they wouldn’t have told us. (Until 10 p.m.)

FRIDAY

8:00 (5) Thanksgiving Cartoons. Not that Friday night has a lot of stuff worth watching in the first place, but this clinches it. Two holiday specials: A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (Charlie Brown is sent to get the turkey and comes back with a road-kill raccoon instead) followed by A Winnie-the-Pooh Thanksgiving (Owl goes into hiding). (Until 9 p.m.)

10:00 (2) Life 360: Leaving Home. This should be good. Tagging along with a Russian country band ("Moskva cats, play clean as Volga water . . . ") on their first US tour. Plus a vignette about a nun who quit the convent after 70 years. (Never too late for a career change.) To be repeated tonight at 2 and 4 a.m. (Until 11 p.m.)

10:00 (44) Austin City Limits. Featuring music from String Cheese Incident.

2:00 and 4:00 a.m. (44) Life 360: Leaving Home. Repeated from this evening at 10 p.m.

Noon (5) Football. BC versus Rutgers.

2:30 (7) Football. Notre Dame versus Navy.

7:00 (38) Hockey. The Bruins versus the Buffalo Sabres.

8:00 (5) A Time To Kill (movie). Joel Schumacher turned John Grisham’s turgid bestseller into a melodrama studded with Hollywood stereotypes of the Deep South. Samuel L. Jackson is the hardworking Mississippian who blows away a pair of drunken crackers after they rape his 10-year-old daughter. Kevin Spacey is the ambitious DA who prosecutes the case; Matthew McConaughey is Sam’s young and flippant defense attorney. (Until 11 p.m.)

8:00 (7) Rocky (movie). In keeping with all the inspirational jingoistic nonsense spewing from the mouths of government these days, NBC gives us Sylvester Stallone in the original inspirational underdog epic. Actually, for a comic-book exploration of determination and quixotic upward mobility, this isn’t bad. It was in the sequels that Rocky somehow became an invincible symbol of American roughness. If you need a dose of "go the distance" sentimentality, here you are. With Talia Shire and Burt Young and from 1976, our post-Vietnam Bicentennial Year, when going the distance was a coveted consolation prize. (Until 11 p.m.)

10:30 (44) Singing Our Stories. A showcase of female Native American singers featuring Rita Coolidge, Pura Fe, and Olivia Tailfeathers. (Until midnight.)

1:00 (4) Football. The New York Jets versus the Miami Dolphins.

1:00 (25) Football. The Philadelphia Eagles versus the Dallas Cowboys.

2:00 (44) To Have and Have Not (movie). Repeated from last week. A 1944 Howard Hawks Hemingway adaptation (via screenwriter William Faulkner) with Humphrey Bogart as a fisherman sucked into the French Resistance. Hoagy Carmichael does some great bits — including a duet with Lauren Bacall (in her first movie role). Lots of fun. (Until 3:45 p.m.)

3:45 (44) Dark of the Sun (movie). Repeated from last week. A 1968 jungle adventure with Rod Taylor on the trail of diamonds and providing refugee relief in the Congo. (Until 5:30 p.m.)

4:00 (25) Football. The Washington Redskins versus the Denver Broncos.

4:30 (2) WGBH Fall Auction Special. Once a year is not enough, but at least this fundraising special is brief. Lots of restaurant stuff and wine stuff. Nothing all that special. (Until 6 p.m.)

8:00 (2) Nature: Animals Behaving Badly. Can’t resist this look at squirrels being naughty and such. How animals’ natural instincts clash with human civilization. (Until 9 p.m.)

8:00 (44) The Big Sleep (movie). The 1946 Howard Hawks adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s murky mystery about a private eye, the society dame he loves, and the society dame’s pesky little sister. Starring Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, and Martha Vickers. This was Chandler’s first novel, and he hadn’t quite mastered the idea that readers were supposed to understand the plot. (Until 10 p.m.)

8:30 (5) Football. The Pats versus the St. Louis Rams.

9:00 (2) The American Experience: Jubilee Singers: Sacrifice and Glory. A musical-heritage side trip to Nashville’s Fisk University in 1871, where a chorus of mostly former slaves brought gospel into the mainstream. Remember "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot"? That was theirs. To be repeated on Monday at 12:30 a.m. (Until 10 p.m.)

10:00 (2) American Masters: Quincy Jones. The life of musician, composer, arranger and multiple-genre award winner (an Oscar, a Grammy, and an Emmy) Jones — the grand master of fusing this and that to good effect. To be repeated tonight at 1 and 4 a.m. on Channel 44. (Until 11:30 p.m.)

10:00 (44) The Band Wagon (movie). Backstage musical antics with Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse dancing in the dark. Vincente Minnelli directed, in 1953. With Oscar Levant and Nanette Fabray. (Until midnight.)

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

MONDAY

9:00 (2) Masterpiece Theatre: The Cazalets, part five. The unexpected fifth edition of this announced four-part drama has, WGBH tells us, the Cazalet clan "facing major changes." The descriptions are just so compelling. To be repeated tonight at 1 and 4 a.m. on Channel 44, and on Tuesday at 1 a.m. (Until 10:30 p.m.)

9:00 (5) Football. The New York Giants versus the Minnesota Vikings.

10:30 (2) American Roots Music: All My Children of the Sun. The final installment of this worthy series considers the influx and influence of Cajun, Tejano, and Native American music on the nation’s musical scene. With Flaco Jiménez and more. To be repeated tonight at 2 and 5 a.m. on Channel 44. (Until 11:30 p.m.)

12:30 a.m. (2) The American Experience: Jubilee Singers: Sacrifice and Glory. Repeated from Sunday at 9 p.m.

1:00 and 4:00 a.m. (44) Masterpiece Theatre: The Cazalets, part five. Repeated from this evening at 9 p.m.

2:00 and 5:00 a.m. (44) American Roots Music: All My Children of the Sun. Repeated from this evening at 10:30 p.m.

7:30 (2) La Plaza: Michael Naranjo. A visit with blind New Mexican sculptor Naranjo to watch him work his marble and bronze. (Until 8 p.m.)

8:00 (2) Nova: Life’s Greatest Miracle. Sperm meets egg, etc. An update of the 1983 Nova show "Miracle of Life," which showcased the body-interior photography of Swedish scientific photographer Lennart Nilsson. This womb invasion uses the latest advances in microscopy plus some computer animation to retell the pre-birth story. To be repeated tonight at 1 and 4 a.m. on Channel 44. (Until 9 p.m.)

8:00 (7) Jennifer Lopez in Concert. Her first concert ever. Taped over two nights in late September at Roberto Clemente Coliseum in Puerto Rico. It don’t cost a thing. (Until 9 p.m.)

9:00 (44) Frontline: John Paul II: The Millennial Pope. Most of the Frontline shows for this month have been scrapped in favor of reports related to the war of terrorism/Islam/Afghanistan/whatever, but this will probably be the show that’s scheduled. A look at Pope JP2 — his personality, roots, religious beliefs, and popularity. (Until 11:30 p.m.)

1:00 a.m. (2) Masterpiece Theatre: The Cazalets, part five. Repeated from Monday at 5 p.m.

1:00 and 4:00 a.m. (44) Nova: Life’s Greatest Miracle. Repeated from this evening at 8 p.m.

8:00 (2) Greater Boston Arts. GBA jumps on the post-September-11 bandwagon with a look at the contributions of Arab-American artists to the current national dialogue. Plus a visit to the vanishing artist colony at Fort Point — specifically an artists group called Touchable Stories who’ve created interactive installations about the Fort Point Channel’s history and a profile of local postmodern choreographer Caitlin Corbett. (Until 8:30 p.m.)

9:00 (2) On Stage at the Kennedy Center: The Mark Twain Prize. Awarded to Whoopi Goldberg, whose work in Sister Act alone no doubt qualified her. (Until 11 p.m.)

9:00 (44) Indie Select: XIT: Without Reservation. Focusing on a 30th-anniversary concert by Native American rock group XIT. (Until 10 p.m.)

10:00 (44) Independent Lens: Who Owns the Past? Linda Hunt narrates this documentary on the controversy between Native Americans and us newcomers that was stirred up when scientists dug up a 9000-year-old skeleton in Kennewick, Washington. (Until 11 p.m.)

9:00 a.m. (4, 7) Thanksgiving Day Parades. Osama bin Laden or no Osama bin Laden, nothing’s going to stop the giant inflatable mouse! Bet the Taliban never has this much fun. (Until noon.)

12:30 (4) Barbie in the Nutcracker. This has got to be almost as exciting as last week’s Tara Lipinski’s Hip-Hop on Ice. (Until 1:30 p.m.)

12:30 (25) Football. The Green Bay Packers versus the Detroit Lions.

4:00 (4) Football. The Denver Broncos versus the Dallas Cowboys.

7:30 (2) Basic Black: Giving Back. African-American "young professionals" (sorry, that’s the term they used) who serve as role models in their communities through mentoring, tutoring, and other support programs. (Until 8 p.m.)

8:00 (2) Nova: Special Effects: Titanic and Beyond. A repeated show created to hype James Cameron’s 1997 blockbuster. (Until 9 p.m.)

8:00 (25) The Wedding Singer (movie). This is on cable movie channels every few hours, but here’s a chance for non-subscribers to see Adam Sandler practice his best sad-sack courtship techniques on Drew Barrymore. It’s actually kind of charming and there are some on-target funny parts. The seams show, but you can enjoy it. (Until 10 p.m.)

9:00 (2) Frontline: The Monster That Ate Hollywood. A discouraging look at contemporary Hollywood telling the same old — but always tragic — story of how mega-business bought out the movie industry and relegated any filmmaker, scriptwriter, or actor with a scrap of intelligence, talent, or integrity to the margins. If you eliminate good movies, you expand the market for bad ones. Count your money, but die ashamed, guys. (Until 10 p.m.)

Issue Date: November 15 - 22, 2001

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