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[Hot Dots]

by Clif Garboden

THURSDAY

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

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

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. To be repeated on Saturday at midnight. (Until 10 p.m.)

FRIDAY

Noon (5) Football. Texas versus Texas A&M.

2:30 (4) Football. Arkansas versus LSU.

3:30 (5) Football. Nebraska versus Colorado.

7:30 (44) Andre Rieu: The Christmas I Love. He’s Dutch; he’s weird; he plays the fiddle; he makes light of classical fare. Andre Rieu is, in short, a bore — something where the plain folk can watch and pretend they’ve discovered sophistication. Tonight he’s in his element at that traditional confluence of high culture and pop culture, the Christmas show. Andre and his back-up orchestra do "Ave Maria," "Jingle Bells," and more. (Until 9 p.m.)

8:00 (4) The Rugrats Movie (movie). Don’t know; don’t care. Our kids are grown up. And we kept them away from cheesy stuff anyway. (Until 10 p.m.)

8:00 (25) Big Daddy (movie). Saw this on an airplane once — without sound. Adam Sandler gets saddled with a kid somehow and learns the true meaning of fatherhood. Or perhaps he rediscovers his childhood. Or perhaps he just stops drinking so much. The dialogue isn’t essential unless you want to sweat the details. (Until 10 p.m.)

8:00 (38) Wayne’s World (movie). Mike Myers and Dana Carvey take their local-access cable-TV-show skit from Saturday Night Live to the big screen, with Rob Lowe and Tia Carrere. Good fun responsible for infecting the American youth argot with a nearly incurable idiom. (Until 10 p.m.)

9:00 (44) Rock, Rhythm, and Doo-Wop. Let the oldies roll on with Frankie Valli (now in his fifth season) hosting more than 200 (that’s what they said) pop-music legends — including Little Richard, Little Anthony, and even bigger stars. It’s fundraising time, we suspect. To be repeated on Saturday at 1 p.m. on Channel 44 and at 6 p.m. on Channel 2, and on Tuesday at 8 p.m. (Until midnight.)

2:00 and 4:00 a.m. (2) Life 360: Bridges. Okay, we’re taking a shot here. Normally this would air at 10 p.m., but because the Channel 2 folks ran some dumb personal-greed show (Suze Orman) tonight instead, they’re showing only the after-hours repeats. Of course, the ’GBH Web site says this won’t air until next week. But the November WGBH members’ magazine says it’s on now. Go figure. Two films: one about how they’re rebuilding the 65-year-old San Francisco Bay Bridge to withstand the next big earthquake, and a second about a cop whose job it is to drive people with bridge phobias across the Chesapeake Bay bridge/tunnel. Sounds interesting — too bad nobody will see it. (Until 3 and 5 a.m.)

SATURDAY

1:00 (44) Rock, Rhythm, and Doo-Wop. Repeated from Friday at 9 p.m.

3:00 (4) Football. Vanderbilt versus Tennessee.

6:00 (2) Rock, Rhythm, and Doo-Wop. Repeated from Friday at 9 p.m.

7:00 (38) Hockey. The Bruins versus the Toronto Maple Leafs.

8:00 (7) It’s a Wonderful Life (movie). Frank Capra’s 1946 tearjerker about the triumph of the little people. Jimmy Stewart — underappreciated, driven to suicide, touched by an angel — stars with Donna Reed, the way-too-cheerful wife of this basket case. (Until 11 p.m.)

9:00 (2) Simon and Garfunkel: The Concert in Central Park. The legendary 1981 open-air concert that brought S&G together after a decade apart. And they didn’t even have a new album. To be repeated on Sunday at 5:30 and 11 p.m. on Channel 44. (Until 11 p.m.)

11:00 (44) Independent Lens: Who Owns the Past? Repeated from last week. Linda Hunt narrates this documentary about 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 midnight.)

Midnight (2) Frontline: The Monster That Ate Hollywood. Repeated from Thursday at 9 p.m.

SUNDAY

1:00 (4) Football. The Miami Dolphins versus the Buffalo Bills, followed by the Oakland Raiders versus the New York Giants. Second game might not make it if the Pats don’t sell out against the Saints.

4:00 (25) Football. The Pats versus the New Orleans Saints.

5:30 (44) Simon and Garfunkel: The Concert in Central Park. Repeated from Saturday at 9 p.m.

7:00 (5) The Santa Clause (movie). Tim Allen stars as a guilty, neglectful dad who almost kills Santa and then steps in to do his rounds as penance. And he discovers the true meaning of Christmas. Or learns the true meaning of fatherhood. Or perhaps he rediscovers his childhood. Or perhaps he just stops drinking so much. (Until 9 p.m.)

7:00 (7) Antz (movie). Saw this on an airplane once — without sound. Animated tale of an undisciplined ant, named Z, who falls in love with the ant princess and saves the hill from enemies without and within. Voiced (or so we’ve been told) by Woody Allen, Dan Aykroyd, Anne Bancroft, Jane Curtin, Gene Hackman, and Jennifer Lopez. (Until 9 p.m.)

7:00 (25) Star Wars: Episode 1 The Phantom Menace (movie). On TV, it might be worth it — though 47 minutes of commercials seems a bit much. The Star Wars backstory begins when Obi-Wan was a Jedi pup and self-parody was a new idea. Starring Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, and Natalie Portman as the Queen of Naboo. (Until 10 p.m.)

9:00 (4) You’ve Got Mail (movie). Back when AOL was an independent evil empire, it got a lot of mileage with folks outside the Internetigentsia via this 1998 Nora Ephron script. The irony is that it’s about a big ugly bookstore chain driving a small indie out of business. Tom Hanks is the ugly one; Meg Ryan is the corporate victim. But they love each other over the Internet. Kinda fun. (Until 11 p.m.)

11:00 (44) Simon and Garfunkel: The Concert in Central Park. Repeated from Saturday at 9 p.m.

MONDAY

7:30 (2) Spellbound: The Magical World of Harry Potter. No details on this — just a ragged fax from WGBH telling us to can Sister Wendy (an American Collection repeat of her visit to the MFA) in favor of a ride on the HP bandwagon. (Until 9 p.m.)

8:00 (44) The Big Band Sounds of WW2. Gotta get those pledges out of the Greatest Generation while they last. Already the managed-care facilities are cutting into the old-folks take. Cabaret singer Mary Cleere Haran (who once played Rita Hayworth in San Francisco’s long-running camp-and-parody revue Beach Blanket Babylon) joins Eric Felton and his band for a musical trip through the 1940s. (Until 10 p.m.)

9:00 (2) Masterpiece Theatre: My Uncle Silas. Albert Finney just gets harder and harder to take as the years slog by. Here he stars as Uncle Silas in an adaptation of five short pieces from the bucolic pages of H.E. Bates (now available in a Vintage paperback with Finney and child co-star Joe Prospero on the cover). Nephew visits uncle in the country sometime around 1900. Uncle fends off the advances of a local spinster (Charlotte Rampling) and a crabby housekeeper (Sue Johnson). To be repeated tonight at 1 a.m. on Channels 2 and 44 and at 4 a.m. on Channel 44 — and again in that ridiculous configuration on Wednesday. (Until 11 p.m.)

9:00 (5) Football. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers versus the St. Louis Rams.

1:00 and 4:00 a.m. (44) Masterpiece Theatre: My Uncle Silas. Repeated from this evening at 9 p.m.

TUESDAY

8:00 (44) Rock, Rhythm, and Doo-Wop. Repeated from Friday at 9 p.m.

8:30 (2) Thrills and Spills in the North Country. Old film of skiing in the Northeast — from the days when danger lurked at every turn and in every primitive piece of equipment. (Until 10 p.m.)

WEDNESDAY

7:30 (2) Greater Boston Arts. Repeated from last week. 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 a group called Touchable Stories who’ve created interactive installations about Fort Point Channel’s history — and a profile of local postmodern choreographer Caitlin Corbett. (Until 8 p.m.)

8:00 (2) American Masters: Richard Rodgers: The Sweetest Sound. A 100th-birthday tribute to the late musical composer (900 songs/70 shows) who gave us The King and I, Oklahoma!, South Pacific, Pal Joey, The Sound of Music, and No Strings (with some help from Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II). Trevor Nunn, Celeste Holm, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and Julie Andrews are interviewed; the performance clips feature Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Mary Martin, Diahann Carroll, and Barbra Streisand. (Until 11 p.m.)

8:00 (7) Christmas in Rockefeller Center. Highlighted by the overnight hit "Dancing in the Streets of Kabul," by the Pillage People. Expect a few somber notes. (Until 9 p.m.)

1:00 a.m. (2, 44) and 4:00 a.m. (44) Masterpiece Theatre: My Uncle Silas. Repeated from Monday at 9 p.m.

THURSDAY

7:30 (2) Once upon a Sleigh Ride. A profile of Cambridge-born composer (and, in his own peculiar way, a true innovator) Leroy Anderson, who gave the world the typewriter song, "Sleigh Ride," "The Syncopated Clock," "Bugler’s Holiday," "Blue Tango," and more ditties from the depths of novelty. (Until 9 p.m.)

7:30 (38) Hockey. The Bruins versus the Philadelphia Flyers.

9:00 (2) Mythodea. New-age composer Vangelis (like Yanni, but no Yanni) performs his theme music for NASA’s Mission: 2001 Mars Odyssey, whatever that is, in the Temple of Zeus in Athens. We’re promised that Kathleen Battle and Jessye Norman will "join him on stage." No mention of whether they’ll be participating. (Until 10:30 p.m.)

Issue Date: November 22 - 29, 2001

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