Hot Dots

by Clif Garboden

Special this week: 1904 World's Fair links. Really.
Plus a related "Hot Dots" bonus page.

FRIDAY

9:00 (2) Evening at Pops. An old Pops concert with Itzhak Perlman playing music from Schindler's List (guess who wrote that) and clowning around with musical madman Peter "P.D.Q. Bach" Schickele. (Until 10 p.m.)

9:00 (4, 12) The 1997 Miss Universe Pageant. The sequel to Robin Cook's Invasion. Look for the possibility that two or even three Miss Irelands will turn up. (Until 11 p.m.)

9:00 (5) Sabrina, the Teenage Witch (movie). The season finale. Aside from the adolescent charms of Melissa Joan Hart, it's hard to figure why people -- especially its target junior-high demographic -- don't hate this silly cornball show. Then again, there might be honest appeal lurking in being predictable and nonthreatening. (Until 9:30 p.m.)

9:00 (44) Around the World in 80 Days: Far East and Farther East. Michael Palin crosses the International Dateline on a container ship and undergoes a bizarre initiation ritual for first-time time-shifters that we suspect the crew made up on the spot when they saw the BBC camera crew. (Until 10 p.m.)

10:00 (2) Evening at Pops. Actually not so much a concert as a documentary from 1979 celebrating Pops originator Arthur Fiedler's half-century of conducting the orchestra through pieces the players were probably sight-reading. (Until 11 p.m.)

SATURDAY

1:00 and/or 3:30 (7, 10) Basketball. NBA playoff action. As many as two games will be aired according to some system of juggling outcomes that's harder to interpret than it is to remember how to factor trinomials. Let's not kid ourselves: if you're coming to us for basketball schedules, you aren't really into the sport.

4:00 (44) Spirits of the Jaguar: Forging of the New World, Forests of the Maya, Hunters of the Caribbean, and The Fifth World of the Aztecs. Repeated from last week. The entire Nature mini-series exploring the history, geology, and native peoples of Central America and the Caribbean. First we consider the volcanoes and global drifts that formed the region; next we rummage through what little the Mayans left behind; then we consider the sorry fate of the Taino Indians, who were enslaved and destroyed by Mr. Columbus and his kind; and finally we relive the glory days of the Aztecs, whose mighty civilization toppled easily to Cortés's legions. Installments begin at one-hour intervals. (Until 8 p.m.)

8:00 (44) Masterpiece Theatre: The Buccaneers, part three. Repeated from last week. The series ends with everyone's life not quite what he or she expected. Behind the obvious suds here, we have a deliciously cruel set of characterizations leaving viewers to realize that none of these people -- British washouts or Yankee wanna-bes -- was anyone worth knowing. (Until 10 p.m.)

9:00 (2) Friendly Fire (movie). Originally a 1979 TV-movie starring Carol Burnett and Ned Beatty as a farm couple pressing for the details surrounding their son's death in Vietnam. Turns out we killed one of our own, which, in 1979, was a shocking truth to patriotic types who drew a distinction between soldiers we shoot and soldiers we put in harm's way. To be repeated on Sunday at 1:50 p.m. (Until 11:25 p.m.)

10:00 (44) Great Performances: Divas. Opera's women take a humorous self-depreciating look at their lifestyles. Featuring Maria Callas, Joan Sutherland, Jessye Norman, and Kiri Te Kanawa. (Until 11 p.m.)

11:25 (2) The Captive Heart (movie). A 1946 World War II drama set in a POW camp. Michael Redgrave stars as a Czech prisoner who assumes the identity of a dead British officer. To be repeated on Sunday at noon. (Until 1:15 a.m.)

SUNDAY

1:00 and/or 3:30 (7, 10) Basketball. More NBA playoff confusion.

8:00 (25, 64) The Simpsons. Sorry, the last new show of the season. (Until 8:30 p.m.)

8:30 (5) Disclosure (movie). Demi Moore makes Michael Douglas the victim of sexual harassment. Sure it's outlandish, sure it's politically nonconstructive. A lot of people bought into it, though. (Until 11 p.m.)

9:00 (2) Masterpiece Theatre: Prime Suspect: The Lost Child. A repeat of one of the less memorable Helen Mirren PS series. As expected, Jane Tennison lets her personal feelings tangle up the case -- to good effect, of course, (Until 11 p.m.)

9:00 (4, 12) True Women (movie), part one. Network television's notion of pioneer women: they fight Comanches, get mixed up in the Civil War, and look like Dana Delany, Annabeth Gish, and Angelina Jolie. Powers Boothe and Michael York get involved somehow. To be concluded on Tuesday, starting at 9 p.m. (Until 11 p.m.)

9:00 (7, 10) The Odyssey (movie), part one. êndra moi [[paragraph]]nnepe moËsa polÊtropon [[breve]]w mãla pollå/plãgxyh. Starring Armand Assante, Isabella Rossellini, and Bernadette Peters. To be concluded on Monday starting at 9 p.m.

9:00 (44) Frontline: Little Criminals. Repeated from last week. Using the high-profile Ignacio Bermudez Jr. case, involving an infant brutalized by a six-year-old assailant, Frontline looks at how society is responding to the increase of violent crime by grade-schoolers. (Until 10 p.m.)

11:00 (2) Mystery: The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes: The Cardboard Box. Repeated from last week. A woman's sister vanishes, and then someone sends a gruesome present. Holmes steps in. Jeremy Brett stars. To be repeated on Tuesday at 8 p.m. on Channel 44. (Until midnight.)

MONDAY

8:00 (2) The World of National Geographic: In the Shadow of Vesuvius. In America, we have dumb Californians who build their million-dollar houses on top of fault lines and above mudslide zones. In Europe, the famous ignored menace is Vesuvius, the most active volcano on the continent. (Until 9 p.m.)

8:00 (5) David Blaine: Street Magic. Another "new era in magic." This time we're being tricked by street performer David Blaine. (Until 9 p.m.)

8:00 (44) The American Experience: Gold Fever. Repeated from last week. Filmmaker Susan Steinberg recalls the rush to the Klondike -- a gold-seekers' adventure that attracted some 100,000 participants. (Until 9 p.m.)

9:00 (2) The American Experience: D-Day. It wasn't exactly the end of WW2 in Europe, but it was kind of a defining finale. Charles Guggenheim's Oscar-nominated chronicle (expanded for TV) of the Normandy Invasion. Mixing archival footage with survivor interviews. The great thing about remembering D-Day more than half a century after the flush of victory is the willingness of invasion vets to admit what an absolutely horrible experience it was. (Until 10 p.m.)

9:00 (5) Detention: Siege at Johnson High (movie). A man who thinks high school ruined his life (understandable enough) takes revenge by holding his alma mater hostage. Stars of this thing include Rick Schroder, Freddie Prinze Jr., Katie Wright, and Henry Winkler. A simple firebomb would have sufficed. (Until 11 p.m.)

9:00 (7, 10) The Odyssey (movie), part two. The conclusion. (Until 11 p.m.)

9:00 (44) America on Wheels: Consuming Passions. The second show of this three-part series takes us back to the post-WW2/pre-energy-crisis era for a loving look at tailfins, the interstate highway system, and other overblown absurdities. (Until 10 p.m.)

10:00 (2) The Suez Crisis. Forty years ago, with control of the only "free world" sea link between Europe and Asia at stake, the British actually tried invading the Middle East. Didn't work. This anniversary special showcases some not-before-seen footage of the folly. (Until 11:30 p.m.)

TUESDAY

8:00 (2) Nova: The Day the Earth Shook. Investigating the science of earthquake prediction -- they don't just watch caterpillar reactions any more. To be repeated on Thursday at 9 p.m. on Channel 44. (Until 9 p.m.)

8:00 (5) Roseanne. The end of the road for the Conners. The way they've been abusing this show, we'll be amazed if Rosie doesn't turn serial killer. It's been a long way down from the days when this program actually offered some insights into how folk really feel about their families. Now it's just nonsense. Glad it's gone. (Until 9 p.m.)

8:00 (7, 10) Mad About You. The season finale. (Until 9 p.m.)

8:00 (44) Mystery: The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes: The Cardboard Box. Repeated from Sunday at 11 p.m.

9:00 (2) Frontline: The Opium Kings. So where does all that heroin come from? Mostly from a remote nook in Burma, where poppy farmers and drug lords operate pretty much in the open. Filmmaker Adrian Cowell takes us there to talk with the sources. Plus some interviews with US drug officials. (Until 10 p.m.)

9:00 (4, 12) True Women (movie). The conclusion. (Until 11 p.m.)

9:00 (7, 10) Frasier. Two shows -- the second being the season closer. (Until 10 p.m.)

9:00 (44) American Playhouse: Golden Gate. Matt Dillon stars as a McCarthy-era FBI agent who's assigned to ferret out a Chinese washerman's dirty laundry and, of course, falls in love with his target's daughter (Joan Chen). From 1993. (Until 11 p.m.)

10:00 (2) Viewpoint: James Fitzgerald: A Painter's Journey. Portrait of the late Maine artist. (Until 11 p.m.)

WEDNESDAY

8:00 (5) The 24th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards. Hosted by Susan Lucci and Regis Philbin. Prizes for shows you don't watch because you're employable. (Until 10 p.m.)

9:00 (2) An Evening of Championship Skating 1996. Harvard's Eliot House's annual fundraiser for the Jimmy Fund, featuring Ilia Kulik, Elena Bechke and Dennis Petrov, Caryn Kadavy, and Paul Wylie. There were more familiar names on the roster back in the days before figure-skaters could make real prime-time money. (Until 10 p.m.)

9:00 (4, 12) Under Siege (movie). Tommy Lee Jones works for the CIA, but you'd never know it from the way he's acting. Crazy spook hijacks the battleship Missouri, but doesn't expect the cook to be Steven Seagal. (Until 11 p.m.)

10:00 (2) Another America. Filmmaker Michael Cho explores the racial and economic tensions between American black and Korean communities in South Central LA and Detroit. (Until 11 p.m.)

10:00 (5) Barbara Walters Presents Six To Watch. Namely Janeane Garofalo, David Duchovny, Drew Barrymore, Chris O'Donnell, LeAnn Rimes, and Tiger Woods. Of course you never heard of any of these people until Barbara discovered them. (Until 11 p.m.)

THURSDAY

9:00 (2) Mystery: The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes: The Three Gables. Holmes receives a woman seeking help after "thugs" ran off with her brother's biography. Fast-paced? (Until 10 p.m.)

10:00 (44) Scientific American Frontiers: Science Italian Style. Fermi? Volta? Marconi? Actually, this is about modern Italian science, with host Alan Alda visiting a turtle hospital in Naples and watching experts get a new slant on the Leaning Tower of Pisa. (Until 11 p.m.)

FRIDAY

9:00 (2) Evening at Pops. A repeat airing of Pops' conductor Keith Lockhart's first concert. Guests include soprano Sylvia McNair and the always-offputting Mandy Patinkin. (Until 10 p.m.)

9:00 (44) Around the World in 80 Days: Dateline to Deadline. Michael Palin finds himself in America with just 16 days to go to make his rendezvous with Phileas Fogg's globetrotting record back in England. But first, a balloon ride in the Rockies. The series finale. (Until 10 p.m.)

10:00 (2) Evening at Pops. Visitors are opera's Migenes (singing classical lite) and 13-year-old violin virtuoso Kawakubo. Everyone's on a first-name- (or at least one-name) only basis tonight. (Until 11 p.m.)