THURSDAY

7:30 (2) Basic Black: Giving Back. Profiles of community leaders who’ve made a difference. (Until 8 p.m.)

8:00 and 3:00 a.m. (2) Globe Trekker: West Africa: Benin, Burkina Faso, and Mali. Repeated from last week. Trekker Justine visits three former French colonies to absorb the mix of Arab, French, and African cultures. (Until 9 p.m. and 4 a.m.)

8:00 (5) The Associate (movie). Whoopi Goldberg dresses up like a man so she can start her own firm on sexist Wall Street. Where’s the glory in that? With Dianne Wiest and Eli Wallach. (Until 10 p.m.)

8:00 (44) Brideshead Revisited: Julia, The Unseen Hook, and Brideshead Deserted. This John Mortimer adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s epic tale about England between the wars isn’t the easiest drama to pick up in the middle. Charles is the narrator and a good guy who isn’t always reliable and isn’t always a good guy. Sebastian is the memorable/lovable black-sheep character (on whom you think the story centers, but it really doesn’t), and likable or not, he’s not necessarily meant to represent truth or beauty. And there are a lot of other characters you’ll just have to figure out for yourself. A couple may be dead by now. This is, no kidding, a television masterpiece, and you might want to catch the entire thing Saturday/Sunday August 17/18 and Sunday/Monday August 18/19, in each case running for six hours on Channel 2 starting at midnight on Saturday and 1 a.m. on Sunday. (Until 11:30 p.m.)

9:00 (2) Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy: The New Rules of the Game. A look at how the "new world economy" exploded between 1992 and the September 11 terrorist attacks. The new rules, by the way, can be summed up as "If you don’t own a bank, you lose." (Until 11 p.m.)

10:00 (25) Baseball. The Sox versus the Seattle Mariners.

Midnight (2) Brideshead Revisited: Repeated from this evening at 8 p.m.

FRIDAY

8:00 (25) Football. The Chicago Bears versus the St. Louis Rams in pre-season play.

8:00 (44) Brideshead Revisited: Orphans of the Storm, A Twitch upon the Thread, and Brideshead Revisited. In which Julia and Charles start an affair, Bridey gets engaged, and Lord Marchmain (Laurence Olivier) wraps everything up by checking back in at the homestead. To be repeated tonight at midnight on Channel 2. (Until 11:30 p.m.)

Midnight (2) Brideshead Revisited: Orphans of the Storm, A Twitch upon the Thread, and Brideshead Revisited. Repeated from this evening at 8 p.m.

SATURDAY

4:00 (7) Basketball. First-round WNBA playoff action.

4:00 (25) Baseball. The New York Yankees versus the Seattle Mariners.

5:00 (2) The Sid Caesar Collection. This sounds so wonderful — clips from Caesar’s classic 1950s Your Show of Shows and Caesar’s Hour — but we know it’ll be busted to bits by fundraising breaks. Anyway, TV Golden Agers all share powerful memories of Caesar’s comedy/variety hours, which (keep in mind TV tech was fairly primitive) took the vaudeville-in-a-box concept that New York producers imposed on early television and molded it to the new medium. Writers and contributors to these show included Woody Allen, Neil Simon, Mel Brooks, Nanette Fabray, Larry Gelbart, and Carl Reiner. So yeah, there was a lot of New York/Jewish conceit running in the background, but Caesar (not to mention his partner, Imogene Coca) was such a gifted and intelligent comic that he could play off the old school and modernize American entertainment. A treat — except for those pledge breaks. To be repeated on Sunday at 2 p.m., and on Thursday at 9 p.m. on Channel 44. (Until 7 p.m.)

5:30 (44) All-Star Bluegrass Celebration. Even Ricky Skaggs and Vince Gill return to their industry’s roots in this concert from Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. Also featuring Earl Scruggs, Ralph Stanley, the Dixie Chicks, the Del McCoury Band, Alison Krauss, Patty Loveless, Travis Tritt, and Nickel Creek. To be repeated on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. (Until 7 p.m.)

7:00 (25) Baseball. The Sox versus the Minnesota Twins.

7:00 (44) Judy, Frank, and Dean. We can only assume they mean Collins, Black, and Jones. To be repeated on Tuesday at 7 p.m. on Channel 2. (Until 8 p.m.)

8:00 (4) Football. The Pats versus the Philadelphia Eagles in pre-season play.

8:00 (5) Thunderball (movie). The first "big" Bond film — at least the first made with an awareness that Bond films were big. Sean Connery stars as 007 in this 1965 Ian Fleming adaptation. James retrieves two nuclear bombs from SPECTRE. His best girl is former Miss France Claudine Auger, a Domino. His nemesis is Adolfo Celi, a Largo. Both Auger and Celi went on to long careers as Italian-film stars specializing in movies that never made it out of Europe. (Until 11 p.m.)

8:30 (7) Loving You (movie). This is the 1957 Elvis movie co-starring Elizabeth Scott in which he sings "Teddy Bear" and the not-so-memorable "Hot Dog." It’s being shown to commemorate the 25th anniversary of his death (which was yesterday), but we still think you’re better off with Thunderball. (Until 11 p.m.)

9:00 (2) Simon and Garfunkel: The Concert in Central Park. It was a great show, and it reminds you how smart and influential S&G were. But it took place in 1981, and Channel 2 has been rebroadcasting it twice a year ever since. A good show if you’ve never seen it, and enjoyable even if you’ve seen it several times — but way overexposed. (Until 11 p.m.)

11:00 (44) ’70s Soul Jam. A nostalgia concert featuring the Stylistics, Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, the Delfonics, and the Dramatics. (Until midnight.)

Midnight (2) Brideshead Revisited: Et in Arcadia Ego, Home and Abroad, The Bleak Light of Day, Sebastian Against the World, A Blow upon a Bruise, and Julia. The first six episodes repeated. (Until 6 a.m.)

SUNDAY

Noon (7) Basketball. First-round WNBA playoff action.

2:00 (2) The Sid Caesar Collection. Repeated from Saturday at 5 p.m.

2:30 (44) All-Star Bluegrass Celebration. Repeated from Saturday at 5:30 p.m.

7:00 (5) X Games VIII. This stuff is on ESPN all year round, but for the annual Olympic-style get-together it moves to the parent channel. Games people play on bikes and skateboards — to the xtreme. Highlights from Philadelphia. (Until 9 p.m.)

9:00 (4) Three Blind Mice (movie). Brian Dennehy stars as a Vietnam vet and lawyer defending a Vietnamese-American accused of slitting the throats of three men who assaulted his wife. With Mary Stuart Masterson. (Until 11 p.m.)

9:30 (2) The Everly Brothers Reunion Concert. Thirty years after Don and Phil Everly made a serious leap across the country/rock divide, they teamed up on stage at the Royal Albert Hall to do it all over again. The lyrics haven’t gotten any deeper over the years, and the original recordings were gems that can’t be improved upon, but as dinosaur reunions go, these guys still have their voices and their talent. (Until 11 p.m.)

9:30 (44) Under Quabbin. Great idea: dive into the Quabbin Reservoir and find the remains of the towns that were flooded out of existence back in the 1930s when Boston’s remote watering hole was engineered. Alas, they tore down most of the towns and cut most of the forests before they turned on the tap, so you get to see a lot of silt. (Until 11 p.m.)

1:00 a.m. (2) Brideshead Revisited: The Unseen Hook, Brideshead Deserted, Orphans of the Storm, A Twitch upon the Thread, and Brideshead Revisited. The final five episodes. (Until 5:30 a.m. or so.)

MONDAY

7:00 (2) Carreras, Domingo, and Pavarotti in Concert. The original Three Tenors Concert, which spawned a minor industry of follow-ups. Taped in 1990 at the Termi di Caracalla ("End of the Taxi Stand") in Rome. (Until 9 p.m.)

8:00 (5) Football. The San Francisco 49ers versus the Denver Broncos.

8:00 (25) Teen Choice Awards. A celebration of well . . . like, you know . . . dudes and stuff — or of the commercial mentality that professes (and profits by) the concept that kids are dumb and don’t care about anything that isn’t for sale. We presume this show gives prizes to people teens like and not to teens who do things. Presenters include Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, the Rock, Ben Stiller, and (this was taped on August 4) Kelly and Jack Osbourne (who really are teens). Plus music by Nelly, BBMak, and Jennifer Love Hewitt (all of whom at least used to be teens). Turn your hat around, kid, you look like an idiot. (Until 10 p.m.)

9:00 (2) Mystery: The Inspector Lynley Mysteries: A Great Deliverance, part one. A new series of puzzlers, taken from the novels of Elizabeth George. Starring Nathaniel Parker as a cop who’s also the Earl of Asherton but is teamed up with Sharon Small as his working-class partner who resents the rich. Lots of fun in store there, we suspect. Tonight, this odd couple investigate a decapitation in Yorkshire. To be repeated tonight at 1 and 4 a.m. on Channel 44. (Until 11 p.m.)

1:00 and 4:00 a.m. (44) Mystery: The Inspector Lynley Mysteries: A Great Deliverance, part one. Repeated from this evening at 9 p.m.

TUESDAY

7:00 (2) Judy, Frank, and Dean. Repeated from Saturday at 7 p.m. Garland, Sinatra, and Martin in a 1962 TV special.

9:30 (2) Blue Suede Shoes. Sounds odd, but this 1981 mixed-era superstar show — Eric Clapton, Carl Perkins, and George Harrison — is lots of energetic fun (though Clapton looks a little wrung out). (Until 11 p.m.)

WEDNESDAY

9:00 (2) Richard Rodgers: Some Enchanted Evening. Taped in London, this May 2002 tribute features likely and unlikely celebs gathered to worship the man who gave us the music for South Pacific, The King and I, The Sound of Music, Carousel, Oklahoma, and a lot of other shows that didn’t make anybody’s Top 10. With Judi Dench, José Lawrence, and Clive Rowe. Introduced (mysteriously) by Gillian Anderson. (Until 11 p.m.)

THURSDAY

8:00 (2) Witness to Hope. Rhymes with pope — as in John Paul II, the subject of this biography. Sure, these days we know him as the guy who indirectly defends the pedophile-priest syndicate and mumbles his edicts so badly we have no idea what language he’s trying to speak. But back in the day, he was a young active Polish priest who suffered under the Nazis and the Communists and managed to become the first non-Italian pope in four and a half centuries. His story. (Until 11 p.m.)

8:00 (5) Krippendorf’s Tribe (movie). You declined to see it in the theater; you even avoided cable broadcasts and refused to rent it. Now it’s completely free. What will you do. Richard Dreyfuss stars as an anthropologist who buys beer or something with his grant money and tried to placate his backers by convincing his family to pose as a lost New Guinea tribe. Co-starring Jenna Elfman, who is probably pretty good at making the best out of this kind of material. (Until 10 p.m.)

9:00 (4) Football. The San Diego Chargers versus the St. Louis Rams in pre-season play.

9:00 (44) The Sid Caesar Collection. Repeated from Saturday at 5 p.m.