TV Picks August 12-18

All times eastern

SUNDAY, 8 p.m.

9/11: The Search for Truth

HISTORY CHANNEL Without believing them, this two-hour documentary probes the main conspiracy theories about the terrorist attacks against the USA on Sept. 11, 2001. Experts in aeronautics, engineering, the military and computers examine each theory.


SUNDAY, 8 p.m.

Nature: Holy Cow

PBS Cows have been called the most successful domestic animal. This show tells us how they got that way, how man has changed them throughout history and how they have affected us. A re-air from 2004.


MONDAY, 7 a.m.

The Real West: Westward Ho! The Wagon Train

HISTORY CHANNEL Would you put your family and your belongings into a wooden, ox-drawn covered wagon and set out to a new home halfway across a continent? In 18th- and 19th-century America, untold thousands of pioneers did just that. This is the story of their lives, travels, hardships, adventures and perseverance.


TUESDAY, 10 p.m.

P.O.V.: A Family Undertaking

PBS The 20th century saw the rise of a professional mortuary industry, but high charges for funerals have sparked a family home-funeral movement. This show follows several families as they make final arrangements at home for their loved ones.


WEDNESDAY, 11:30 a.m.

The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

FAMILYLAND TV On Nov. 1, 1950, Pope Pius XII solemnly defined the Assumption as a dogma of the faith. He proclaimed that “the ever-virgin Mary, having completed the earthly course of her life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.” On the Feast of the Assumption, this show dramatizes this wonderful mystery.


WEDNESDAY, 8 p.m., live

EWTN Live

EWTN Jesuit Father Mitch Pacwa’s guest, Ronda Chervin, is a professor of philosophy, a prolific author and speaker and a convert, she says, from “a Jewish, though atheistic, background.” Her topic tonight is “Widowhood.”


THURSDAY, 8 p.m., live

Life on the Rock

EWTN Franciscan Father Francis Mary Stone’s guest, Joe Klecko, a former football Pro Bowl defensive lineman with the New York Jets, is a speaker for Catholic Athletes for Christ. One of his talks is, “Real Men Have Faith.”


THURSDAY, 10 p.m.

Adventure Lodges of North America: Canadian Adventure Lodges

PBS Tour the King Pacific Lodge in the Great Bear Rainforest in British Columbia, the Sundance Lodge in Alberta and La Seigneurie du Triton, a fishing lodge in Quebec. A re-air from 2006.

Dan Engler writes from
Santa Barbara, California.