All Times Eastern

ALL WEEK

Pledge Week

PBS During this week’s pledge drive, check local listings for specials such as Northern Lights: An Evening With Sissel and Friends, with Norwegian songstress Sissel hosting tenor Jose Carreras and others; Vivere: Andrea Bocelli Live in Tuscany, with tenor Bocelli in his hometown village; Great Moments at the Met: Viewers’ Choice, with viewer-selected opera highlights from the Great Performances series; Great Scenic Railway Journeys: Celebrating North America’s Steam Railways, which puts us aboard 17 scenic U.S. and Canadian railways; and John Paul II: A Saint for Our Times, a documentary.

SUNDAY, 8 p.m.

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

ABC The crew and volunteers renovate the Middleton, Idaho, home of Ryan and Karia Stockdale. Despite their own health setbacks, they lead community charitable efforts and raise their four children, who suffer from Eosinophilic Enteropathy, a disease that prevents food ingestion and digestion, and that causes severe diseases.

MONDAY, 8 p.m.

Modern Marvels: Rocks

HISTORY CHANNEL A seemingly mundane topic becomes exciting as we examine moon rocks, watch blasting at a gravel pit, see how marble and granite are processed and learn how geyser-heated rocks provide home-heating energy. Advisory: TV-PG.

TUESDAY, 8 p.m.

Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town

ABC This 1970 stop-motion classic from the makers of “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and “Frosty, the Snowman” features the vocal talents of Joan Gardner, Mickey Rooney, Paul Frees, Keenan Wynn and narrator Fred Astaire.

TUESDAY, 8 p.m.

Nova: Supersonic Dream

ABC This documentary tells the story of the design, testing and flight history of the British-French Concorde jetliner, which from 1977 to 2003 flew passengers between Europe and the USA at a speed of 1,350 mph (Mach 2.04). A re-air from 2005.

THURSDAY, 11:30 p.m.

Robert Goddard: Mr. Rocket Science

HISTORY INTERNATIONAL This show bios U.S. scientist Robert Goddard (1882-1945), whose vision and work with liquid-fueled rockets made future space flight possible.

FRIDAY, 5 p.m.

Conspiracy? FDR and Pearl Harbor

HISTORY CHANNEL On Pearl Harbor Day, watch this survey of the evidence for and against the persistent theory that President Franklin Roosevelt and others wanted Pearl Harbor attacked to get the USA into World War II. Advisory: TV-PG.

SATURDAY, 10 a.m., live

Homage to the Immaculate

EWTN On the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, Pope Benedict XVI presides over the annual homage to her at Rome’s Piazza di Spagna.

Dan Engler writes from
Santa Barbara, California.