TV Picks OCT. 21 – 27, 2007

All times eastern

SUNDAYS AND WEDNESDAYS, 7 p.m.

Be Not Afraid Family Hour With Family Rosary

FAMILYLAND TV Tune in to learn ever more about the faith and pray the Rosary.


SUNDAY AND THURSDAY

Let’s Ask Fr. Levis

EWTN At 3:30 a.m. Sunday and 2:30 p.m. Thursday, Catholic educator and author Father Robert Levis tells us all about the great and essential sacrament of Baptism.


MONDAY, 9 p.m.

Digging for the Truth: Timbuktu

HISTORY CHANNEL Host Hunter Ellis travels to Mali in west Africa to explore the long history of Timbuktu, which is still a trading center today. Advisory: TV-PG.


WEDNESDAY, 8 p.m.

World Series, Game 1

FOX SPORTS At press time, the two participating teams were not set, but the annual Fall Classic between major league baseball’s National and American League champions always sparkles with displays of skill and clutch play that will live on in legend and lore.


WEDNESDAY, 9 p.m.

City of Armageddon

HISTORY CHANNEL Despite its title, this program is about Masada, the amazing Holy Land site that rests atop a plateau above the Dead Sea. Experts use the historical record, finds from recent excavations and computer graphics to portray a fortress that had walls 13-feet thick and 4,600-feet long and contained a palace, huge cisterns, storehouses, barracks and an armory. Advisory: TV-PG.


THURSDAY, 8 p.m.

Yours, Mine and Ours

TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda star in this 1968 family comedy directed by Mel Shavelson, a touching and funny story of a Navy widow and widower who have 18 children between them, then marry and have a baby. Advisory: TV-PG.


FRIDAY, 9 p.m.

Saving a Species: Gorillas on the Brink

ANIMAL PLANET Animal expert “Jungle Jack” Hanna and actress Natalie Portman visit east-central Africa’s lake region to see how Rwanda’s trackers, guides, veterinarians, conservationists and government are trying to preserve the fewer than 700 gorillas that still live in the wild.


SATURDAY, 8 p.m.

The Man of Pain: The Shroud of Turin

EWTN Directed by Michelangelo Dotta, this official documentary of the 1998 Holy Shroud Exposition Committee contains HDTV footage of the shroud. Made with help from experts from the Archdiocese of Turin, the film consults many scientists and visits sites associated with the shroud through the centuries, such as St. Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai, Edessa, Istanbul, Lirey, St. Hyppolyte and Chambery.


Dan Engler writes from
Santa Barbara, California.

The Swallow Choir Still Sings

In time for the Oct. 23 feast of St. John of Capistrano — when, God willing, the swallows will once again fly south for the winter — a visit to Southern California’s Mission San Juan Capistrano. By Joseph Albino.