SUNDAY, 8 p.m.

Nature: Life in Death Valley

PBS Pupfish, kangaroo rats, coyotes, roadrunners, jackrabbits, desert bighorn sheep, lizards and tortoises survive Death Valley, Calif., and some ultra-marathoners even compete there. A re-air.

SUNDAY-MONDAY

The Universe

HISTORY CHANNEL Sunday’s hour-long shows, starting at 2 p.m.: Mars, the sun, Jupiter, the moon, Earth and “The Most Dangerous Place in the Universe.” Monday’s, starting at 8 a.m. and re-airing at 1 p.m.: The outer planets, the life and death of a star, Mercury and Venus, Saturn, “Alien Galaxies” and looking for “extraterrestrial intelligence.”

MONDAY, 3 a.m., 6:30 p.m.

Being Human: 40 Days for Life!

EWTN The Coalition for Life’s “40 Days for Life!” campaign of prayer, fasting and 24-hour vigils outside abortion chambers saves babies and energizes the pro-life cause. So far, 77 cities are taking part in this year’s effort, Sept. 26 - Nov. 4.

WEDNESDAY, 8 p.m.

EWTN Live

EWTN Jesuit Father Mitch Pacwa and his guest, Legionary Father Owen Kearns, publisher of this newspaper, look back on 80 years of the National Catholic Register — and ahead to many more, God willing.

WEDNESDAY, 8 p.m.

Lost Worlds: Herod the Great

HISTORY CHANNEL Recent excavations, scientific studies, historical documents and computer graphics all combine to give us aerial and ground-level portraits of the streets of Jerusalem and of the Second Temple, which King Herod (73-4 B.C.) built.

THURSDAY, 2:30 p.m.

Ralph McInerney’s What Went Wrong with Vatican II?

EWTN Pope John XXIII said, “The greatest concern of the ecumenical council is this: That the sacred deposit of Christian doctrine should be guarded and taught more efficaciously.” In this show, EWTN news director Raymond Arroyo interviews scholar-author Ralph McInerney about his book (Sophia Institute Press, 1998), which exposes the ways that dissenters and others have mischaracterized the Council.

FRIDAY, 8:30 p.m.

Lucy Must Be Traded, Charlie Brown

ABC “You’ve got to start from ‘way down at the bottom, when you’re six or seven years of age,” baseball immortal Babe Ruth said about the game he loved. The “Peanuts” characters and their sandlot baseball team play ball in this animated re-air from 2003.

SATURDAY, 8 p.m.

Our Lady of Guadalupe: Mother of Hope

EWTN In this hour-long video from Dan Lynch, guardian of the Missionary Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, experts discuss Pope John Paul II’s 1999 apostolic exhortation The Church in America, and the history and everlasting message of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Dan Engler writes from
Santa Barbara, California.