Weekly TV Picks

Daniel J. Engler reads the TV schedule and finds what fits for Catholics.

Extreme Makeover:

Home Edition

ABC, 8 p.m.

Host Ty Pennington, his team and volunteers and Hubbell Homes of Des Moines go to Tama County, Iowa, to rebuild the burned-down farmhouse of Shawn and Amy Kibe and their three sons, who were about to lose even their temporary post-fire shelter.

Nature: Violent Hawaii

PBS, 8 p.m.

The residents of our 50th state live among scenic natural wonders such as the lava-spewing Kilauea volcano, Diamond Head (another volcano), the wave-splashed Pe’ahi coastline of Maui and towering Mauna Kea and its occasional blizzards.

American Experience:

The Great Fever

PBS, 9 p.m.

After a terrible yellow fever epidemic in 1878 in the South, doctors intensified their efforts to find the cause of the scourge. Maj. Walter Reed’s U.S. Yellow Fever Board in Havana in 1900 agreed with Cuban scientist Carlos Finlay that mosquitoes were to blame. Maj. Jesse Lazear, 34, died after letting an infected mosquito bite him.

Last Best Hope:

A True Story of Escape,

Evasion and Remembrance

PBS, 10 p.m.

In this documentary, Bill Grosvenor, 85, a U.S. P-47 Thunderbolt pilot in World War II, reunites with the surviving Belgian civilian resistance fighters and families who risked their lives daily to save him and other pilots from the Gestapo — and the film crew excavates Grosvenor’s plane from the field where it crashed in 1943.

Mother Angelica Classics

EWTN, 8 p.m.

In this previously aired show, beloved Mother Angelica gives us the story of the real Halloween: It is Catholic and holy — All Hallows’ Eve, the night before All Saints’ Day.

The ArchiTechs

History Channel, 8 p.m.

A team of engineers, designers, writers and “visionaries” in New York City has 48 hours to create equipment and methods for firefighting and rescue in skyscrapers.

Keeping Score:

Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’

PBS, 10 p.m.

Filmed in and around Vienna, this show tells the life story of Ludwig von Beethoven (1770-1827) and the “Eroica” symphony he composed after his hearing began to fail.

In the Footsteps of Mother Caterina Troiani

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

Blessed Mother Mary Catherine (1813-1887) founded the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and began a mission in Egypt in 1859.

Dan Engler writes from

Santa Barbara, California.