TV Picks 09.27.2009

SUNDAY, 7 p.m.

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

ABC Emmy-winning pro-life actress Patricia Heaton guests on this two-hour season premiere. The crew builds a new home in South Range, Wis., for highly decorated fireman Howard Huber, his wife, Jessica, and their kids. Advisory: TV-PG.


SUNDAY-MONDAY, live

Pope Benedict XVI in the Czech Republic

EWTN In a three-hour live telecast at 4 a.m. Sunday, the Pope will celebrate Mass at Turany Airport in Brno (re-airs at noon). At 3 a.m. Monday, also in a three-hour live telecast (re-airing 5 p.m.), he will say Mass in Stara Boleslav, in the Church of St. Wenceslas, on that national patron’s feast day.


SUNDAY-FRIDAY, 8 p.m.

The National Parks: America’s Best Idea

PBS In six nightly two-hour installments, this new documentary from Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan praises the U.S. National Park Service. Catholic viewers will disregard occasional nature-worship and pantheism tinges. Advisory: TV-PG on Thursday.


MONDAYS, WEDNESDAYS, SATURDAYS

Live With Passion

CATHOLICTV At 11:30 p.m. Mondays, 9:30 p.m. Wednesdays and 2 p.m. Saturdays, Houston-based Passionist Father Cedric Pisegna asks, “Do you know where you are going when you die?” and invites viewers to find the answer in Jesus, our Savior.


TUESDAY, 9 p.m.

The Universe

HISTORY “Star Clusters” studies groups of stars of the same age, both “young” stars and extremely old ones, and the universe’s structure. Advisory: TV-PG.


WEDNESDAY, 10 a.m.

Feats of Valor

MILITARY CHANNEL This show profiles members of our armed forces who received the Medal of Honor for their conspicuous gallantry, above and beyond the call of duty, in combat in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. Advisory: TV-PG.


THURSDAY, noon

Sister Kenny

TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES Catholic actress Rosalind Russell (1907-1976) had the title role in this 1946 drama about her friend Elizabeth “Sister” Kenny (1886-1952), the Australian self-taught nurse who successfully treated young polio victims with hot compresses and passive exercises instead of immobilization and braces. A-1 and TV-G.


FRIDAY, 10 a.m., live

Worldwide Children’s

Eucharistic Holy Hour

EWTN In this seventh annual event from the World Apostolate of Fatima, 4,000 children will gather in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington on the First Friday of October to pray for families and priests and to adore Jesus in union with kids from 140 countries. Re-airs 4 p.m.

Dan Engler writes from

Santa Barbara, California.