TV Picks Nov. 18-24, 2007

All times eastern

SUNDAY, 8 p.m.

Andrew Jackson

HISTORY CHANNEL This documentary interviews historians and employs re-enactments to portray the life, politics and policies of Andrew Jackson (1767-1845), an orphan at age 14 who became a lawyer, a general and the seventh president of the United States. Advisory: TV-PG.


SUNDAY, 10 p.m.

Fearless Earth: Angel Falls

DISCOVERY CHANNEL Geologists and base jumpers (parachutists from fixed objects) go to Venezuela’s Guayana highlands to investigate the geology of remote Angel Falls. The world’s tallest waterfall, it plunges 3,212 feet, including a sheer drop of 2,648 feet, off a tepuy (tabletop mountain). U.S. pilot Jimmy Angel explored the waterfall in 1937.


TUESDAY, 8 p.m.

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

ABC This beloved 30-minute animated special from 1973 features the late Charles M. Schulz’s “Peanuts” characters as they fix their own unique Thanksgiving dinner.


TUESDAY, 8 p.m.

Nova: Parthenon

PBS Researchers examine the Greek government’s $10 billion restoration of this much-damaged ancient temple on the Acropolis in Athens. Under the auspices of Pericles, the sculptor Phidias supervised the Parthenon’s construction, ca. 447-431 B.C.


WEDNESDAY, 9 p.m.

Great Performances: The Israel Philharmonic 70th Anniversary Gala Concert

PBS Daniel Barenboim, Zubin Mehta and Pinchas Zukerman conduct works by Brahms, Bruch and Ravel in this concert recorded last December in Tel Aviv.


THURSDAYS, 8 p.m.

Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?

FOX Comedian Jeff Foxworthy (“You Might Be a Redneck If…”) hosts this fun quiz show in which a panel of fifth graders helps grownup contestants as they try to win money by answering a series of questions from actual first- through fifth-grade textbooks.


THURSDAY

Thanksgiving Day

NBC, FAMILYLAND TV At 9 a.m. on NBC, the three-hour Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade has more than 10,000 participants, bands, floats, song-and-dance acts and giant helium balloon cartoon characters. At noon on NBC, the National Dog Show at the Kennel Club of Philadelphia features 2,000 doggies. At 5:30 and 6:30 p.m., Familyland TV presents Catholic stars in a Make Room for Daddy Thanksgiving show (Danny Thomas) and Thanksgiving at Beaver Run (Loretta Young).


SATURDAY, 4:30 a.m., live

Public Consistory for the Creation of New Cardinals

EWTN Archbishops Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston and John Foley, pro-grand master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, are the Americans among the 23 new cardinals Pope Benedict XVI has named. Re-airs at 2 p.m.


Dan Engler writes from
Santa Barbara, California.