WEDS. & SAT.
Bugtime Adventures
EWTN
At 4:30 p.m. Wednesdays and 10 a.m. Saturdays, these cartoons feature cute bug characters who learn life lessons as they witness Bible incidents unfolding. The series also airs on FamilyNet at 5:30 p.m. Tuesdays and 9:30 a.m. Saturdays.
SUNDAY, NOV. 20
Thanksgiving in Beaver Run
Familyland TV, 6 p.m.
In this 1953 episode of her TV drama series “Letter to Loretta,” Catholic actress Loretta Young (1913-2000) is a mom who comes upon a burglary and sees her invalid son kidnapped.
SUNDAY, NOV. 20
Extreme Makeover:
Home Edition
ABC, 8 p.m.
Boston Red Sox stars Kevin Millar, Curt Schilling and Jason Varitek help the Makeover team build a new home for melanoma survivor Heidi Johnson, her husband Tripp and their kids, Abby and Will. They also play with baseball-loving Will, 5, a spinal muscular atrophy patient who “runs” the bases in a motorized scooter.
MONDAY, NOV. 21
The 1918 Flu Epidemic
PBS
American Experience: Influenza 1918, at 9 p.m., recounts the Spanish Grippe (flu) epidemic, spread by World War I soldiers coming home. The disease killed more than 600,000 Americans, including 195,000 in October alone. Secrets of the Dead: Killer Flu, at 10 p.m., a re-air from 2004, shows Dr. Jeffrey Taubenberger and his team creating a genetic sequencing of the 1918 virus and finding it originated as a bird flu. A current update calls that virus similar to the H5N1 bird-flu virus of today.
THURSDAY, NOV. 24
Macy's Thanksgiving Parade
NBC, 9 a.m., live
This beloved parade features marching bands, songs, dance and floats, but its biggest (pun intended) stars are always the gigantic cartoon character balloons.
THURSDAY, NOV. 24
A Charlie Brown
Thanksgiving
ABC, 8 p.m.
Charles M. Schulz (1922-2000), creator of the “Peanuts” comic strip, wrote this half-hour 1973 special in which problems arise yet all ends well for the kids, Snoopy and Woodstock.
FRIDAY, NOV. 25
A Christmas Carol
Turner Classic Movies, 8 p.m.
This 1938 film well captures the spirit of Charles Dickens’ 1843 novel, in which tight-fisted, cruel boss Ebenezer Scrooge repents and makes amends at Christmastime after his deceased partner and ghosts make plain to him the eternal consequences of his sins.
SATURDAY, NOV. 26
WTC: Stories from the Ruins
Discovery Channel, 8 p.m.
Hangar 17 in New York's JFK International Airport became a shrine filled with items retrieved from the debris of the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center.
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.