SUNDAY, JULY 4

Ice Cream Sunday

Food Network, 2:30 p.m.

Star ting with “The Best of …” at 2:30 p.m. and closing with “Good Eats” at 6:30 p.m., some of the Food Network's top shows devote entire flavor ful episodes to that summer time favorite, ice cream, in all its yummy varieties.

SUNDAY, JULY 4

Restore America: 2004

Home & Garden TV, 5 p.m.

This show tours this year's dozen “in need” sites selected by the National Trust for Historic Preser vation. Home & Garden TV has donated $1 million to help restore them.

SUNDAY, JULY 4

Stories of Martyrs

Familyland TV, 8:30 p.m.

The young Catholic troupe Radix per forms the life stories of two mar tyrs of the early Church, St. Ignatius of Antioch and St. Polycarp, and of a modern mar tyr, St. Maria Goretti, a patroness of purity. Re-airs Tuesday, July 6, at 8 p.m.

MON.-FRI., JULY 5-9

Faith in the Heartland

EWTN, 4:30 a.m., 6 p.m.

In this five-par t, daily half-hour series, Franciscan Missionar y of the Eternal Word Father Joseph Mar y Wolfe shows us beautiful churches and fer vent parish life in the rural and small-town areas of his native Iowa.

TUESDAY, JULY 6

Robots

History Channel, noon, 6 p.m.

The idea of robots is at least two millennia old. This show profiles the progress of robotics inventors and laboratories in recent decades. It also argues that the genre of science fiction has spurred some research in this field.

THURSDAY, JULY 8

Wide Angle: The Russian Newspaper Murders

PBS, 9 p.m.

A dozen or more newsmen in Russia who repor ted on corruption have been slain in the last four years, and the crimes remain unsolved. This special highlights the courage of honest journalists ever ywhere by focusing on two murder cases in Togliatti, Russia.

FRIDAY, JULY 9

U.S. Olympic Trials

NBC, 8 p.m.

USA Network, 11 p.m.

With the Athens Olympic games only a month away, NBC tonight covers the U.S. swimming trials and the USA Network covers the track and field trials.

SATURDAY, JULY 10

The Heart Has Its Reasons

EWTN, 8 p.m.

Jean Vanier began the first L'Arche (The Ark) community in Trosly-Breuil, France, in 1964, and now there are more than 120 in 30 countries. This 30-minute documentar y shows us the happiness this way of life creates as volunteers and developmentally disabled people live and work together with the beatitudes as their model.

Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.