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OFF THE WALL: Some 'Mad Men' and some madcap men

Diane Werts | GLUED TO THE TUBE

July 19, 2008

Off the Wall gets all soaped up.

WEEKEND MIND-BENDERS. This isn't your kiddo's space opera - there's sharp personal, political and spiritual drama in the too-contemporary fourth season of "Battlestar Galactica" (tonight at 8 and midnight, Universal HD), repeating weekly in high-def. Other relevant fantasy this weekend: Charlton Heston's close-to-home 1973 nightmare "Soylent Green" (tonight at 6, Turner Classic Movies), a near-future tale of overpopulation, job losses and food shortages addressed in a very scary manner; and Stephen King's "The Langoliers" (tonight/tomorrow at 9 p.m. and midnight, Chiller), sometimes cited as an inspiration for "Lost" with its tale of a disappeared plane flight, featuring David Morse, Dean Stockwell and Patricia Wettig. Watch featurette on the making of "Soylent Green" attcm.com/media room/index

.jsp?cid=32125.

'MAD MEN' MARATHON. Before the second season starts July 27, relive the first-season cool of "Mad Men" (tomorrow noon-1 a.m., AMC). The acclaimed series about the 1960s ad biz, filled with duplicitous men, yearning women and lots of three-martini lunches, is one of the tube's best-looking series ever, awash in bachelor-pad design and bullet bras. All things "Mad" at amctv.com/originals /madmen.

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SILENCE IS GOLDEN. In an age when black-and-white looks weird to kids, who'd show 'em silent movies? Turner Classic Movies would. The weekly "Essentials Jr." family film series unreels Buster Keaton's delirious 1924 comedy "Sherlock Jr." (tomorrow, 8 p.m.), hosted by Abigail Breslin and Chris O'Donnell. It's followed at 8:50 by Oscar-winning 1932 sound short "The Music Box," in which Laurel and Hardy try to deliver a piano and wind up destroying a house. More at tcm.com/essentialsjr.

REALITY PREMIERES. Teens compete for Disney movie roles in "High School Musical: Get in the Picture" (tomorrow at 8p.m., ABC/7), hosted by Nick Lachey. Celebrities wager on contestants performing stunts in "Wanna Bet?" (Monday at 9 p.m., ABC/7), which promises to raise money for charity. "Date My Ex" (Monday at 10 p.m., Bravo) takes Orange County "real housewife" Jo De La Rosa to L.A., where the guys she dates must live with ex-husband Slade Smiley. "Highway 18" (Tuesday at 10 p.m., Golf) sends five two-person amateur teams on a golf road rally down Florida's highways and fairways, covering a thousand miles in

10 weekly episodes. Video preview, golfer profiles at thegolfchannel.com/core

.aspx? page=23850.

NIGHTTIME DRAMA. Jonesing for a juicy nighttime soap? "General Hospital: Night Shift" (Tuesday at 11 p.m., SOAPnet), spun out of ABC's daytime hit, starts its second season featuring some of "GH's" current characters (Robin Scorpio, Patrick Drake), former faves (Antonio Sabato Jr.'s Jagger Cates, Tristan Rogers' Robert Scorpio) and exclusive newbies (Billy Dee Williams' Touissant Dubois). Get the scoop at

soapnet.go.com/soapnet/article

/path-articleNum_5213.

SEAMY STUFF. The new half-hour series "Sordid Lives" (Wednesday at 10 p.m., LOGO) follows the story of a Hollywood wanna-be (Jason Dottley) and his bizarro Texas family, which includes Bonnie Bedelia, Rue McClanahan and the sublime Leslie Jordan (as a Tammy Wynette impersonator!), with Olivia Newton-John as a bar singer just out of prison and Caroline Rhea as a trailer-trash neighbor. It's based by Del Shores on his 1996 play

and 2000 movie. More at

logoonline.com/shows/dyn

/sordid_lives/series.jhtml.

TITLE OF THE WEEK. A contest to find the biggest failure in the country? Sounds like the latest reality show; it's actually the 1942 movie "The Magnificent Dope" (Friday at 10 a.m., Fox Movie Channel), where success teacher Don Ameche discovers layabout Henry Fonda and the secret to the meaning of life. FMC schedule at

foxmoviechannel.com.

Send e-mail to diane@tvworthwatching.com