Off the Wall: Fox enters 'dead zone'

Off the Wall is ready to play ball.

SPORTSORAMA! That's what Fox is now trying on Saturday nights, usually a network TV dead zone. "NASCAR Samsung Mobil 500" (7 to 11 p.m. Saturday) from Fort Worth kicks off the slate, which in future weeks offers other races, Major League Baseball, UFC fights and more. Keep track at fox.com.

LOCAL ANGLE There's something fishy with the brothers behind Babylon's Plessers appliance store. On the return of "Tanked" (Saturday night at 9, Animal Planet), they order a refrigerator tank from the series' fancy aquarium builders. Watch the wildness at animalplanet.com/tanked.

TITANIC TIMES Saturday night's the 100th anniversary of the Titanic sinking, and TV both documents and dramatizes the life-or-death legend. Linus Roache stars in the new miniseries "Titanic" (Saturday night from 8 to 11, Sunday 9-10 p.m., ABC/7), while 1958's acclaimed British film "A Night to Remember" (Saturday night at 10, Turner Classic Movies) spotlights Kenneth More as the ship's second officer. Among the new documentaries, see the ship's impact on the city that built it in "Titanic Belfast: Birthplace of a Legend" (Saturday night at 9, WLIW/21). The disaster is used for propaganda purposes in "Nazi Titanic" (Saturday night at 9, H2) when Hitler orders a film about his enemy's sinking ship. "Titanic at 100: Mystery Solved" (Sunday 8-10 p.m., History) has underwater robots photograph the sprawling debris field to reconstruct how the ship broke apart. Bringing up the rear by updating the problem, "Why Ships Sink" on "NOVA" (Wednesday at 9 p.m., PBS/13; Thursday at 9 p.m., WLIW/21) examines sea safety today. Preview at pbs.org/nova.

SERIES PREMIERES One of the UK's "Top Gear" gurus hits the States to drive huge vehicles -- tanks! -- in "Richard Hammond's Crash Course" (Monday at 10 p.m., BBC America). People leave behind the Amish community in "Amish: Out of Order" (Tuesday at 10 p.m., NatGeo), then struggle to adapt to the outside world. Kathy Griffin blabs weekly in "Kathy" (Thursday at 10 p.m., Bravo), her new talk show. Celebreality double feature: In "Jennie Garth: A Little Bit Country" (Friday at 9 p.m., CMT), the actress moves her family away from Tinseltown to a central California farm, while "Melissa & Tye" (Friday at 9:30 p.m., CMT) finds "Bachelor"/"Dancing With the Stars" favorite Melissa Rycroft managing a long-distance marriage to further her Hollywood career.

TRAIN TO MANHATTAN The season premiere of the take-a-peek-inside series "Off Limits" (Tuesday at 10 p.m., Travel) goes underground to explore the East Side Access tunnel project. The series premiere of "Park Secrets" (Wednesday at 8 p.m., Travel) visits urban idylls, including the west side's High Line park on old elevated tracks. More at travelchannel.com/tv-shows.

HOLLYWOOD PLAYS BALL Turner Classic Movies' Wednesday full of baseball movies features laughs, whimsy, music and biopics. Wacky-faced Joe E. Brown stars in three '30s comedies: "Fireman, Save My Child" (6:15 a.m.), "Elmer the Great" (7:30 p.m.) and "Alibi Ike" (8:45 a.m.). Yankees fans get Gary Cooper as Lou Gehrig in 1942's "The Pride of the Yankees" (10 a.m.) and William Bendix in 1948's "The Babe Ruth Story" (12:15 p.m.). Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra sing and dance as century-back ballplayers in "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" (2:15 p.m.). Dodgers great Jackie Robinson plays himself alongside Ruby Dee as his wife in 1950's "The Jackie Robinson Story" (4 p.m.). And there's divine intervention for the Pittsburgh Pirates (who could use it again today) in 1951's "Angels in the Outfield" (5:30 p.m.). Movie details at tcm.com/schedule.