Off the Wall: What's the story? 'Real'

Off the Wall goes movie crazy.

REEL OR REAL? Here's a 24-hour marathon for all of us who've watched supposedly fact-based movies and said, "Yeah. Right." The docuseries "The Real Story" (6 a.m. Saturday-6 a.m. Sunday, Smithsonian) delves into the sources behind cinema sensations like "The Amityville Horror" (11 a.m.), James Bond (noon), "Titanic" (7 p.m. and 2 a.m.) and "Jaws" (8 and 11 p.m.). Learn more at smithsonianchannel.com/therealstory.

MARATHON MANIA TV's holiday weekend holds hundreds, but these are our faves -- "Oddities" (7-10 Saturday night, Science), "The Twilight Zone" (9 a.m. Sunday-4 a.m. Tuesday, Syfy), "Royal Pains" (Monday 6 a.m.-6 p.m., USA), "Firefly" (Monday 8 a.m.-2 a.m., Science), "Harper's Island" (Monday 11 a.m.-Tuesday 6 a.m., Chiller), "My So-Called Life" (Monday 6 p.m.-midnight, Sundance).

FUNNY FUNNY FUNNY FUNNY . . . Repeat 46 more times. It's Comedy Central's 50 Star Stand-Up Weekend, 8 a.m.-5 a.m. Sunday and 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday. Included is the premiere of "Christopher Titus: Neverlution" (9-10:30 p.m. Sunday), where the comic's keen eye lands on coddling parents, fearmongering and trophies for the losing team. Preview at comedians.jokes.com/Christopher-Titus.

DON'T HAVE TO WORK MONDAY? It's a holiday! So why not stay up all night Sunday? There's no better way to spurn sleep than with 1962's decapitated-fiancee's-head-on-a-platter hoot "The Brain That Wouldn't Die" (Sunday night at 1 a.m., thisTV), followed by the drive-in delirium of 1972's "The Thing With Two Heads" (3 a.m.). The latter gives us the eye-scorching spectacle of black football lineman Rosey Grier's head transplanted onto white racist rich guy Ray Milland's shoulders -- while Ray's head is still there, too! Watch them on a date romancing "Laugh-In" bikini-wiggler Chelsea Brown! Peruse the entire lineup of WPIX/11's digital subchannel thisTV (over-the-air Ch. 11.3) at nyc.thistv.com.

MORE MOVIE THRILLS Conan O'Brien knows his Hollywood. He's this month's Turner Classic Movies guest programmer, and his Monday night slate is swell: James Cagney's musical flag-waving in the 1942 hit "Yankee Doodle Dandy" (8 p.m.), Cagney with Bogart in the 1939 gangster history "The Roaring Twenties" (10:15 p.m.), the '70s' prescient TV-industry satire "Network" (12:15 a.m.) and quintessential Marx Brothers in "Duck Soup" (2:15 a.m.). More at tcm.com/guestprogrammer.

NEW CHANNEL? Sorta kinda. SiTV relaunches Monday as nuvoTV, continuing to run English-language programming with Latin-American flavor. Marking the bicultural morph are the new "extreme" training series "Operation: Osmin" (Monday at 9 p.m.) and the special "Pastport: Venezuela" (Monday at 10 p.m.), following "That '70s Show" star Wilmer Valderrama back to his South American homeland. Visit mynuvotv.com.

BACK TO THE BEGINNING You can either catch up to the brilliance or savor it again from the start: "Breaking Bad" (late Tuesday night at 2 a.m., AMC) starts a late-night run with its 2008 pilot episode. Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul proceed through their first three award-grabbing seasons with three episodes nightly -- building toward July 17's fourth-season return -- so clear yourself some serious DVR space. Series HQ at amctv.com/breaking-bad.

SHOW OF THE WEEK No question, it's "Torchwood: Miracle Day" (Friday at 10 p.m., Starz), the first U.S.-shot season of the BBC fave with hot John Barrowman as an ambisexual alien fighter. Now, he's faced with a strange phenomenon in which nobody on Earth dies anymore. Mekhi Phifer, Bill Pullman and Lauren Ambrose join the cast. Check out starz.com/torchwood.