Seinfeld Duels With Sharks, Lansbury Vies With Hanks

Though summer television fare has been on the snoozy side, there’s an eclectic mixture of programming on tap for this Sunday.

Angela Lansbury hosts the Disney Channel’s premiere of the restored version of the 1971 family film “Bedknobs and Broomsticks,” at 8 p.m. The musical fantasy, set in World War II-era England, stars Lansbury and David Tomlinson of “Mary Poppins” fame.

The Discovery Channel kicks off its 11th annual “Shark Week” at 9 p.m. with the new documentary “Prehistoric Sharks,” which focuses on a creature that dined on whales millions of years ago.

Tom Hanks won the first of his two Oscars for his role as an attorney dying of AIDS in Jonathan Demme’s 1993 film “Philadelphia,” at 9 p.m. on KCBS-TV Channel 2.

Jerry Seinfeld returns to his stand-up comedy roots on the HBO special “Jerry Seinfeld: I’m Telling You for the Last Time,” at 9 p.m. on HBO. The tape-delayed telecast from Broadway’s Broadhurst Theater brings down the curtain on the comic’s international tour.

Today

To commemorate the 36th anniversary of Marilyn Monroe’s death, American Movie Classics will be showing six of her films, beginning at 3:30 p.m. with “Don’t Bother to Knock.”

“Secrets of the Ocean Realm,” at 8 p.m. on KCET-TV Channel 28, looks at a tiny island off the coast of Costa Rica that is the refuge of numerous migratory marine animals.

The History Channel’s “The Boy Who Gave Away the Bomb,” at 5 and 9 p.m., is a documentary on Theodore Hall, a teenage scientist working on the Manhattan Project who divulged its secrets to the Russians.

Ted Koppel brings his ABC late-night news series to prime time in “Nightline at Primetime,” at 10 p.m. on KABC-TV Channel 7. The five-week series, which looks at crime and punishment, was culled from 10 “Nightline” episodes from the past four years.

Southern writers such as William Faulkner, Thomas Wolfe and Zora Neale Hurston are profiled in “About the South,” at 10 p.m. on Channel 28. The documentary looks at the relationship between white and African American writers.

Friday

John Henson of “Talk Soup” is a guest on AMC’s “Remember WENN,” at 7 and 10:30 p.m., as an award ceremony’s emcee.

Leslie Caron is the host of PBS’ “Evening at Pops,” at 9 p.m. on Channel 28. The Broadway cast of “Luis Bravo’s Forever Tango” are the special guests.

Cartoon Network’s irreverent animated-live action talk show, “Space Ghost Coast to Coast,” kicks off its fifth season at 11:30 p.m. Sex advisor Drew Pinsky is the special guest.

Saturday

Steve Young, Brett Favre, Drew Bledsoe and Kerry Collins are among the quarterbacks participating in the “NFL Quarterback Challenge,” at 11 a.m. on Channel 2.

KCBS serves up preseason NFL football action between the Oakland Raiders and the Dallas Cowboys, at 6 p.m. on Channel 2. At 7 p.m., FSW2 provides coverage of the San Francisco 49ers and the San Diego Chargers.

Sunday

KOCE-TV presents coverage of the prestigious horse show “The GTE Summer Classic IX,” at 1 p.m. on Channel 50.

Ed Asner is the narrator of the A&E; documentary “More Great Escapes of World War II,” at 5 and 9 p.m.

PBS’ “Nature” series, at 8 p.m on Channel 28, chronicles how wolves and buffalo have coexisted in northern Canada on “Wolves and Buffalo: The Last Frontier.”

William F. Buckley and others express their opinions on Fidel Castro and the Cuban trade embargo on PBS’ “Firing Line Debate,” at 11 p.m. on Channel 28.