TV smarts

Some broadcast and cable programs contain material included in the public school curriculum and on standardized examinations. Here are weekend home-viewing tips:

* Today. “My America . . . or Honk if You Love Buddha” (KCET, 10-11:30 p.m.) This is a documentary about a “road guru” and all-around eccentric, the 70-year-old actor Victor Wong, and a set of other offbeat and distinctive Asian Americans (Korean, Filipino, Japanese, Hmong, Vietnamese and Chinese). Wong’s career includes roles in “Seven Years in Tibet,” “The Joy Luck Club” and “The Last Emperor.” This film was made during a coast-to-coast odyssey, reminiscent of the fictional events in the Jack Kerouac novel “On the Road,” by Academy Award nominee Renee Tajima-Pena.

* Friday. “Oskar Schindler: The Man Behind the List,” (A&E;, 5-5 p.m., repeating 9-10 p.m.) This is a documentary corroborating a story told in the Academy Award-winning movie “Schindler’s List,” in which a Nazi businessman during World War II thwarted his government’s efforts to kill more than 1,000 Jewish men and women who worked at his factory.

* Saturday. “Cyrano de Bergerac” (Bravo, 2-5 p.m.) This is a filmed version of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Broadway production of the Edmond Rostand play, translated from the French and adapted by British novelist Anthony Burgess (“A Clockwork Orange”), and starring Derek Jacobi.

Also, “The Chicago Seven,” (TLC, 7-8 p.m.). This is a documentary about the leaders at the demonstration against the 1968 Democratic Party Convention in Chicago, their subsequent arrest, trial and careers.

* Sunday. “Far From the Madding Crowd” (KCET, Part I, 9-11 p.m., with Part II airing May 17, 9-11 p.m.) This production, part of PBS’s “Masterpiece Theatre” series, is based on Thomas Hardy’s 1874 English novel about an unconventional heiress who juggles the attentions of three suitors. Paloma Baeza stars. Series host is Pulitzer Prize winner Russell Baker.

--Compiled by Richard Kahlenberg in consultation with Crystal J. Gips, associate dean, College of Education, Cal State Northridge