Deathstyles of the rich and famous

“The Day They Died,” which airs Saturday on the History Channel, is best described as a sort of PBS version of “Faces of Death” -- politely gruesome and genteelly morbid. A macabre antidote to the usual holiday pabulum, the documentary uses a combination of still photos, “Masterpiece Theatre”-style reenactments and increasingly silly visual puns to re-create by turns the ghoulish, ironic, mysterious, idiotic or otherwise noteworthy farm-buying experiences of various historical figures. The overall effect is that of a visit to a wax museum hall of horrors: cheesy, but morbidly fascinating.

Among the notable expirers covered are George Washington, who was bled to death by doctors while suffering from epiglottitis; Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, rival founding fathers who died within hours of each other on the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence; and Sigmund Freud, dedicated cigar smoker, who chose assisted suicide after a long bout with mouth cancer.

Chang and Eng Bunker, the Siamese twins of Guinness Book of World Records fame -- and for whom the now-in-disuse term was coined -- win the award for most uncanny demise, a category in which Edgar Allan Poe (cause unknown) disappoints.

Some inclusions, such as that of the first man to die by the guillotine, the first man (an ax murderer no less!) to expire on the electric chair, and Francois Ravaillac, who assassinated the French King Henry IV and was publicly tortured for an hour and a half, make up the gleefully prurient segment of the program. This detour into the perverse is peppered with increasingly flippant and silly interstitials. Francis Bacon, for instance, is introduced by way of a portrait -- propped up next to a pan of sizzling breakfast meat. (Ironically, it turns out we have Bacon to thank for frozen bacon -- he died of a chill while experimenting with the effects of snow on a chicken carcass.)

The panoply of experts and biographers interviewed on “The Day They Died” present an incidental but hilariously variegated cross-section of the expert and the biographer genus. Particularly priceless is one Thadd Turner, author of “Wild Bill Hickok: Deadwood City -- End of Trail,” who chose to be interviewed in full Wild Bill regalia. Further proof that cheese, as writer Clifton Fadiman once said, is milk’s leap toward immortality.

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‘The Day They Died’

Where: The History Channel

When: 6-8 p.m. Saturday

Rating: The network has rated the program TV-14 (may not be suitable for children younger than age 14).

What else: Part of the History Channel’s “Time Machine” series.