What's On TV

shows worth noting for JULY 31-AUGUST 6

Listings are not necessarily recommended by the Monitor. All times Eastern, check local listings.

SUNDAY 8/1

Cirque du Soleil: Quidam (Pay Per View, 7:30-9:30 p.m.): For the first time, the magic, majesty, and mystery of Canada's internationally recognized Cirque du Soleil comes to pay-per-view in a 90-minute presentation (including a 30-minute preshow). Award-winning director David Mallet ("Cats," "Michael Flatley: Lord of the Dance") shot 100 hours of tape and used 15 cameras (including three remote-control cameras) per show and dramatic lighting.

You Asked For It (NBC, 8-9 p.m.): Make sure you can handle it. Phil Morris hosts this new summer series, based on the 1950s show with the same title. Man and beast meld in segments ranging from the astounding to spine-chilling. Example: A man threads a snake through his nose and out of his mouth.

Restless Spirits (Showtime, 8-9:35 p.m.): Charming tale about a young girl, Katie, and her brother who spend the summer with their grandmother, Lydia (Marsha Mason), in Newfoundland. One evening, Katie is dared by the local kids to meet them at a haunted pond where two pilots from France crashed in 1927. The aviators reappear that night and it's up to Katie to help them pull their plane out of the pond and rebuild it with duct tape, old sheets, and rope. By aiding them, she comes to terms with the death of her own father, who was also a pilot.

MONDAY 8/2

Golf: Woods vs. Duval (ABC, 8-11 p.m.): For the first time ever, golf will be telecast live during prime time on a network channel. The world's top prize-money winners this year, David Duval ($3,019,406) and Tiger Woods ($2,624,105), go head-to-head in an 18-hole match play. The winner's purse is $1.1 million.

Thanks (CBS, 8:30-9 p.m.): Pilgrim, you can pass on this. This new sitcom series is set in 1620s Plymouth, with the arrival of the Winthrop family, which finds the new world a place of disease, starvation, and boring parties. The characters include a village idiot, a boy-crazy girl, and a granny who likes pirates. Stars Tim Dutton, Kirsten Nelson, and Jim Rash.

TUESDAY 8/3

Best of Woodstock '99 (Fox, 8-10 p.m.): Despite its violent and rowdy ending, the four-day concert in Rome, N.Y., actually had some bright spots. Fox has squeezed 30-plus hours of concert footage into two hours. Highlights include performances from Limp Bizkit, Jewel, Dave Matthews Band, and Alanis Morissette.

Downtown (MTV, 10:30-11 p.m.): New animated series that takes a look at city life makes its debut. In the opener, Alex, a shy and nerdy copy-shop worker scores his own New York City apartment. But he soon finds out that it's a dump.

THURSDAY 8/5

Biography (A&E, 8-9 p.m.): As Bill Bradley prepares to run for the presidency, A&E profiles the man who is a former pro basketball star and three-term senator from New Jersey.

(c) Copyright 1999. The Christian Science Publishing Society