TV Highlights for Week of Sept. 2-8

Saturday, Sept. 1, 2007 | 4 a.m.

A year after Steve Irwin's death, Animal Planet is airing a weeklong celebration of the exuberant "Crocodile Hunter" whose forays among wildlife were a staple of the channel.

Irwin, who died in September 2006 at 44 when his heart was pierced by a stingray, is featured in new and previously aired specials that recount his work and showmanship that carried a conservation message.

"Secrets of the Crocodile," debuting 8 p.m. EDT Tuesday, is the centerpiece. The program details Irwin's final crocodile research expedition to illuminate the reptiles that have scarcely changed in their thousands of years on Earth.

"There's relatively little that we know about these animals and in the documentary we see Steve unraveling their mysteries," his widow, Terri Irwin, said in an Animal Planet release.

She recently completed her own crocodile expedition in Australia. Her daughter with Irwin, Bindi, 8, has her own show, "Bindi the Jungle Girl," on the Discovery Kids Channel.

Other programs airing during Animal Planet's "Crocs Rule!" week (all times EDT) include "Search for the Super Croc," 8 p.m. Sunday; "The Crocodile Hunter 3: Steve's Story," 8 p.m. Monday; "They Shoot Crocs, Don't They," 9 p.m. Monday; "Ocean's Deadliest," 9 p.m. Tuesday and "My Daddy the Crocodile Hunter," 9 p.m. Wednesday.

"Ocean's Deadliest" is a rerun of the program Irwin was filming when he was fatally wounded.

Other shows to look out for:

- For those who want to escape on Labor Day without a car trip, AMC is offering a time warp to office and family life circa 1960 with a "Mad Men" marathon. The drama centers on hotshot creative director Don Draper and those in his orbit at the Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency and at home. "Mad Men" recreates a period when people could smoke when and wherever they wanted but faced suffocating restrictions and risks depending on who they were and where they were from. But "Mad Men" is more than a chance to see that not-so-long-ago era through a contemporary prism. It's also stocked with emotionally involving characters and a breakout star in Jon Hamm, who makes the most of the tightly wound, flawed Draper and is, to boot, drop-dead handsome. Bonus casting: Robert Morse ("How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying") dropping in as the agency's autocratic and eccentric leader. The show's first seven episodes (of the 13-episode run), will show nonstop beginning at 10 a.m. EDT Sunday.

- Pierce Brosnan, so dashing in TV's "Remington Steele" and later on the big screen as James Bond, stirs (or make that shakes) up his image in "Shattered," debuting 9 p.m. EDT Sunday on TNT. In the film released theatrically as "Butterfly on a Wheel," Brosnan is a bad, bad man. He kidnaps a couple's young daughter and the proceeds to issue demands that aren't about money: He wants to wreck the family's perfect life. Gerard Butler ("300") and Maria Bello ("A History of Violence") co-star as the once-happy husband and wife who end up facing a crushing moral dilemma.

- "Lincoln Heights," the rare TV drama that makes a black family its focus, returns 8 p.m. EDT Tuesday on ABC Family for its second season. Dad Eddie Sutton (Russell Hornsby), a lawman, has been injured in the line of duty and finds himself playing househusband to the hilt, cooking and setting down new rules for the kids. Mom Jenn (Nicki Micheaux) leaves the hospital to work in a local clinic, an adjustment that has to be balanced with her home life. As children will, the Sutton offspring are living their own lives: Cassie's (Erica Hubbard) romantic life heats up when she meets an artist and preteens Tay (Mishon Ratliff) and Lizzie (Rhyon Brown) are experiencing their own brushes with young love.

- Maybe it's not exactly what Paris or Nicole endured, but "Jail" promises to give a firsthand view of what some experience from booking to their first moments behind bars. The series, debuting 9 p.m. EDT Tuesday on MyNetworkTV and from "COPS" creator John Langley, uses that long-running show's network-described "video verite" style to let viewers peek inside the slammer. It's sad, it's funny, it's scary, viewers are promised, to discover what happens to "casual offenders and hardened criminals once the sheriff throws away the key." (Wait, do sheriffs really do that?) "Jail" visits facilities in cities including Las Vegas; Tampa, Fla.; Cincinnati; Portland, Ore., and Fort Worth, Texas.

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EDITOR'S NOTE - Lynn Elber is a national television columnist for The Associated Press. She can be reached at lelber(at)ap.org