White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

5:30 p.m. today, HBO

The show: Fear of a nuclear strike is a powerful weapon.

A new HBO documentary, White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, graphically illuminates what that fear is all about. Though viewers have undoubtedly seen many shows about the bombings, this one will make a deep and freshly disturbing impression.

Why watch: This is not a political tract. Filmmaker Steven Okazaki presents interviews with survivors of the Aug. 6 and 9, 1945, blasts as well as Americans involved in the bombing runs. He also makes devastating use of contemporary footage.

Be warned: This material is ghastly and will not quickly be forgotten.

Footage of victims being treated in makeshift hospitals - their faces burned to the bone, arms and legs blown or burned off and eyeballs melted in their sockets - is in fact unforgettable.

It's augmented by survivors' recollections of what they and family members were doing at the moment of detonation: reading the newspaper, hanging clothes on the line, playing with toy boats. Two women, then orphans at a Catholic compound, were in church.

Then came an "enormous flash," a survivor recalls. "The light streamed in and filled the room." One man recalls flying 150 feet through the air, while another, some distance from ground zero, said the resulting cloud looked not like a mushroom to him but like "a huge pillar of fire" - literally a holocaust.

After which came a profound stillness. "The only things that moved in Hiroshima were the flies circling over the dead," another survivor recalls.

Dave Shiflett, Bloomberg News

Tuesday

Johnny Cash: A Man and His Vision

• 8 p.m., KRMA-Channel 6

The show: Part 1 of 2. Johnny Cash's 1969-71 TV show, which featured the era's music giants and rising stars, is recalled. Included in this segment (pop/rock) are clips of Bob Dylan, Ray Charles, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Derek & the Dominos, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Neil Young, Neil Diamond, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison and Carl Perkins. Part 2, airing Aug. 13, features country music.

Wednesday

Myth Busters

• 7 p.m., Discovery Channel

The show: He's an active major leaguer who just turned 45 on Saturday, so you'd think he'd know. New York Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens, left, joins the Myth Busters gang to debunk some baseball myths. Wonder if they'll reveal whether Barry Bonds could beat Hank Aaron's home-run record without "the juice."

Thursday

Men in Trees

• 9 p.m., Denver's 7

The show: A Rocky reader expressed concern about losing one of his favorite shows, about a New York woman in a mostly male Alaska town called Elmo. Don't fret: Trees is on ABC's fall schedule (premiering Oct. 12). Check out this episode, the first of two parts, called New York Fiction. Marin (Anne Heche) returns to New York to find that she will meet with editors about her new book. She's thrilled to be back but misses Elmo - and Jack.

Friday

Flash Gordon

• 9 p.m., Sci Fi Channel

The show: Take away his fancy spandex costume and laser gun and what do you have? A contemporary twist on a favorite hero. It's the series premiere of this Flash, starring Jody Racicot as Dr. Hans Zarkhov, John Ralston as Ming, Gina Holden as Dale Arden, Anna Van Hoof as Princess Aura, Eric Johnson as Flash and Karen Cliche as Baylin.

Saturday

Claire

• 7 p.m., Hallmark Channel

The show: Valerie Bertinelli stars in this two-hour movie as a widowed suburban mom who finds her psychic gifts in demand when murder plagues her town and gets closer and closer to her family. Angela Lansbury, who, on Murder She Wrote, became one of TV's most gracious and enduring sleuths, is helping to introduce the movie.

Sunday

Survivorman

• 8 p.m., Discovery

The show: As the second season begins, survival expert and filmmaker Les Stroud lands in the Kalahari, where the daytime temperature on the sand reaches 140 degrees but drops to the mid-40s at night, and his companions are scorpions, puff adders and cobras. It's followed at 9 p.m. with another adventure in the Georgia swamp in the Altamaha River Basin.

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