‘Follow the Money’ and ‘Oz’ Among New PBS, Cable Series

With the major networks mostly in reruns, cable and PBS are out to lure viewers with a bevy of new series this weekend.

PBS’ “Russia’s War,” Friday at 9 p.m. on KCET-TV Channel 28, is a 10-hour documentary series--airing over the next five weeks--which chronicles Russian history from 1924 to 1953.

Ralph Bakshi, who came to fame in the early 1970s with his X-rated animated hit “Fritz the Cat,” unveils a new adult animated series, “Spicy City,” at midnight Friday on HBO.

National Public Radio’s Ray Saurez hosts “Follow the Money,” Saturday at 1:30 p.m. on Channel 28. The series looks at the ties between money and politics.

HBO premieres its first drama series, “Oz,” Saturday at 11:30 p.m. The adult series, from executive producers Barry Levinson and Tom Fontana (“Homicide: Life on the Street”), is set at an experimental prison called “Emerald City.” Ernie Hudson and Terry Kinney star.

MTV’s “Apt. 2F,” premiering Sunday at 10 p.m., is described as a cross between a sitcom and a sketch comedy. The show revolves around the lives of twin brothers Randy and Jason Sklar.

Henry Winkler is the executive producer of the new Showtime anthology “Dead Man’s Gun,” Sunday at 10 p.m. Set in the West of the 1870s, the series follows the lives of those who come in contact with a gun.

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Today

“The Hunt for Amazing Treasures,” at 5 and 8 p.m. on the Learning Channel, focuses on a diver who finds the remains of a clipper ship that has been shipwrecked for more than a century and on a fisherman who hooks a book of poems penned by Edgar Allan Poe.

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Saturday

The Disney Channel premieres the 1970 animated musical “The Aristocats” at 7 p.m. Eva Gabor and Phil Harris supply the voices.

HBO’s “World Championship Boxing,” at 7 p.m., features British heavyweights Lennox Lewis and Henry Akinwande battling at Caesars Tahoe in Lake Tahoe.

Pauly Shore stars in the Movie Channel’s comedy “Curse of Inferno,” at 9 p.m., as a would-be bank robber in Texas. Janine Turner and Ned Beatty also star.

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Sunday

Surf’s up on KCET with a four-hour surfing marathon. It begins at 2 p.m. with “The Surfer’s Journal: Fifty Years of Surfing on Film.” “Liquid Stage,” which looks at the American roots of surfing, follows at 3 p.m. “In Search of Da Cat,” at 4 p.m., examines the disappearance of surfer Mickey Dora. The afternoon concludes with “Swell,” at 5 p.m., which focuses on female surfers in Santa Cruz.

The pay-per-view wrestling event “Bash at the Beach,” at 4 p.m., pits Chicago Bulls bad boy Dennis Rodman and Hulk Hogan against Lex Luger and the Giant in a no-holds-barred match.

KOCE-TV Channel 50 presents “Getting Smart on the Issues: What Is Quality Education?,” at 5 p.m., featuring highlights from a public forum held in Irvine last month.

E! Entertainment Television offers “Jan-Michael Vincent: The E! True Hollywood Story,” at 5 p.m. The special looks at the actor’s rise to fame in such films as “Hooper” and at his battle with alcohol.

A&E;’s “Agatha Christie’s The Pale Horse,” at 5 and 9 p.m., introduces a new sleuth--Mark Easterbrooke--who finds himself embroiled in the world of the occult. Jean Marsh and Colin Buchanan star.

“Tom Hanks: Celebrity Profile,” 6 p.m. on E!, examines the life and career of the Oscar-winning superstar.

The Discovery Channel’s “The Ultimate Guide” explores the world of “Great Apes,” at 8 p.m. and midnight.