Good president meets bad economy in TV documentary

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a doer, a pragmatist with a charming streak as broad as his grin. He was a man of steadfast authority. He was also a target of contempt: An aristocratic man of the people, he was seen by fellow patricians as a traitor to his class.

Most of all, he was a believer. Roosevelt never gave up on his country -- even in the dark days of the Depression and World War II while he served as the nation's 32nd president. He never gave up on his fellow Americans, any more than on himself. Here was a man who never stopped believing he would someday regain the use of his polio-crippled legs.

He didn't. But during his extraordinary life and his 12 years in the White House, Roosevelt did plenty.

A new two-part, four-hour special -- "FDR: A Presidency Revealed" -- begins at the opening of Roosevelt's first term as president, with America facing 25 percent unemployment and the imminent collapse of the U.S. banking system, and continues to his death a dozen years later, after a reinvigoration of the U.S. economy and just before the surrender of Germany.

Along the way, the film explains how Roosevelt overcame enormous odds to win the presidency and remake it in ways the nation still feels today. This enormously informative portrait airs on the History Channel 8 p.m. Sunday and Monday.

Other shows to look out for:

* A stark, no-nonsense documentary, "Rehab," tells the real-life stories of five suburban youths and their struggle to overcome drug and alcohol abuse. The odds against them are formidable: of the 2 million Americans who get substance-abuse treatment each year, 80 percent relapse. In "Rehab," Academy Award-winning director-producer Steven Okazaki visits Camp Recovery treatment center in Santa Cruz, Calif., to chronicle the monthlong program, then follow his subjects as they navigate the perilous outside world. How perilous? Statistics say only one of them will make it. The film premieres on HBO 7:30 p.m. Monday.

* Catch the second edition of "NOVA scienceNOW," the magazine show that lends mind-stretching whimsy to what its host, Robert Krulwich, calls "breaking science." A spin-off of the science weekly "NOVA," it premiered in January and is back with a new hour. Topics include: the promise of stem-cell research, and the controversy; the possible discovery of a new species of human that walked the earth at the same time as Homo sapiens and Neanderthals; and new clues to the mystery of how Tyrannosaurus rex grew so big. Krulwich says his show deals with science "that's right out of the lab -- science that sometimes bumps up against politics, art, culture." Do the bump 7 p.m. Tuesday on PBS.

* "Blowin' Up!: Fatty Koo" -- the oddest-titled new show of the week -- is a half-hour unscripted drama that tracks five youngsters aiming for stardom in the music biz. Their journey takes them from obscurity to a 13-episode reality series, while they share a house and make a record. But just what is Fatty Koo? It's a multicultural collective consisting of Eddie B., Gabrielle, Marya, Ron and Valure, whose blend of R&B, hip-hop, Latin and pop can be heard on their own upcoming debut album -- as well as on "Blowin' Up!: Fatty Koo," debuting 8:30 p.m. Thursday on BET.

* Bravo brings its audience something new from Cirque du Soleil with its broadcast of the acrobatic troupe's "La Nouba," premiering 7 p.m. April 23. From a French phrase translated as "to live it up," "La Nouba" has an open-ended booking at Orlando's Walt Disney World Resort. Now Bravo's two-hour telecast transports viewers on the magical, mythical trip, fueled by a trippy musical score and acrobatic derring-do.

Shot in high definition with 14 cameras, "La Nouba" debuts during a weekend that features encore broadcasts of past Cirque du Soleil programs beginning 8 p.m. Friday with "Varekai" from 2003.