Heart-warming holiday fare comes to TV

Any TV film with a cast including Susan Sarandon, Alan Arkin, Penelope Cruz and Robin Williams is worth a look. That certainly goes for "Noel," a multi-stranded holiday yarn that isn't afraid to tug at the heartstrings, but does it in often unexpected ways.

Set in snowy Manhattan on Christmas Eve, "Noel" deals with ordinary plights of ordinary people -- in particular, the goodhearted but lonely Rose (Sarandon). It also dares to delve into how singularly isolating Christmas Eve can be.

The film's content has been somewhat upstaged by its innovative multi-venue rollout. "Noel" is being screened in a handful of theaters, and is available to order online for $4.99 from Amazon.com in a newfangled DVD format that self-destructs about after 48 hours.

Or just catch it, free, in your own living room. It airs on TNT Sunday at 7 p.m.

Other shows to look out for:

Peter Falk is back as the angel Max in "When Angels Come to Town," a new holiday drama about two very different families who need his help at Christmas time. In this, CBS' third "Max" film since 2001, our hero finds his job at stake when his heavenly supervisor (played by Katey Sagal) comes to Earth to discipline him for aiding the wrong family. Tammy Blanchard ("Life with Judy Garland: Me & My Shadows") also stars. It airs Sunday at 8 p.m.

Watch out for falling coconuts! "The Real Gilligan's Island" rejiggers the 40-year-old sitcom into a reality series that strands on an island two competing sets of castaways who personify the original "Gilligan's Island" characters. Many of the challenges faced by the contestants will be modeled after some of the situations in the original series, such as building a seaworthy raft for escape or knocking coconuts out of trees to get the juice. Will "The Real Gilligan's Island" have any juice? Tune in for its premiere (Tuesday at 7 p.m. on TBS) to see.

July 20, 1944, was a day of high drama in the European theater of war. German generals attempted to end Adolf Hitler's life at his Wolf's Lair bunker in Poland. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill considered using poison gas against the Germans. And U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt suffered a stroke that presaged his death the following spring. To enable viewers to experience the events of this day visually, Discovery Channel presents "Virtual history: Secret Plot to Kill Hitler," a two-hour film that applies innovative computer-animation techniques to place famous faces from the past onto actors, melding archival images with reconstructed scenes in a seamless flow. More than two years in the making, this film also airs Sunday at 8 p.m.

• What's it like for a youngster to deal with the normal challenges of adolescence, while fighting a battle to stay alive? More than 14,000 kids in the United States are infected with HIV, and more than 90 percent of them were born with the disease. A "Nick News Special Edition" confronts the issue of living with AIDS by letting three young people describe what their lives are like. At 15, Holly is infected, and so is her mother. Jordyn, 14, bravely says, "I don't put HIV in front of me; I put it behind me." But her mother died from AIDS, and now she and her father must cope with the expense of her medication and hospital stays. As for 15-year-old Ricky, he lives with physical limitations but loves to work on his rapping skills. "Living with AIDS: A Story of Three Kids" airs on Nickelodeon at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday -- World AIDS Day. Linda Ellerbee is host.