The Big Names Return for New ‘Comic Relief’

Billy Crystal, Whoopi Goldberg and Robin Williams return as hosts of HBO’s “Comic Relief 8,” Sunday at 8 p.m. Telecast for the first time from Radio City Music Hall in New York, the fund-raiser for Health Care for the Homeless Projects features Dave Chappelle, Dennis Miller, Liam Neeson, Conan O’Brien, Sarah Jessica Parker, Rosie Perez, Paula Poundstone, Chris Rock, Paul Rodriguez and Ray Romano.

Today

The WNBA kicks off its second season with the Cleveland Rockers meeting the New York Liberty at 5 p.m. on Lifetime. Commentators include Summer Sanders, Michele Tafoya, Meghan Pattyson, Maura Driscoll, former Sacramento coach Mary Murphy and Reggie Miller.

Following at 7 p.m. is an “Intimate Portrait” of WNBA star Rebecca Lobo.

KCET-TV Channel 28 repeats the “Great Performances” retrospective, “Frank Sinatra: The Very Good Years,” tonight at 8 (and also Friday at 1 a.m. and Sunday at 10:30 p.m.). Willow Bay and Judd Rose are the hosts of CNN’s “NewsStand: CNN & Entertainment Weekly,” at 10 p.m. The one-hour series examines the people, business and products of the entertainment industry.

The HBO documentary “Innocents Lost,” at 11 p.m., chronicles the abuse, neglect and mistreatment of children in 21 countries.

The History Channel’s “Secret Agents,” at 11 p.m., features Allied spies in World War II recalling their exploits behind Axis lines.

Friday

Leslie Sagar and Joe Clair host “Rap City: Music in the Message,” at 8 p.m., a BET special that looks at the messages found in current rap music.

Saturday

East L.A.’s own Oscar De La Hoya takes on Patrick Carpenter in a welterweight bout from the Sun Bowl in El Paso on HBO’s “World Championship Boxing,” at 7 p.m.

ABC offers the 1993 drama “In the Name of the Father,” at 8 p.m. on Channel 7. Daniel Day-Lewis and Emma Thompson star in this fact-based story about Irishman Gerry Conlon, who spent 15 years in prison for a terrorist bombing he didn’t commit.

“All Out Comedy,” at 10:30 p.m. on KCET-TV Channel 28, features four gay and lesbian stand-up comics: Marilyn Pittman, Scott Capurro, Tom Ammiano and Karen Ripley.

Sunday

“Baywatch” regular Mike Newman narrates the TBS special “L.A. Lifeguards,” at 6 p.m. The documentary focuses on the 600 seasonal lifeguards guarding the Southland’s beaches.

Lindsay Wagner and Martin Sheen star in the Family Channel thriller “Voyage of Terror,” at 7 p.m. Wagner plays a specialist trying to find a cure for a deadly virus running rampant on a cruise ship.

E! Entertainment Television’s “Mysteries & Scandals” series, at 7:30 p.m., examines the unsolved murder of the “Black Dahlia,” an aspiring actress named Elizabeth Short who was killed 51 years ago.

In conjunction with the fourth anniversary of the slayings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman , E! Entertainment Television presents “O.J., Nicole and Ron: Countdown to Murder,” at 8 p.m. The two-hour special will present new evidence and theories regarding the slayings.

The History Channel’s “Drive for the American Dream,” at 8 p.m. and midnight, focuses on the glitzy ads for autos.

Showtime premieres “14 Up in America,” at 8 p.m. The documentary is based on Michael Apted’s British series in which he tracks several children at pivotal years in their lives.

Lifetime presents an “Intimate Portrait” of singer Patti LaBelle at 10 p.m.