The father-son producing team of Robert Halmi Sr. and Jr. (“The Odyssey” and “Gulliver’s Travels”) presents “Marco Polo” (7 p.m. today, Hallmark), unfolding in a single three-hour helping.

Ian Somerhalder (“Lost”) stars in this tale of a 14th-century Venetian adventurer who risked his life to venture to China and spent more than a dozen years in the court of Kublai Khan.

Told in a series of opulent flashbacks to his fellow prisoner and literary collaborator, Polo’s true story has all of the stuff of myth, legend and Hollywood spectacular.

Unfortunately, this production hearkens back to old Hollywood with one weird choice. The casting of Brian Dennehy as the great Khan is simply odd. I’ll let others argue whether it is politically incorrect to cast a white actor in this Asian role. I simply found his presence silly, much like John Wayne’s performance as Genghis Khan in “The Conquerors.”

In some scenes, Dennehy delivers puzzling dialogue wearing what appears to be a gilded pith helmet. But that at least keeps us from staring at his shaved head. In those scenes, he looks like a cross between Marlon Brando in “Apocalypse Now” and Jason Alexander on “Seinfeld.”

¢ Anyone who thinks that war and soap operas can’t mix has never read or seen “From Here to Eternity.” The new series “Army Wives” (9 p.m. Sunday, Lifetime) makes the most of the melodrama at an Army base where wives and husbands worry about their mates going off to combat or care for their physical and psychic wounds when they return.

“Army” wastes no time whipping up a quick froth. A spitfire bartender named Roxy (Sally Pressman) jumps at the chance to marry the officer and gentleman Chase (Jeremy Davidson) she’s known for all of four days. Who better to raise her two boys fathered by two different men?

Claudia (Kim Delaney), the classy wife of Col. Holden (Brian McNamara), declares war on the wife of his rival, a man who wears the general’s rank she believes her husband deserves. Denise (Catherine Bell) presents the facade of a happy homemaker but bears the scars of domestic abuse. Pamela (Brigid Brannagh) is a former cop and camp pariah, a pregnant woman subject to vicious rumors.

I’m only skimming the surface here, and this all takes place in the show’s first hour.

As prime time soaps go, “Army Wives” delivers both the sizzle and the steak. Compared to consequence-free confections like “Desperate Housewives” or series like “The Starter Wife,” where failure to pluck one’s eyebrows properly is considered a hanging offense, the prevailing atmosphere of war, duty and dread helps ground “Army Wives” in contemporary reality. The pilot episode is directed by Ben Younger (“Boiler Room,” “Prime”).

Tonight’s highlights

¢ Ottawa hosts Anaheim in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs (7 p.m., NBC).

Sunday’s highlights

¢ Scheduled on “60 Minutes” (6 p.m., CBS): Mike Wallace describes and updates some favorite stories.

¢ The loyalty of Tony’s crew is tested on the next-to-last episode of “The Sopranos” (8 p.m., HBO).