The National Geographic Channel invites viewers on a new critter adventure every Saturday night in September, beginning with “Swamp of the Baboons” (7 p.m., today, National Geographic). Cameras follow a troop of baboons in the Okavango Delta in Botswana and discover a complicated community with its own defined social hierarchies.

Future installments include a visit with the “American Beaver” next Saturday night and a whimsical episode dedicated to “Unlikely Animal Friends” on Sept. 26.

• ABC begins its fall season of college football tonight, with a game between Virginia Tech and Alabama (7 p.m., today, ABC). Live from Atlanta.

• Viewers in search of the polar opposite of gridiron smash mouth may find it with the Hallmark Channel’s marathon of eight movies from the “Love Comes Softly” (6 a.m., today, Hallmark) series. Katherine Heigl (“Grey’s Anatomy”) stars in the first “Love” as well as “Love’s Enduring Promise” (8 a.m.). The “Love” series, set in the American West in the late 19th century and based on a series of books by Janette Oke, continues right through “Love Finds a Home” (8 p.m.), starring Sarah Jones, Haylie Duff and Patty Duke.

• Have years of basic-cable stardom moved Kathy Griffin from the D-list to the C? She’s at least on the HGTV list. The comic joins Tiffani Thiessen and Jason Priestley on “Design Star” (9 p.m., Sunday, HGTV), where they commission the three remaining contestants for a little light work.

• Note, neither of HBO’s original Sunday series “True Blood” nor “Hung” will air original episodes this week. They return Sept. 13 for season finales.

Today’s highlights

• What’s a holiday weekend without edelweiss? Julie Andrews stars in the 1965 musical “The Sound of Music” (6 p.m., Family).

• A young wizard has a trial by fire in the 2008 fable “Merlin and the War of the Dragons” (8 p.m., SyFy).

Sunday’s highlights

• Shia LaBeouf stars in “Disturbia” (7 p.m., TNT), a 2007 update of “Rear Window” that begins well and builds suspense slowly only to end as a needlessly dumb and mind-numblingly over-long splatter movie.

• A small town’s obsession with football affects many lives in the 2004 film adaptation of the book “Friday Night Lights” (7:30 p.m., NBC) by H.G. Bissinger that would go on to inspire the superior NBC series.

• A curious religious sect attracts violence on “Inspector Lewis, Series II” on “Masterpiece Mystery” (8 p.m., PBS, check local listings).

• Life with Peggy’s father puts Don in a tough spot on “Mad Men” (9 p.m., AMC). The drama has just been renewed for a fourth season, so look for the bourbon to pour until at least 1964, or 2010.

• “SportsCenter” (10:30 p.m., ESPN) celebrates ESPN’s 30th anniversary with a 90-minute retrospective.

Cult choice

Decades of sequels have given us many candidates for Worst James Bond Theme Song Ever. I nominate Lulu’s shrill, throwaway version for the 1974 thriller “The Man with the Golden Gun” (7 p.m., today, BBC America). Roger Moore, Christopher Lee and Britt Ekland star.