I told you not long ago that Wordplay, the documentary about New York Times Crossword editor Will Shortz and his annual crossword competition would air as part of the PBS series Independent Lens on October 16. It turns out it's also the very first documentary of the series' sixth season.

Other documentaries will include An Unreasonable Man, the popular 2006 documentary about presidential candidate and consumer advocate Ralph Nader; Banished, which tells the story of how some small towns expelled their black communities; King Corn, about two college students who grow their own food to challenge big agri-business; Miss Navajo, which centers on a unique Native American beauty pageant; Iron Ladies of Liberia focuses on the first head of state in Africa; Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita, about a neurologist trying to find a cure for his paralyzed daughter; and Please Vote for Me, a documentary from China about three eight year old students running for "class monitor."

Actually, it's the only crossword documentary I know of, but it's really good. Wordplay, the 2006 documentary about New York Times crossword editor Will Shortz and the annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament he started over two decades ago, will air this fall as part of PBS' Independent Lens showcase. If you haven't yet seen the movie, you can save yourself the rental and just catch it on TV.

• At 8, FOX has a new On The Lot, then the season finale of House.
• At 10, ABC has the season finale of Boston Legal.
• At 9, PBS has a new Independent Lens.
• Discovery has a new Deadliest Catch at 9, followed by a new After The Catch.
• Food Network has a new Challenge at 9.
• Also at 9: Travel Channel has a new John Ratzenberger's Made In America.
• At 9:30, Bravo has a new Real Housewives of Orange County special.
• CBS has the Kimberly Dozier news special Flashpoint at 10.
• FX has a new episode of The Shield at 10.
• There's a new ECW on Sci-Fi at 10.
• HBO has a First Look at Ocean's 13 at 10.

Check your local TV listings for more.

One of my favorite PBS series, Independent Lens, will be showcasing four new documentary films in May. If you're a fan of the series, here's what you can look forward to. If you've never seen the series before, I encourage you to check it out, as the films featured are always well-made, and always compelling.

On May 8 at 10:30 p.m., "The Cats of Mirikitani" looks at the life of artist Jimmy Mirikitani, an 80 year old who has survived both internment camps and the bombing of Hiroshima.

On May 15 at 10:00 p.m., "Sentenced Home" looks at three Cambodian refugees in the Seattle projects facing deportation for regretful decisions they made as teenagers.

Sure, we all like sex, violence and cursing, but if you're like me, sometimes you like to pour yourself a nice cup of tea, settle into the couch, and watch something that's a bit more stimulating to the ol' gray matter. Therefore, here's a few shows coming up on PBS you might want to check out. Note that the first couple shows will air during the pledge period, so you'll have to check your listings for the exact date and time.

Kenny Rogers: The Journey (check local listings for date and time) - This combination concert and retrospective looks at forty years of Rogers' work, including interviews with the musician and singer.

Enron: the Smartest Guys in the Room, the Academy Award-nominated documentary from 2005 that tells the story of the Enron scandal, will be featured on PBS' Independent Lens showcase on April 24 at 10:00 p.m. The televised version also features a new conversation from January 2007 with co-authors Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind, two Fortune reporters who wrote the book The Smartest Guys in the Room, on which the documentary is based.

The death penalty, not unlike abortion rights, is a polarizing topic, and advocates on both sides of the death penalty debate have strong feelings about a state's right to end the life of a human being.

In "Race to Execution," which airs on PBS' Independent Lens on March 27 at 10:00 p.m., the question as to whether race plays a role in death penalty convictions is made the center focus. One story deals with Madison Hobley, a Chicago man sentenced to death for allegedly setting a fire that killed seven people, including his wife and young child. The other story deals with Robert Tarver, accused of shooting a white general store owner in Alabama. In the end, one man is executed and the other is exonerated.

The documentary takes the stance that a person's race, and the overall race of the jury, does play a significant role in whether or not a person is sentenced to death. However, the two people behind the film, Rachel Lyon and Jim Lopes, are on both sides of the debate (Lopes supports the death penalty and Lyon does not). No single work can serve as the ultimate Truth on the death penalty, but "Race to Execution" does offer one angle that's worth considering for anyone interested in educating themselves about this issue, no matter what their belief happens to be.

Stolen, a 2006 documentary by Rebecca Dreyfus and Susannah Ludwig, follows a group of men and women, most notably the late art detective Harold Smith, as they try to recover paintings stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum in Boston in 1990. Thirteen paintings were taken from the museum by thieves disguised as policemen, including Rembrandt's The Sea of Galilee and Vermeer's The Concert. None of the paintings were ever recovered.

Most people recognize the name Duke Ellington, but very few know the name Billy Strayhorn. The documentary Billy Strayhorn: Lush Life, which will be featured tonight on the PBS series Independent Lens at 10:00 p.m., hopes to change that. Strayhorn composed many of Ellington's hits, but his quiet demeanor kept him in Ellington's shadow. Also, he was an openly gay black man living in the '40s, a time when most remained closeted for fear of violence or worse.

Unusual diseases, disorders and ailments are a common subject for news stories and documentaries, but what makes Twisted --a film by Laurel Chiten about people suffering from the neurological disorder dystonia-- so interesting is that Chiten herself suffers from the disorder. It gives the documentary an intimacy you wouldn't find elsewhere, and it's clear that Chiten's subjects feel a kinship with her and are willing to open themselves up to her about what it's like to live with the disorder.

If ever a subject of this PBS documentary showcase series lived up to the title "Independent Lens," it's eighteen year old Shadya Zoabi. Shadya is a Muslim Arab living in Israel, a beautiful, athletic and headstrong girl who loves karate and who has very little interest in following the typical Muslim path of becoming a servant and housekeeper. Throughout the film, Shadya's feminist views clash with those of her older brothers, the eldest of which insists Shadya must give up karate and behave in a manner more fitting to Muslim customs and laws. Shadya, meanwhile, flaunts her independence at every turn. She even gives up praying because she says she hasn't got the time.

In the 1980s, everyone was talking about the farm crisis. You heard about it on the news, celebrities came out to voice their support for farmers, and sometimes the topic would even make it into the scripts of some TV shows. It was the "Cause of the Week" so to speak.

Those of us who actually lived on a farm, however, had a perspective no one else had, no matter how many news specials they watched or magazine articles they read. It's one thing to know what's happening; it's another thing to experience it first hand.

On December 26 at 10pm in select markets, the PBS series Independent Lens will showcase three short films and the half hour comedy drama, My Life Disoriented.

The first short, Someday Flowers Bloom, looks at the life of a white country singer and his wife, a woman from Japan. When the two met, neither spoke the other's language. The other live-action short, which shared the grand prize for Independent Len's first online film festival, is Paris, 1951, the true story of a girl who finds out the man who raised her was not her real father, and that no photographs or physical reminders remain of him.

Revolucion: Five Visions is the latest documentary to be showcased on PBS' Independent Lens and is the second in a month-long tribute to artists and writers. The film takes a look at the Cuban revolution through the eyes of five different photographers, one of which, Raúl Corrales, was hired by Castro as his official photographer to record the unfolding revolution.

The other photographers profiled in the documentary all have varying opinions about Cuba's revolution and what it means, and their photographs represent not only their own personal philosophies, but also offer a new angle on an old debate that still divides the citizens of Cuba. The documentary is worthwhile as a history lesson, but it's really about artists trying to express what is happening around them when words alone won't do.

Revolucion: Five Visions airs tomorrow night (Tuesday) at 10 pm on PBS.