The Week’s guide to what’s worth watching

Seduced and Abandoned

Making movies isn’t always pretty. Director James Toback and Alec Baldwin were dreaming of producing a romance set in war-torn Iraq when they decided to drop in on the Cannes film festival and bring along a camera crew to chronicle their effort to land potential backers. The resulting documentary strings together private meetings with both world-class directors and sleazy financiers, offering an antic portrait of, as Francis Ford Coppola puts it, “what you have to do to make the movies that are in your heart.” Monday, Oct. 28, at 9 p.m., HBO

American Experience: War of the Worlds

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It was the greatest of all Halloween pranks. On Oct. 30, 1938, Orson Welles, then a 23-year-old radio director, spread panic among CBS radio’s 1 million listeners by stringing together realistic-sounding news dispatches about a Martian invasion. On the 75th anniversary of the broadcast, this special returns to the late ’30s to unpack the swirl of events that enabled a clever adaptation of an H.G. Wells novel to create a lasting sensation. Tuesday, Oct. 29, at 9 p.m., PBS; check local listings

The Art Of

Artists are everywhere, as this playful series proves each week—by profiling bakers, hairstylists, bartenders, and others who show an inspiring devotion to craft and creative expression. The show’s second season kicks off with a seductive look at the art of burlesque dancing. Wednesday, Oct. 30, at 10 p.m., Ovation

Time of Death

Few of us can fully imagine what it’s like to confront the end of our own time on earth. This moving six-part series trains its cameras on terminally ill individuals as they live out their final days, often facing profound fears with the support of caregivers or loved ones. In the first episode, a young mother with stage IV breast cancer races to ensure her children will be properly cared for. Friday, Nov. 1, at 9 p.m., Showtime

Great Performances: Moby-Dick From San Francisco Opera

Here’s an opera spirited enough to take on Herman Melville’s epic. Audiences in San Francisco were wowed when Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s adaptation arrived last fall in a dazzling multimedia staging. As this filmed version shows, baritone Morgan Smith made a winning Starbuck and tenor Jay Hunter Morris a mesmerizing Ahab. Friday, Nov. 1, at 9 p.m., PBS; check local listings

Other highlights

The Pete Holmes Show

Holmes, a quirky comedian who’s made several Internet splashes, enters the competitive world of late-night TV with a half-hour show that will follow Conan. Monday, Oct. 28, at midnight, TBS

Naked Vegas

What’s a party without somebody wearing body paint? This new reality series follows a niche firm whose talented workers specialize in making clients look like zombies, aliens, and superheroes.Tuesday, Oct. 29, at 10 p.m., Syfy

Aziz Ansari: Buried Alive

Comedian Aziz Ansari (Parks and Recreation) tackles his fears about entering his 30s in his third stand-up special. Available for streaming after midnight on Thursday, Oct. 31, Netflix