Weekend TV : ‘Say No’ Telethon Airs From Queen Mary; The Original British ‘Pennies From Heaven’

Original programming is scarce on a weekend highlighted by a drug education telethon and a highly acclaimed British miniseries.

“SANE Kids Say No,” the second annual telethon to support the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department’s drug education program, begins today at 5 p.m. on Channel 9. Among the celebrities scheduled to appear in this live eight-hour broadcast from the Queen Mary and Spruce Goose Entertainment Center are Edward James Olmos, Tina Yothers, Ted Lange and Buddy Hackett.

Sunday, Bob Hoskins stars in the 11-year-old BBC series, “Pennies From Heaven,” a brash, Depression-era story that chronicles the misadventures of a traveling sheet music salesman. Airing from 9 p.m. to 11:30 p.m., the musical series written by Dennis Potter of “Singing Detective” fame will conclude in the same time period on Monday and Wednesday. The series, which was adapted for a Steve Martin film in 1981, uncompromisingly depicts the drab lives characteristic of the period punctuated with outlandish musical numbers that brighten the dark times with jolts of hope.