Tube Notes

By Mike Hughes
Gannett News Service

LOCAL INTEREST: "Na Mele: Traditions in Hawaiian Song," 7:30 p.m. PBS. This program features Ho'okena, the Hoku Award-winning group made up of Manu Boyd and Ama Aarona on vocals and 'ukulele, Glen Smith and Horace Dudoit III on vocals and guitars and Chris Kamaka on vocals and upright bass. Nani Dudoit will perform hula.

LOCAL INTEREST: "SURVIVING THE STORM," 8:30 p.m., NBC. Sharie Shima plays host to this half-hour special, just in time for hurricane season.

TONIGHT'S MUST-SEE (Network TV): "Friends," 7 p.m., NBC. This rerun includes one of the year's better scenes. Joey and Ross are obsessed with the same beautiful newcomer (Gabrielle Union). Each starts dating her, pretending not to know. Now all three are seated together — with each guy trying to dig at the other. It's a clever scene, especially because every nasty thing they're saying is true. The best thing about the scene, however, might be that no one mentions that the woman is black. For years, "Friends" has given viewers a terribly white vision of New York City.

TONIGHT'S MUST-SEE (cable): "Selena" (1997), 8 p.m., TNT; repeats at 11 p.m. Hollywood has stuffed the world with bad biographies, but this time it made the right move: It turned the job over to writer-director Gregory Nava, who had done impressive work with "El Norte" and "Mi Familia." Nava wisely put much of the focus on the slain pop singer Selena's family, with Edward James Olmos terrific as her dad, a struggling musician and club owner. We see a warm, hard-working family; we also see an earnest Texas girl, who couldn't speak Spanish, become the superstar of Mexican border music. The movie claimed to have a national search for someone to play Selena. Then, wisely, Nava decided to cast one of his "Mi Familia" actresses, the semi-known Jennifer Lopez. The movie did well; the star has done even better.

"Guinness World Records," 7 p.m., FOX. The network dusts off one of its old concepts. As this series returns for a summer run it asks such questions as how many contortionists can fit in a box. Some of us really don't want to know.

"Spy TV," 7:30 p.m., NBC. Wouldn't it be funny to tell a bride her dress has been lost? Maybe not, but we'll find out tonight.

"Night Visions," 8 p.m., FOX. There are two episodes tonight including one that the show's producers savor: In the field, soldiers discover an impenetrable bubble.