TONIGHT'S MUST-SEE

American Masters: John Ford/John Wayne: The Filmmaker and the Legend," 9 p.m., PBS. John Ford was the director who put epic American dreams and legends onscreen. His sprawling visuals were magnificent, director Mark Rydell says here, yet his "drama was painfully sensitive." He needed the right actor to inhabit those dreams and dramas. "Somebody once said to me that John Wayne was to Ford what David was to Michelangelo," Joseph McBride, a Ford biographer, says. "He was the ... masculine ideal." They made 14 films together, including "Fort Apache," "The Quiet Man" and "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon." In many ways, however, they were opposites. Wayne was easygoing. Ford was a tyrant on the set. Wayne skipped World War II. Ford enlisted. Wayne had an anti-Communist fervor and boosted blacklisting. Ford opposed it. He didn't become a conservative until the Vietnam era. They were opposite men who linked perfectly. This portrait offers a powerful start for the 20th season of one of TV's best series.

OF NOTE

"Bones," 7 p.m., Fox. A protester has committed suicide at Arlington National Cemetery. Or was it murder?

"Amazing Race," 7 p.m., CBS. The teams rush to a temple in Bangkok.

"Alias," 7 p.m., ABC. This terrific show is now only nine days from its finale. Tonight, Sydney finds that a computer chip has been planted inside Renee.

"Lost," 8 p.m., ABC. Mr. Eko feels he knows where to find answers to the island's secrets. Locke helps him look. Also, Jack and others suffer in the hatch.

"American Idol," 8 p.m., Fox. Tonight, the field is trimmed to three. That puts us two weeks from the finale.

"Law & Order," 9 p.m., NBC. Michael Imperioli (Christopher on "The Sopranos") returns as Detective Falco. He takes a woman home one night and wakes up to find her stabbed to death in his bathroom. Fontana and Green must figure out if the cop is also the killer.

"Invasion," 9 p.m., ABC. A hurricane rocks Homestead just as the hybrids said it would. Meanwhile, Underlay and Russell learn just how evil Szura's plan is.