History Channel

Richard Nixon's personality, as revealed through a series of audiotapes, was as complex and secretive as his political agenda. Filmmaker David Taylor, in preparing a new History Channel documentary that airs at 8 p.m. Thursday, donned headphones to hear "hours and hours" of the recently released tapes, dating back to 1971, from the Oval Office and Camp David. "It allowed me to literally listen to Nixon in his own words," Taylor said. "He was a different person depending on who he was talking to."

"The Day They Died," which airs Saturday on the History Channel, is best described as a sort of PBS version of "Faces of Death" -- politely gruesome and genteelly morbid. A macabre antidote to the usual holiday pabulum, the documentary uses a combination of still photos, "Masterpiece Theatre"-style reenactments and increasingly silly visual puns to re-create by turns the ghoulish, ironic, mysterious, idiotic or otherwise noteworthy farm-buying experiences of various historical figures.

Filmmakers from the History Channel will be in Ventura next month, gathering footage for a documentary on the Hells Angels' 50th anniversary. "They are a fascinating group of people," said Mike Mason, a producer for Sherman Oaks-based Triage Entertainment. "I want to tell the story in their voice." Triage, which will be in town to film an Oct. 10 benefit concert for the motorcycle group, will produce the documentary for the History Channel. Although George Christie Jr.

Remember those days growing up when the aroma of fine Virginia tobaccos would waft from your father's walnut-paneled den, where he would puff away on his meerschaum amid a sportsman's paradise of a room with fishing rods propped in the corner and the heads of big-game conquests mounted on the walls? Well, I don't either, but leave it to the History Channel to honor its traditional concept of Dear Old Dad with a week of specials aimed at the classic outdoorsman in his soul.

Who is buried in Grant's tomb? (See answer at the end of this column.) More people than you realize may not know the answer. Hence, this pitch for cable's History Channel on its six-month anniversary. Here is some recent history regarding history. A 1987 study of high school juniors by the Center for Assessment of Educational Progress in Princeton, N.J., concluded: * 32% did not know that Christopher Columbus reached the so-called "New World" before 1750.

Remember when fishing was television of last resort, revered by dedicated anglers but glimpsed only occasionally by others, perhaps as a joke or during a visit to Grandpa's? These days, fishing is officially hot: Discovery Channel recently announced that men ages 18 to 49 ranked "The Deadliest Catch" No. 3 among all prime-time television on Tuesday night, beating out "Dancing With the Stars" and "Shark" in the demographic. (How hilarious is it that a show called "Deadliest Catch" beat out a show called "Shark"?

Mark Burnett, one of the most prolific reality-show producers on television, is going from scorched earth to burning bush. The former military paratrooper who made his name in Hollywood with back-biting, take-no-prisoners programs such as "Survivor," now in its 26th season, and "Celebrity Apprentice," is tackling the Bible in a 10-hour miniseries that marks his first foray into the scripted genre. The show, which launches Sunday on History channel and runs on consecutive Sundays through Easter, covers the Old and New Testaments and cherry-picks some of the best-known stories from Genesis to Revelation.

Who would have thought that one of the world's most famous scientists finds time to take in a little television? Whether it's crime dramas or "The Simpsons," Stephen Hawking tunes in. He'd even like to participate in a certain popular dance reality competition. "I'm still waiting for my invitation to 'Dancing With the Stars,' " Hawking joked via a taped message at the Television Critics' Assn. press tour in Pasadena. Until then, he's part of the upcoming Discovery Channel special "Into the Universe With Stephen Hawking."