?Sometimes you would draw these waves that were massive, and then you?d put a little tiny guy on them,? says Pearl Jam?s Eddie Vedder, recalling his long-ago classroom artistry. ?Well, Laird Hamilton was the guy that turned those notebook drawings into reality.?

?Eddie Vedder is a man, a father and the defender of rock ?n? roll,? says noted big-wave surfer Hamilton, adding: ?He surfs and he loves the ocean.?

Sounds like the start of a great friendship as these two come together for the second season debut of ?Iconoclasts?.

The six-part Sundance Channel series pairs off innovators from different fields who meet and spend time discussing their respective passions and creative techniques. Each one-hour episode, shot documentary-style, eavesdrops as they get to know each other ? or know each other better ? with each of them helping shed light on the other for the viewer.

In future weeks, dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov hangs out with author-chef Alice Waters; filmmaker Quentin Tarantino hooks up with singer-songwriter Fiona Apple; actress Isabella Rossellini spends time with entrepreneur and Segway inventor Dean Kamen; singer-songwriter Paul Simon shares some memories with ?Saturday Night Live? creator Lorne Michaels; and comedian Dave Chappelle has a few words with Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Maya Angelou.

?Iconoclasts,? executive-produced by Robert Redford, airs Thursdays at10 p.m.

Other shows this week to look out for:

Here?s a bloody good question: Are vampires real? Just in time for Halloween, National Geographic Channel sinks its teeth into this exploration, applying modern-day forensic science to probe the myths, sightings and viability of the centuries-old vampire legend. The program, ?Is It Real?: Vampires,? journeys to a remote village in Romania ? near the legendary home of Count Dracula ? where six men were arrested for cutting out a corpse?s heart and burning it after they saw a bloodstain around the corpse?s mouth.

In Las Vegas, a self-proclaimed modern-day vampire calmly draws his girlfriend?s blood and drinks it from a glass. He claims have had such a craving since childhood. Is there a scientific explanation for the vampire legends? When faced with illness or epidemic, did past generations blame the dead and exorcise them as vampires to save the living? Or do vampires actually exist among today? ?Is It Real?? airs 8 p.m. Monday.

When Louise Brown, the world?s first successful test-tube baby, was born in Great Britain on July 25, 1978, it was the culmination of a decade-long effort by Dr. Robert Edwards to conceive babies through in vitro fertilisation, or IVF.

Then, in 1980, Drs. Howard and Georgeanna Jones opened America?s first IVF clinic in Norfolk, Virginia, where, after more than a year of trial and error, their first success story, Elizabeth Carr, was born on December 28, 1981. Since then, millions of test-tube babies have been born worldwide. An ?American Experience? documentary, ?Test Tube Babies,? tells the story of this medical marvel (which was greeted with dread as well as wonder) as a precursor to the current debate over cloning and stem cell research. It airs on PBS at 10 p.m. Monday.

The DIY network has teamed up with syndicated talk-show host Dr. Phil McGraw to perform a home restoration for a victim of Hurricane Katrina. ?DIY to the Rescue: Katrina Rebuild? documents the labours of more than 75 volunteers who, led by DIY home improvement experts Amy Devers and Karl Champley, demolish and rebuild the residence of 78-year-old New Orleans native Marion Camp. The one-hour special airs 8 p.m. Thursday.

Also airing Thursday (check local listings) is an episode of ?Dr. Phil? featuring Devers and Champley, as well as Camp, a widowed mother of nine and grandmother of 13.

It?s a new season for Showtime?s ?Masters of Horror,? which sets loose 13 directors of acclaimed horror films to create spine-tingling hour episodes for this weekly anthology series.

First up: Tobe Hooper (?The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,? ?Poltergeist?) directs ?The Damned Thing,? the tale of an unknown monstrous force descending on a small Texas town that turns the locals against one another. Future episodes will be directed by John Carpenter (?Halloween?), John Landis (?American Werewolf in London?), Joe Dante (?Gremlins?) and more. It airs on Friday at 11 p.m.