He’s the kid who taught a world of youngsters how to spell “aardvark” — and that’s not all.

He’s Arthur, the 8-year-old aardvark with Philip Johnson glasses, who’s back for a new season on OPB with his animated trans-species community of friends.

One of five new episodes of “Arthur” premiering this fall (with five more debuting next spring), Monday’s edition has an election-year theme — plus a guest appearance (in cartoon form) by Lance Armstrong.

In a nutshell: Arthur’s pal Binky (a willful bulldog) wants bike lanes installed in Elwood City, and he hits on the idea of persuading voters to adopt the plan in the upcoming election.

As always, “Arthur” is funny, charming and full of bright ideas. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at 4 p.m.

What else to watch

“The Chef Jeff Project” Food Network, 10 tonight

Chef Jeff Henderson has cooked up a strategy for helping six troubled young adults: Help them beat the odds stacked against them by pursuing their passion for cooking on a new Food Network series. For instance, Alonzo sees the culinary world as his only way of avoiding a world of trouble on the streets. Katherine, who grew up a devout Christian but turned to drugs, has gone through rehab and is now channeling her energies into food preparation. They are two members of “the Crew,” Chef Jeff’s team working under his careful supervision at his Los Angeles-based catering company, Posh Urban Cuisine. As a former prison inmate who served time for selling cocaine, the South Central L.A. native has personal history to draw from as well as food expertise. He remade himself into an award-winning chef, prosperous businessman and best-selling writer. Now “The Chef Jeff Project” will see if he can help make history repeat itself for “the Crew.”

“The Choice 2008” OPB, 9 p.m. Tuesday

“Frontline” first aired a profile of presidential candidates during the 1988 race, and “The Choice” has been a quadrennial part of “Frontline’s” political coverage ever since. Now “The Choice 2008” examines the journeys of Barack Obama and John McCain in a two-hour special airing 9 p.m. Tuesday on OPB. The saga begins at the Democratic Convention four years ago when Obama, a little-known candidate for U.S. Senate, galvanizes his listeners with his call for the nation to move beyond partisan politics.

Then, at the Republican Convention, self-described maverick McCain defends the national security policy of the Bush administration, with which he had sometimes clashed in the Senate. For McCain, the goal was “to make himself more acceptable to the party base without completely surrendering his outsider independent persona,” says Mark McKinnon, a member of his inner circle, “and that was a very complex balancing act.” The long road that has brought these challengers to the campaign’s home stretch is retraced by “The Choice.”

“The War Room” Sundance, 10:30 p.m. Monday

In their groundbreaking documentary “The War Room,” Chris Hegedus and DA Pennebaker trained their cameras on the command center of Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential race, making stars of political innovators James Carville, George Stephanopoulos, Paul Begala and Dee Dee Myers. Sundance Channel offers a look back at the stumbles, scandals and eventual triumph of Clinton’s challenge to President George H.W. Bush in a pair of films airing Monday. At 10:30 p.m., it’s “The War Room.” But at 9 p.m., a new film — “The Return of the War Room” — revisits these politicos today, two presidents later.