Don't laugh, I've used a DVD drive until now

First question... the white RCA is not the one carrying the sound I want - could hear nothing but a beat. But I put in the red RCA and I hear the track I want.

Will the TV blow up or something if I put a red RCA cable on the white RCA cable jack? (I once almost blew up a phone for connecting it in the wrong place in another country).

Second question... My TV and VCR have one RCA jack - the white one. Is there something I can pick up at Radio Shack that will combine the two into one?

Thanks!
Well I was wrong both RCA outputs give me music, no dialog. Where is the dialog? The red and white RCA are connected to the corresponding Out jacks in the back of the DVD player and then to the In of the TV. The TV only has the white In, and I alternate both and all I hear is the background music, no dialog.

Help!

Those are analog stereo audio outputs. The white is the left channel (what would come out of the left speaker of a stereo) and the red is the right channel. You won't blow anything up, you would just hear sounds coming from the wrong sides.

Radio shack sells a Y-adapter than will combine the two into one for a mono input. You would need an adapter with two female ends leading to one male end. The male end would plug into the white jack on the TV, then the red and white cables would plug into the two female ends.

As far as not hearing dialog, I don't know what to tell you. The player should be downmixing the soundtracks. Maybe check your player's set-up menu (the actual player menu, not a DVD menu) and see if there is an option to turn off the surround or otherwise mix the audio.

Also, you don't want to connect any of this through a VCR. If you do, the Macrovision copy protection will be triggered, even if you aren't trying to record the DVD.

From the manual:

"You should turn off "CENTER", "SURRND" and "SUBW" in the "DVD Setup Menu", else you can't hear speech.

You've got to love those owner's manuals!

I'm confused, if you're using an RCA cable, don't you have white, red AND yellow jacks/inputs?

Yes, but that one was no problem I can match colors, but not when some are missing Since the yellow (video) wasn't an issue I didn't bring it up.