Picasso returns

TV viewers can rejoice in a delightfully anachronistic program about Picasso which airs Saturday night in the midst of what some observers are calling a CBS News ''glitzkrieg'' of soft news.

''Pablo Picasso: Once in a Lifetime'' (CBS, Saturday, 10-11 p.m.) is an electronic visit to the Museum of Modern Art's historic Picasso show of 1980. Written and produced by CBS veteran documentarian Perry Wolff, directed by Shareen Blair Brysac, narrated by Charles Kuralt, this peculiar (for TV) and straightforward show is simply a walking tour of the exhibition, with the museum's director of sculpture and painting, William Rubin, as your personal guide. You see the paintings from far off and the camera slowly zooms in on them , just as your eyes would if you were actually there.

Even if you were fortunate enough to have been there, even if you have seen the remarkable and definitive PBS Picasso documentary by Perry Miller Adato, ''Once in a Lifetime'' is quietly exciting viewing - the kind of cultural program we need more of on commercial TV.