WORTH NOTING ON TV

This guide is designed to alert readers to the scope and variety of programming coming up. Listing is not meant to represent blanket endorsement. Viewers are urged to be selective. FRIDAY

Cathy (CBS, 8:30-9 p.m.): The widely syndicated cartoon strip about the struggles of a young, single career woman gets its first animated special. Created and written by the cartoonist, Cathy Guisewite.

Great Performances (PBS, 9-11 p.m., check local listings): ``Quartermaine's Terms'' is a touching drama set in a British school for teaching English to foreigners. [Reviewed at belower left.]

SUNDAY

ABC Sunday Night Movie, (9-11:46 p.m.): ``Silkwood'' - network debut of the film drama, nominated for five Oscars, which tells of a defiant young woman who contends with the authorities of a plutonium processing plant before her mysterious death. Starring Meryl Streep, directed by Mike Nichols.

MONDAY

Happy Birthday Hollywood (ABC, 8-11 p.m.): Film capital's 100th anniversary is marked with a mammoth production that celebrates film history through music, dance, historic footage, and appearances by some 150 personalities who appear amid more than 30 set changes.

American Playhouse (PBS, 9-11 p.m.): ``Gal Young 'Un'' is a dramatization of the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings story - laid in Florida's piney back woods.

TUESDAY

The American Comedy Awards (ABC, 9-11 p.m.): First awards show of its kind devoted to comedy in its many forms.

WEDNESDAY

Diana Ross ... Red Hot Rhythm & Blues (ABC, 9-10 p.m.): In this musical-dramatic special, the singer follows the evolution of rhythm and blues via flashbacks, paying tribute along the way to artists who have inspired her.

Grizzly: The Shining Mountain (PBS, 10:30-11 p.m., check local listings): A look at the dwindling population of grizzlies - in Yellowstone National Park, California, and Alaska - and how they are affected by a familiar issue concerning their threatened habitat: preserve or develop.

THURSDAY

Moyers: In Search of the Constitution (PBS, 8-9 p.m.): ``God and the Constitution'' - Moyers's two guests: Martin E. Marty, professor of the history of modern Christianity at the University of Chicago, president-elect of the American Academy of Religion, and senior editor of Christian Century magazine; and Leonard W. Levy, professor of humanities and history at the Claremont graduate school, and editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of the American Constitution.

Listings are in Eastern time; other zones may vary. Please check listings for all PBS programs, since local option often results in different days and times.