WORTH NOTING ON TV
This guide is designed to alert readers to the scope and variety of programming. Listing is not meant to represent blanket endorsement. Viewers are urged to be selective. FRIDAY Barbara Mandrell's Christmas (CBS, 8-9 p.m.): Louise, Irlene, Mom, and Dad join Barbara in a musical family reunion. Hurricane Irene: Music For Peace (WTBS/cable, approx. 10:20 p.m.-12:20 a.m., after basketball game): Tokyo concert combines music and statements by peace movement leaders.
SATURDAY The Room (ABC, 10-11 p.m.): Harold Pinter's cryptic play about a strange couple receiving four visitors. Linda Hunt and Donald Pleasance star. Tibet: The Bamboo Curtain Falls (A&E/cable, 9-10 p.m.): Documentary on China's 1950 invasion of this Himalayan stronghold.
SUNDAY Creole Giselle (NBC, 4:30-6 p.m.): Transplanted to 19th-century Louisiana, Arthur Mitchell's Dance Theatre of Harlem performs a new version of this classical romantic ballet. The Next President (Syndicated/check local listings for time and station): David Frost interviews candidate Richard Gebhardt in fifth of 13-week series on presidential candidates.
MONDAY The Other Olympic Game (ABC, 8-9 p.m.): ABC News Closeup probes the East-West political struggle behind the Olympics. Solti at 75: A Celebration (PBS, 9-10 p.m.): Kiri Te Kanawa, Pl`acido Domingo, and many others celebrate Sir Georg Solti's 75th birthday. Roman Holiday (NBC, 9-11 p.m.): Catherine Oxenberg and Tom Conti in a remake of the Audrey Hepburn-Gregory Peck classic. Fine for those who don't remember the original. Young Storytellers in Russia (PBS, 10-11 p.m.): US and USSR children exchange storytelling skills.
TUESDAY The Politics of Food (PBS, 9-11 p.m.): A worldwide investigation of the real reasons for hunger in the midst of plenty.
WEDNESDAY From 7 to 28 Up (PBS, 8-10:30 p.m.): An up-to-date look at the participants in a 1964 program on the ambitions of young people. The 10th Annual Kennedy Center Honors (CBS, 9-11 p.m.): Perry Como, Bette Davis, Sammy Davis Jr., Nathan Milstein, and Alwin Nikolais are celebrated in television's predictably finest awards program.
THURSDAY Live From Lincoln Center (PBS, 8-10 p.m.): New York Philharmonic New Year's Eve concert with Kathleen Battle and the Boys Choir of Harlem, conducted by Zubin Mehta. Happy New Year USA (PBS, 10 p.m. on): Harry Anderson and Mel Torm'e in a night of jazz and other Americana music. New Year's Rockin' Eve '88 (ABC, 11:30 p.m. on): Dick Clark, still in Times Square with more of the same. Let's go to bed now!
Please check listings for all PBS programs.
