WORTH NOTING ON TV

* THURSDAY

CBS Reports: Victory in the Pacific (CBS, 9-11 p.m.): Since 1991, when it aired a special marking the 50th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, ''CBS Reports'' has been offering programs covering aspects of World War II. The fifth and last in the series is this wide-angled look at the battles fought in the Pacific, the creation and dropping of the atomic bomb, and other events - including social and cultural conditions - leading up to the Japanese surrender 50 years ago this month.

Dan Rather and retired Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf - the latter an old media hand by now - visited many of the sites - islands like Wake Island, Peleliu, Saipan, and Tinian, and cities like Hiroshima, where the first atomic bomb was dropped.

The Japanese also allowed the two on Iwo Jima, which has been mainly off limits to visitors for two years.

The show also airs home movies showing the internment of Japanese-Americans during the war. Lots of period radio coverage is used, and some nine months were spent by the producers going through combat film from the National Archives in Washington, D.C. - much more of it in color than most people realize.

The tone is that of an overview of known facts, but if there's a revelation, it's the horror of the campaign in Manila, where some 100,000 civilians died while the Americans fought the Japanese.

It Came From the '80s

(MTV,10-10:30 p.m.): If pop stars like the Thompson Twins, Men at Work, and Quiet Riot don't ring a bell with you at the moment, they will after watching this revisit to the pop music of the 1980s.

Once belittled, sounds of that decade are now being revived, as seen in new albums by Duran Duran, Boy George, Human League, and others. In this documentary, current interviews and lots of evocative clips recall some of the more eccentric artists of that time and remind viewers of their special sounds.

Please check local listings for these programs.