WORTH NOTING ON TV

* FRIDAY

An American Profile (C-Span, 6:30-7:15 p.m.): The program looks at Rep. David Bonoir (D) of Michigan. * SATURDAY

The Homecoming: a Christmas Story (CBS, 10 a.m. to noon): It's the Christmas season's ``Easter Parade'' - a well-loved production regularly re-aired at the appropriate time of year and faithfully viewed by enough people to motivate the network to keep bringing it back.

Originally telecast in 1971, the credibly acted story focuses on John-Boy Walton - played by the young Richard Thomas - a would-be writer in West Virginia during the 1930s who is waiting with his family for the return of his father on Christmas Eve, 1933. The film gave rise to ``The Waltons,'' a long-running CBS series (1972-1981) that offered a refuge of decency and family stability amid the sexually permissive, socially fragmented image purveyed by many - though not all - of the period's prime-time formats. * MONDAY

The Metropolitan Opera Presents (PBS, 8-10:30 p.m.): ``Stiffelio,'' an important Verdi opera largely neglected for nearly 150 years, has become a notable Met production. The original libretto tells of a Protestant minister (Stiffelio) whose wife has an affair with a younger man, leading to anguish, a murder, and Christian forgiveness. Nineteenth-century censors demanded so many changes after the work's 1850 premiere that Verdi finally abandoned half the score and turned the other half into another opera, ``Ardoldo,'' first done in 1857.

The Met's authentic version - using autograph manuscripts only recently released by the Verdi family - debuted in October. With James Levine conducting, Placido Domingo assumes the title role, Sharon Sweet is his wife, Vladimir Chernov her father, Paul Plishka Riberi a pastor, and Peter Riberi is the wife's lover.

Taped last month, the TV performance is sung in Italian with English subtitles. It will be ``stereo-simulcast'' on many radio stations.

Please check local listings for these programs, including radio simulcasts of `Stiffelio.'