WORTH NOTING ON TV

* FRIDAY

French Open (NBC, 10 a.m.-1 p.m., EDT): The men's semifinal of the tennis tournament, from the Roland Garros Stadium in Paris.

NBA final (NBC, 9-11:30 p.m, EDT): In Game 2 of the pro-basketball championship, the defending-champion Houston Rockets play the Orlando Magic at Orlando's Arena.

...talking with David Frost (PBS, 9-10 p.m.): It's a happy match of subject and interviewer: the chatty British host and the renowned French explorer, Jacques Cousteau.

Taped in Cousteau's headquarters in Paris and airing two days before his 85th birthday, the program gives Cousteau time to discuss his legendary career of ocean exploration and allied projects. Even though Cousteau's work has resulted in more than 100 films and TV specials, and more than 80 books (as well as three Academy Awards and three Emmys), the man remains one of the few people around with an authentic mystique of faraway places.

Yes, viewers do get to see some goodies - picked by Cousteau himself - from his films, footage that ranges from Antarctica to the Amazon. He also offers a preview of the launching of "Calypso II," the new, high-tech version of the famed vessel seen in so many recorded Cousteau adventures.

Cousteau also talks with typical toughness and insight about world ecology.

On Sunday, viewers can catch up with Cousteau's latest project, on Madagascar (see following item).

* SUNDAY

Madagascar: Island of Heart and Soul (TBS, 10-11 p.m.): On Jacques Cousteau's 85th birthday, the first of a two-part documentary finds the explorer-researcher and his team on Madagascar, probing jungles encircled by a huge rock formation called the Ankarana range. Among other discoveries, they happen upon what the show calls the world's rarest mammal, a small lemur with a rodent's snout and batlike ears.

Please check local listings for these programs.