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 Nureyev's Cinderella (PBS, 9-11:30 p.m.): Art Deco-era Hollywood is the setting for a new version of this story on ``Great Performances,'' choreographed and danced by Nureyev and the Paris Op'era Ballet to Prokofiev's music.
SATURDAY A Peter, Paul, and Mary Holiday Concert (PBS, 9-11 p.m.): The folk trio taped this special - full of Christmas carols - in New York City with the New York Choral Society.
SUNDAY The Tenth Man (CBS, 9-11 p.m.): This TV dramatization of Graham Greene's renowned if often grim story of a wrongly condemned man stars Anthony Hopkins, Derek Jacobi, and Kristin Scott Thomas. Silent Mouse (PBS, 7-8 p.m.): How a boy's pet mouse aided the writing of ``Silent Night'' is the basis of a story taped in Austria and Czechoslovakia. The Nature of Australia (PBS, 8-9 p.m.): This island continent's outback may have a parched image, but the place teems with life, as seen in ``The Sunburnt Country.''
MONDAY Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (CBS, 8-9 p.m.): Call it a sign of the season - if a little premature. This traditional re-airing of the well-loved Christmas story about the spurned-reindeer-turned-hero is narrated by Burl Ives and features puppets who move via ``dimensional animation.''
TUESDAY Moonlighting (ABC, 9-10 p.m.): Season premi`ere of the much-discussed, semiplayful ``private eye'' series starring Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd. Thirtysomething (ABC, 10-11 p.m.): The season premi`ere for this comedy-drama series for the yuppie generation. American Experience (PBS, 9-10 p.m.): The rhythm-and-blues sound is so basic to rock, it's worth reminding people where it came from - a historically segregated black American culture. ``That Rhythm, Those Blues'' looks at a group that performed the music before it was mainstreamed.
WEDNESDAY The Nutcracker (PBS, 10:30 p.m.-midnight): Baryshnikov choreographed this American Ballet Theatre production - first aired six years ago - to music by Tchaikovsky. He dances the role of the Nutcracker-Prince, with Gelsey Kirkland as Clara.
THURSDAY A Christmas Special with Luciano Pavarotti (PBS, 8-9 p.m.): Viewers have been talking about this program since its first airing eight years ago, and here it is again. The great tenor sings with children's groups in a majestic Montreal cathedral.
Schedules may vary in some time zones. Please check local listings, especially for PBS, where individual stations often air programs on differing days and times.
