WORTH NOTING ON TV

* THURSDAY

Our Favorite Movies: ``TV Talkers'' (TNT, 8-10:40 p.m.): Airing great old films is fine with me: They need no special showcasing. Yet this program's format - using well-known people to introduce and comment on their favorite films - adds a worthwhile dimension.

The nine celebrity hosts in the upcoming round are ``themed'': They're all TV talk-show types. Dennis Miller begins the series with his choice, ``Citizen Kane,'' the 1941 movie directed by and starring Orson Welles. Miller makes comic comments about its pop reputation as ``the greatest film of all time,'' but remembers seeing it for the first time and ``thinking it was probably the best film I'd ever seen.''

The eight other hosts include Larry King on Feb. 23 (``2001: A Space Odyssey'') and Bob Costas on March 9 (``Sweet Smell of Success'').

Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious Universe (The Discovery Channel, 8-8:30 p.m.): It's good to see that TV still has room for that tried-and-true entertainment staple: scientific and historical curiosity-seeking. Programs pop up perennially, for instance, about the Bermuda Triangle, where ships are said to have disappeared without explanation.

Clarke's contribution to the tradition is this series, and ``Prehistoric Puzzles'' offers some oddities like the brochs of Scotland, strange stone towers that were built, archaeologists think, between 500 and 800 years ago. The show also considers structures - some of them nine feet tall - on the Plain of Jars in Laos, and other mysteries. * SATURDAY

USA Track and Field Indoor Series (NBC, 4-5 p.m.): Some of the world's top names are scheduled to compete in this major indoor meet, among them Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Heike Drechsler in the long jump; Quincy Watts in the 400 meters; Maksim Tarasov in the pole vault; and sprinters Dennis Mitchell, Gwen Torrence, and Gail Devers.

Held in New York's Madison Square Garden, it's the 88th session of the games.

Please check local listings for these programs.