television

TUESDAY

8:30 p.m.-The Old Man Who Cried Wolf. Edward G. Robinson's superb performance as a 70-year-old man who witnesses his friend's murder makes an otherwise lackluster plot and script better than bearable. The commentary concerning old age and septuagenarian wisdom is heavy-handed, but the tour-deforce by Robinson is worth the watching. Channel 5.

9:30 p.m.-H.M.S. Pinafore. Perhaps the most delightful of Gilbert and Sullivan's works, excerpted and discussed by the Opera Theatre of Kent State University. The highlights are certain to include sweet little buttercup, the admiral of the queen's navy who polished the brass so carefully, and the song in praise of the beautiful, saucy Pinafore. Channel 2.

11:30 p.m.-On the Town. A classic in the song and dance extravaganzas of the late forties and early fifties, with Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra hoofing and crooning their way through "New York, New York, it's a wonderful town." Residents of the Big Apple should get a charge out of the peaches and cream idyllic presentation of their city, as no smog or muggers can stand in the way of a couple of sailors on liberty. Ann Miller is what they are after, and Lenny Bernstein and Roger Edens set the mood music. Channel 7.

WEDNESDAY

8 p.m.-Flesh and the Devil. A story of passionate seduction and abandonment, with the legendary Greta Garbo as the sultry and mysterious lover of John Gilbert. This 1926 film sent waves of controversy throughout the entire industry, and it influenced romantic movies for years to come. Channel 2.

11:30 p.m.-Lonely Are the Brave. Kirk Douglas stars in a story of an old-fashioned cowboy caught in the gaping maw of mechanization and impersonalized society. The symbolism ranges from movingly sensitive to absurdly overstated, and the ending is painfully obvious, although not out of place. Walter Matthau is the country sherrif who has little desire to contribute to the immoral badgering of a man whom he respects in a more atavistic than human way, but he is too much a part of the oppression to remove himself from it. Matthau's commentary as he watches the same dog take a leak on the same fire hydrant day after day is perhaps the high point of the film. Gena Rowlands is Douglas's consort, and is strong and convincing in a small role. Channel 3, unfortunately.

THURSDAY

4:30 p.m.-Funny Face. The incomparable Fred Astaire gliding through the world of high fashion photography with the effortless ease he made famous. Audrey Hepburn is his lovely leading lady, and George and Ira Gershwin set the musical mood as they did for Gene Kelly in American in Paris, which is slated for telecasting on Monday. Channel 10.

8 p.m.-Abraham Lincoln. D. W. Griffith, acknowledged master of the silent screen and father of the American film industry, made his sound film debut with an account of Lincoln's life. The film moves through the Lincoln legend in episodes, with Walter Huston portraying the railsplitter President in a very convincing fashion. Channel 2.

11:30 p.m.-Damn Yankees. The unlikely mixture of music, baseball, and the Faust legend is sheer delight. Gwen Verdon demonstrates why Lola gets exactly what she wants, and a pre-Martian Ray Walston makes a slippery devil. Natives of Washington, D.C., enjoy this film more than any other viewers, for it is only those maligned sufferers who have spent hundreds of nights listening to the Senators lose and waiting for the cool Canadian air masses to move in who have considered selling their souls for an air conditioner and just one win over the Yankees, not to mention a pennant. Channel 7.