TELEVISION

Wednesday, December 11 DOWN TO THE SEA IN SHIPS (NBC, 10-11 p.m.).- Burgess Meredith narrates this special about man against the sea. It includes wind-whipped scenes of a schooner rounding Cape Horn, the voyage of the replica of the Mayflower, and two Englishmen's crossing of the North Atlantic in a 20-ft. rowboat.

Saturday, December 14 LIBERTY BOWL (ABC, 12 noon to 3:15 p.m.) Mississippi v. V.P.I, at Memphis.

WIDE WORLD OF SPORTS (ABC, 5-6:30 p.m.). Nino Benvenuti v. Don Fullmer in a 15-round World Middleweight Championship fight, live from San Remo, Italy.

Sunday, December 15

THE ETERNAL LIGHT (NBC, 12 noon-1 p.m.). In the first segment of a program observing the Jewish holiday Hanukkah, Metropolitan Opera Soprano Roberta Peters talks with music critics and Commentator Martin Bookspan about her travels in Israel. Part II, entitled "Habima 50," tells the story of the 50-year-old Israeli National Theater.

A.F.L DOUBLEHEADER (NBC, 1:30 p.m. to conclusion). New York Jets v. Miami Dolphins at Miami, followed by Oakland Raiders v. San Diego Chargers at San Diego.

THEATER

On Broadway

THE GREAT WHITE HOPE. James Earl Jones, as Jack Johnson, the first Negro heavyweight champion, roars through the role with jungle magnetism and the pride of a lion. Otherwise the semidocumentary succeeds only in easing the conscience without facing the tragedy of its story.

KING LEAR. The consummate skill of Lee J. Cobb has elevated Lear's pain into a kinship of the spirit. The play is by far the best work the Lincoln Center Repertory Theater has ever offered. It is distinguished by a supporting cast that truly supports, and is a tribute to the artistry of Director Gerald Freedman.

ZORBA. Producer-Director Hal Prince has turned out a non-Jewish version of Fiddler on the Roof. But this time Herschel Bernardi merely inhabits the hero's role rather than being possessed by it, and Maria Karnilova never quite provides the mixture of girlish coquetry and faded carnality that the role of Bouboulina requires. The music sounds as if it is being piped in by Muzak; the lyrics are insipid, the dances are any old folk.

MORNING, NOON AND NIGHT. A work billed as one play by three authors, Israel Horovitz, Terrence McNally and Leonard Melfi, is merely an umbrella covering three disparate statements. The play, like fanners, is best in the "morning."

Off Broadway

HUUI, HUUI by Anne Burr is no shining example of the playwright's art. But Producer-Director Joseph Papp of New York's Shakespeare Festival manages to make it bright enough to provide an evening of unusual interest. Barry Primus plays an eccentric loner with a father fixation, who utters "Huui, Huui" in moments of distress. Two women, charmed by his innocence, try to change him, but he eludes them only to meet final disillusionment.

SWEET EROS and WITNESS. Nudity is the theatrical vogue at the moment, and in the first of these two one-acters. Playwright Terrence McNally has his psychopathic hero strip Sally Kirkland to the buff and keep her that way. The second and better play is a caustic, comic look at a U.S. where feelings of impotence and venomous frustration translate themselves into the assassination of Presidents.

RECORDS

Music to Trim the Tree By