Wed., Dec. 27

The Bob Newhart Show (NBC, 10-10:30 p.m.).* Singer Joanie Sommers is Newhart's guest.

The United States Steel Hour (CBS, 10-11 p.m.). Mona Freeman and Barry Morse star in "The Bitter Sex," about a happy marriage threatened by greed.

David Brinkley's Journal (NBC, 10:30-11 p.m.). Brinkley visits rehearsals for new Broadway musical, Subways Are for Sleeping. Color.

Thurs., Dec. 28

Years of Crisis (CBS, 10-11 p.m.). Traditional year-end news review with CBS news staffers brought from their posts around the world.

Fri., Dec. 29

Eyewitness to History (CBS, 10:30-11 p.m.). Walter Cronkite is anchorman for a live, taped and filmed report on the top news story of the week.

Sat., Dec. 30

Blue and Grey All-Star Game (NBC, 1:45 p.m. to end). Twenty-fourth annual game comes from Montgomery.

The Gator Bowl (CBS, 2 p.m. to end). Penn State plays Georgia Tech in Jacksonville.

East-West Shrine Game (NBC, 4:45 p.m. to end). Thirty-seventh annual game, from San Francisco.

Sun., Dec. 31

Lamp unto My Feet (CBS, 10-10:30 a.m.). A report on the work of the great, recently rediscovered medieval artist, Gislebertus, "Sculptor of Autun."

Let Freedom Ring (CBS, 3-4 p.m.). Richard Boone, Laraine Day, Dan O'Herlihy and Howard Keel, with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in a program of inspirational music from Salt Lake City.

The Twentieth Century (CBS, 6-6:30 p.m.). Walter Cronkite interviews Jazzman Dave Brubeck to the tune of music by Brubeck's Quartet.

Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color (NBC, 7:30-8:30 p.m.). Tonight's show features "The Goofy Cavalcade of Sports." Color.

Mon., Jan. 1, 1962

The Tournament of Roses Parade (CBS NBC, 11:30 a.m.-1:45 p.m.). The annual Big Parade from Pasadena. Color (NBC only).

The Orange Bowl Game (ABC, 12:45 to end). Colorado plays L.S.U. in Miami.

The Sugar Bowl Game (NBC, 1:45 to end). Alabama plays Arkansas in New Orleans. Color.

The Cotton Bowl Game (CBS, 2:15 to end). Texas plays Mississippi in Dallas.

The Rose Bowl Game (NBC, 4:45 to end). Minnesota plays U.C.L.A. in Pasadena. Color.

Tues., Jan. 2

Alcoa Premiere (ABC, 10-10:30 p.m.). Shelley Winters stars in a play, "The Cake Baker," introduced and narrated by Fred Astaire.

THEATER

On Broadway

A Man for All Seasons, by Robert Bolt, might have taken its theme from a line of Shakespeare's: "Every subject's duty is the king's, but every subject's soul is his own." As the subject, Sir Thomas More, Actor Paul Scofield is flawless.

Gideon, by Paddy Chayefsky, enlarges on the Biblical tale with more humor than exaltation, but the acting of Fredric March and Douglas Campbell supplies the necessary power and glory.

^ The Complaisant Lover, by Graham Greene, treats love, marriage and adultery lightly but not frivolously.

Write Me a Murder, by Frederick Knott. In this thriller, a murderer writes a letter-perfect crime and almost commits it, but justice beats out literature by a noose.

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying is a musicomedy with a mind (Author Abe Burrows). But its body and soul is Actor Robert Morse, who polishes off everybody but his grandmother in a great grinning rush to the top of the corporate heap.

A Shot in the Dark, adapted by Harry Kurnitz from a Paris hit, is a bed-and-courtroom farce in which Julie Harris raises laughs, eyebrows and an occasional lump in the throat.

The Caretaker, by Harold Pinter, holds a mirror up to two strange brothers and a verminous tramp, and in it an audience can read humorous and heartbreaking truths about the human condition.

Off Broadway

2 by Saroyan mates Talking to You, a one-act parable of Good and Evil, with Across the Board on Tomorrow Morning, a hilarious serving of prime Saroyantics.

Misalliance, by George Bernard Shaw. That old boulevardier of the intellect, G.B.S., loved to wear ideas like carnations. Unlike carnations, few of the ideas in this 1910 buttonhole have withered.

Best Sellers

FICTION

1. Franny and Zooey, Salinger (1, last week)

2. The Agony and the Ecstasy, Stone (2)

3. To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee (3)

4. Chairman of the Bored, Streeter (5)

5. Little Me, Dennis (7)

6. The Carpetbaggers, Robbins (4)

7. Spirit Lake, Kantor (6)

8. Daughter of Silence, West

9. The Judas Tree, Cronin (8)

10. A Prologue to Love, Caldwell

NONFICTION

1. My Life in Court, Nizer (4)

2. The Making of the President 1960, White (3)

3. A Nation of Sheep, Lederer (2)

4. Citizen Hearst, Swanberg (5)

5. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Shirer (6)

6. I Should Have Kissed Her More, King (7)

7. Living Free, Adamson (1)

8. The New English Bible

9. The Coming Fury, Catton (8)

10. Larousse Gastronomique, Montagne (10)

* All times E.S.T.

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