TELEVISION

Wednesday, March 27 DREAM HOUSE (ABC, 8:30-9 p.m.).*Spectator gamesmen who have become bored with all those other competitions can turn to the latest TV giveaway and watch some lucky participant win a furnished $40,000 house. A daytime version of the show will begin Monday, April 1, at 1 p.m. Premiere.

Friday, March 29

HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS (CBS, 7:30-8:30 p.m.). The clown prince of basketball, Meadowlark Lemon, leads his team against the Washington Generals in one more display of the Trotters' court comedy.

HALLMARK HALL OF FAME (NBC, 9:30-11 p.m.). James Daly, Kim Hunter and Dennis King star in Henry Denker's "Give Us Barabbas," a story of the condemned thief who was chosen to be freed instead of Jesus. Repeat.

Saturday, March 30

ABC'S WIDE WORLD OF SPORTS (ABC, 5-6:30 p.m.). The Sebring Twelve-Hour Grand Prix of Endurance and the N.C.A.A. Swimming Championships from Dartmouth College.

Sunday, March 31

NBC EXPERIMENT IN TELEVISION (NBC, 4:30-5:30 p.m.). An elderly couple worries because they have no heir for their one cherished possession in "To Wally Pantoni We Leave a Credenza."

NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC YOUNG PEOPLE'S CONCERTS (CBS, 4:30-5:30 p.m.). In the third concert for the season, Leonard Bernstein presents three new young soloists: a 14-year-old cellist, Lawrence Foster, and 17-year-old identical twins Martin and Steven Vann in a piano duet.

THE 215T CENTURY (CBS, 6-6:30 p.m.). "Can We Live to be 100?" is an examination of advances in medical science that promise to prolong life.

Tuesday, April 2

PETULA (NBC, 8-9 p.m.). A musical special with Petula Clark and her guest Harry Belafonte.

Check local listings for dates and times of these NET and Sports Network specials:

YOUR DOLLAR'S WORTH. Examination of that seasonal topic, "Taxes and Loop holes." Internal Revenue Commissioner Sheldon Cohen and a battery of economists, politicians, lawyers, tax experts, auditors and plain old taxpayers offer advice on filing returns.

CITIES OF THE WORLD. NET embarks on a series of tours of five famous cities. First stop: "Mary McCarthy's Paris," where the novelist points out not only landmarks but also the problems of living and working in the City of Light.

NET PLAYHOUSE (shown on Fridays). A British version of Dr. Knock, French Dramatist Jules Remains' good-natured spoof of the medical profession, which has be come a modern French classic.

NET JOURNAL (shown on Mondays). "Men Against Cancer" follows leading British scientists and doctors from microscope to computer to weekly seminar in their search for a cure for the disease now responsible for one in every five deaths.

JESSE OWENS RETURNS TO BERLIN (Sports Network). Recollection of the dramatic 1936 Olympics and its sullen host Hitler, as U.S. Negro Trackman Owens wins four gold medals.

THEATER

On Broadway

PORTRAIT OF A QUEEN is part dear-diary journal and part dusty political imbroglios, but mostly a record of a woman who also happened to be Queen Victoria. Dorothy Tutin wears the role like a tiara, moving from a spoiled child of power to a yielding, sensuous wife to a desolate widow with the fatigue of existence in her voice.

PLAZA SUITE. If hotel walls had ears--and Neil Simon's comic prowess--they might tell tales as mirth-provoking as these three one-act plays. Directed by Mike Nichols, Suite manages to exercise the funny bone while keeping a sympathetic finger on the human pulse.

THE PRICE. Arthur Miller again walks the treadmill of filial duties and familial guilts as two brothers (Pat Hingle and Ar-ijf thur Kennedy) meet in the attic of their former home to evaluate the monetary price of their possessions and the existential cost of their choices.

JOE EGG. Peter Nichols takes audacious risks in his play about a couple with a spastic child, putting an innately tragic situation through vaudevillian turns. Albert Finney and Zena Walker make the transitions between clowning and enduring with skill and taste.

ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD. British Playwright Tom Stoppard has chosen Hamlet's scapegoats to get across his metaphysical message regarding the futility of many lives and the inevitability of death. He is well served by the adept acting of Brian Murray and John Wood and the dynamic direction of Derek Goldby.

THE APA has three offerings thus far this season: Pantagleize. a fantastic farce by the Belgian Michel de Ghelderode; Exit the King, lonesco's stark philosophical play about death; and The Show Off, George Kelly's soft-spoken domestic drama of 1924. They make a bright dramatic palette.

RECORDS

Jazz

Today's bestselling records are often those that swing between the unexpected melodies and compelling beat of pure jazz, and the smooth, sweet, familiar harmonies of pop. Some recent successful hybrids:

WES MONTGOMERY: A DAY IN THE LIFE (A & M). Long a top jazz guitarist, Montgomery acquired new status and a wider audience with his first jazz-pop success, California Dreaming. Once more, with arrangements by . Don Sebesky, Wes has toned down his improvisations and tuned up a fleet of strings to accompany his standard rhythm section of piano, bass and drums. The result is a polished, gently swinging kind of music with a particularly polite but still identifiable Montgomery guitar.

JIMMY SMITH: I'M MOVIN' ON (Blue Note). A peerless organist, Smith deftly fingers and foots his way through some of the smoothest soul this side of Albert Schweitzer. Neatly propelled by Drummer Donald Bailey and spelled by Grant Green's guitar solos, Smith handily consoles his listeners in I'm Movin' On and Back Talk, a surpassing burst of blues.

LOU DONALDSON: MR. SHING-A-LING (Blue Note). Following the success of his Alligator Bogaloo, Donaldson now applies his jazz alto, accompanied by trumpet, organ, guitar and drums, to such recent familiars as The Shadow of Your Smile and Ode to Billie Joe. Since he never wanders far from the melody on these tunes, those who get lost easily in jazz improvisation need not fear for their direction. More venturesome listeners may feel that Donaldson has settled for a too-safe format.

ERROLL GARNER: THAT'S MY KICK (MGM). Pianist Garner's secret ingredient is gusto. It has long since earned him recognition from both pop and jazz fans, and on this record he demonstrates why. In addition to guitar, bongos, bass and drums, he is accompanied by a distinctively Garner rhythm device that the album cover aptly describes as the "swinging-grunt"--emphatic guttural sounds that express his exuberance at playing uptempo. The effect is to put fresh magic into his renditions of // Ain't Necessarily So, Autumn Leaves and More.

HUGH MASEKELA IS ALIVE AND WELL AT THE WHISKEY (Universal City). The doughty South African expatriate trumpeter mixes jazz and rock with a generous quotient of his native folk music. Vistas of the veld spill out of his trumpet in Mra and from his scratchy singing voice in Ha Lese Le Di Khanna, a cattle-herding song. Little Miss Sweetness leans on the rock side. The most infectious track is Up Up and Away, which Masekela rescues from the TWA commercial and instills with a zestful buoyancy.

GARY BURTON QUARTET: LOFTY FAKE ANAGRAM (RCA Victor). Despite its put-on-pop title, this album is a persuasive blend of jazz and pop. Burton's mallets dance over the vibes knocking out masterly, improvised melodies. Occasionally he forays into the fugue, as in Lines, where Larry Coryell's country-blues guitar plays an especially effective counterpoint. Steve Swallow on bass provides a mellow underpinning, while Drummer Bobby Moses adds cymbal-splashes of color. On swiftly paced tracks such as June the 15, 1967, their rapid notes become a braided stream of bright sound.

ClNEMA

THE QUEENS. Italy seems to make a cinematic specialty out of confecting De-cameron-like clusters of shorts from spun-out risque jokes. This is one of the best examples of the genre--with feral Monica Vitti, delectable Claudia Cardinale and regal Capucine.

UP THE JUNCTION. Another London slum saga based on a novel by Nell Dunn (Poor Cow) is saved from its pulpy sociology by Director Peter Collinson's extraordinary spirit of place, and Actress Suzy Kendall's widening range of talent.

THE TWO OF US. Writer-Director Claude Berri tells the simple tale of the love of a small Jewish boy and an old anti-Semitic Frenchman without jerking a tear, hoking a climax, or ringing in the alarums that a World War II setting has ready at hand.

THE GRADUATE. Mike Nichols' second screen effort begins as genuine comedy, but soon degenerates into spurious melodrama, although Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft and Katharine Ross do an excellent job as victims of a sophomoric love triangle.

THE PRODUCERS. Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder play two Broadway producers in this disjointed movie, which, in spite of its many faults, occasionally rises to classic comic heights.

BOOKS

Best Reading

RICHARD WRIGHT, by Constance Webb. Using previously unpublished material, Miss Webb, a close friend of the late Negro novelist, tracks Wright's career from poverty in Mississippi to fame and prestige in Paris.

THE RETURN OF THE VANISHING AMERICAN, by Leslie A. Fiedler. Ever the academic gadfly, Fiedler argues entertainingly that the Indian is the central figure in American mythology and that his spiritual heir is today's hippie.

THE GHOST IN THE MACHINE, by Arthur Koestler. A reasoned diatribe against the hubris of the scientific establishment; its horizons, says the author, have outstretched its vision.

COCKSURE, by Mordecai Richler. Few sacred cows are left contented in this savage farce about mass culture and intellectual pretense, which turns on the proposition that the minority victimizes the majority.

THE HOLOCAUST, by Nora Levin; and WHILE SIX MILLION DIED, by Arthur D. Morse. The familiar chronicling of Nazi terror against European Jewry takes a grim turn closer to home with documentation showing that Allied governments, including the U.S., refused to take action to prevent the genocide.

THE CONFESSIONS OF NAT TURNER, by William Styron. The bloody 1831 Negro slave revolt in Virginia, as recorded in . the diary of the man who led it, is the factual basis of this brilliant novel.

Best Sellers

FICTION

1. Vanished, Knebel (2 last week)

2. Myra Breckinridge, Vidal (3)

3. Topaz, Uris (6)

4. The Confessions of Nat Turner, Styron (1)

5. The Tower of Babel, West (4)

6. Christy, Marshall (7)

7. The Exhibitionist, Sutton (5)

8. Airport, Hailey

9. The President's Plane Is Missing, Serling (10)

10. The Instrument, O'Hara (8)

NONFICTION

1. Between Parent and Child, Ginott (2)

2. The Naked Ape, Morris (1)

3. Our Crowd, Birmingham (4)

4. Nicholas and Alexandra, Massie (3)

5. Gipsy Moth Circles the World, Chichester (7)

6. The Way Things Work: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Technology (6)

7. Tolstoy, Troyat (5) 8. The Double Helix, Watson

9. Rickenbacker, Rickenbacker

10. The Economics of Crisis, Janeway (8)

--All times E.S.T.

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