LINDA ELLERBEE : NOT WHAT, BUT <i> HOW</i> SHE DOES IT

Linda Ellerbee, whose battle cry, “It’s only television,” was borrowed from a TV critic, denies that she has any influence. But she nevertheless sat back, ignited a Merit and tried to answer various questions on various matters of taste.

Ellerbee was said to have acquired a cult following when she co-anchored the quirky, sardonic “NBC News Overnight.” Alas, NBC axed the show two years ago this month on grounds of insufficient cult.

In due course and after 11 years at NBC News, Ellerbee, 40, a graduate of the Associated Press, wrote “And So It Goes,” a best seller about the crazy world of TV news. Then she moved to ABC News.

Since arriving there this fall, the breezy, bespectacled daughter of Bryan, Tex., has been co-anchoring “Our World,” a low-rated prime-time look at major and minor moments in recent American history.

When a reporter called, she was busy at her “down-home” town house in Greenwich Village, writing part of an upcoming “World” on her very first home computer. So what is it that influences a person some consider to be of influence?

In Ellerbee’s case, it’s not so much what she does, but how she does it that has had an impact. Mostly, it’s an attitude that comes across on the tube--understated, dry and cynical. Don’t take anything too seriously--as in, “It’s only television.”

“Hmmm. What interests me and what bores me?” she says when asked that. “What interests me: Some television, most books and about half the movies I see. What I find boring is most television, some books and the other half of the movies.”

Ellerbee, whom some consider to be a tad too irreverent and candid, and who sometimes pleads guilty to the charges, is not in the Mike Wallace genre of blow-the-lid-off-this-town journalist.

Not for her the major scoop, the headline-making interview, or even the portable glamour of Washington, a hamlet where she once reported for NBC News right from Capitol Hill. She does not take the place too seriously.

Her metier is the offbeat, the different, or her different way of looking at things. Such was best typified by her “NBC News Overnight.” Instead of a recut version of NBC’s view of national and international news, she’d often offer clips from the BBC, or German and French TV.

Possessed of a wry style, Ellerbee is regarded as one of the better writers in television news. As might be expected, she likes to see plays, and can be passionate on behalf of one she likes.

Such happened in 1979. The critic from the New York Times had put the knock on “Nuts,” a courtroom drama by an ex-newspaper reporter, Tom Topor. Ellerbee saw the play, loved it, and was enraged by the very negative Times review. In a commentary on NBC Radio, she loudly hailed the play and hissed the Times review.

Ellerbee recently saw the revival of “The Front Page,” and says she loved John Lithgow’s performance as wild-mannered editor Walter Burns. But she admits she hasn’t seen many movies lately.

New ones, that is, she adds, in responding to how her sense of history relates to her chosen field. “My particular field is writing an historical show . . . so at any given point when you talk to me, I’m living in the past.

“If we’re talking about 1973, and you ask me what movies I’ve seen and liked lately, I’d be tempted to say ‘American Graffiti.’

“Or 1957. What books have I read lately? ‘On the Beach,’ ‘On the Road’ and ‘The Organization Man.’ Because of my work, I live in the past.”

Manhattan is full of extremely sophisticated rubes--ceaselessly engage citizens who simply must be on top of every trend before even New York magazine reports it.

But Ellerbee cites her ABC series as one of three reasons she is not in the category of with-it (the other reasons are her teen-age kids, Josh and Vanessa, who, she says, would make sport of her if she were).

“Because of the work I’m doing, I don’t generally find out about trends until they’re nostalgia. I just discovered poodle skirts, though. I think they’re wonderful.”

Current reading? “ ‘Vietnam on Trial: Westmoreland vs. CBS’ by Bob Brewin and Sydney Shaw--in galley form. It’s a helluva book, I tell you.”

Current project: “Writing a second book (a novel). I was inspired by the advance, plus the sales from the first.”

What does her ABC office look like? Well, she says, “It is furnished in the quiet, simple good taste that is the hallmark of Fibber McGee’s closet.” Her taste in clothes? “Blue jeans, sneakers and a sweater. For formal, I change sneakers.”

Final question: What and who are the places and people to which she often goes in search of inspiration? Ellerbee thinks about it. Finally, she says this: “Texas and my old pal, Jose Cuervo.”