Shirley MacLaine (on the cover) plays herself...

Shirley MacLaine (on the cover) plays herself in the new five-hour movie of her book Out on a Limb (ABC Sunday at 8 p.m., Monday at 9 p.m.), which chronicles her affair with a married man (played by Charles Dance) and her search for knowledge of her spiritual self.

The romantic comedy Warm Hearts, Cold Feet, a new TV movie Sunday at 9 p.m. on CBS, stars Tim Matheson and Margaret Colin as a young expectant married couple who are columnists for competing newspapers. Another new TV movie, Blood Vows: The Story of a Mafia Wife (NBC Sunday at 9 p.m.) stars Melissa Gilbert as a naive young woman who marries a charming lawyer (Joe Penny), not knowing of his underworld ties.

Airing earlier Sunday are the disastrous film version of the set-in-Russia mystery thriller Gorky Park (Channel 13 at 6 p.m.), which stars William Hurt and Lee Marvin, and Galaxina (Channel 9 at 6 p.m.), a silly and inept sci-fi movie, of interest only in that it introduced the late Dorothy Stratten, the ill-fated 1979 Playmate of the Year who was shot to death by her husband in an apparent murder-suicide.

Crude and sensational yet urgent and pertinent, Billy Jack (Channel 13 Monday at 8 p.m.) in its unique, awkward way became a key film of the early ‘70s. Tom Laughlin starred in as well as co-authored (with his actress-wife Delores Taylor) this uneven but potent film, in which he played a half-breed who casts his lot with the Indian side of his ancestry and also goes to the aid of a progressive teacher (played by Taylor) who clashes with some small-town bigots. Billy Jack is a man encircled by acute and lethal injustices and therefore tempted to accept a bloody martyrdom, while the teacher, equally strong, is sworn to nonviolent solutions.

The violent but dynamic and exciting two-hour TV movie introduction to Crime Story repeats Monday at 9 p.m. on NBC.

The Fighting Seabees (Channel 11 Monday at 9 p.m.) launches a week of John Wayne movies on KTTV, best of which is John Ford’s hearty, romantic Irish saga The Quiet Man (Friday at 9 p.m.).

The Man With Two Brains (CBS Tuesday at 9 p.m.) is charged with the kind of intense anger toward women usually only found in exploitation pictures. In this comedy, Steve Martin, director Carl Reiner and their co-writer George Gipe put to a severe test the notion that you can get away with anything as long as it’s funny; luckily, the gags are more on target than not. Martin plays a brain surgeon whose pomposity is exceeded only by his naivete, which makes him vulnerable to teasing gold digger Kathleen Turner. A couple of plot twists later Martin is speculating how he can mate a new brain with Turner’s voluptuous body.

Point Blank (Channel 13 Tuesday at 8 p.m.) is at once the story of a gangster (Lee Marvin) bent upon revenge and a commentary on the widespread corruption that has kept pace with the growing affluence of our society. Violent but supremely stylish, it marked a stunning American film debut for British director John Boorman 20 years ago. Angie Dickinson is Marvin’s lady.

Eye of the Needle (Channel 5 Wednesday at 8 p.m.), an acutely suspenseful adaptation (by Stanley Mann) of Ken Follett’s novel, stars Donald Sutherland as a spectacularly resourceful and heartless Nazi, set in deep cover in Britain for years. His assignment now is to discover where the Allied invasion force will land. He eventually crosses paths with Kate Nelligan, playing an Englishwoman whose fighter pilot-husband (Christopher Cazenove) lost both legs in a car crash on their wedding day and whose bitterness has driven them to live on a remote island in northernmost Scotland. Eye of the Needle threatens to overreach (and is not for youngsters), but director Richard Marquand keeps us firmly at the edge of our seats.

Selected evening cable fare: Murphy’s Romance (HBO Sunday at 8); Young Sherlock Holmes (Showtime Sunday at 8, SelecTV Tuesday at 8, Showtime Thursday at 6, Z Friday at 9); Heaven’s Gate (uncut version) (Z Sunday at 8); Wanda (Bravo Sunday at 9); Sparkle (Lifetime Monday at 8); An Almost Perfect Affair (Lifetime Tuesday at 8); Another Country (SelecTV Wednesday at 6:30); Mean Streets (Z Wednesday at 9); Thief (Cinemax Thursday at 9); A Piano for Mrs. Cimino (Showtime Friday at 6); The Last Tycoon (Movie Channel Saturday at 6:30); The Official Story (Bravo and Z Saturday at 5).