The latest Casanova (ABC Sunday at 8...

The latest Casanova (ABC Sunday at 8 p.m.) is a new TV movie starring Richard Chamberlain as the legendary 18th-Century lover. Among Chamberlain’s conquests in the often-filmed tale are Faye Dunaway, Sylvia Kristel and Ornella Muti.

I’ll Take Manhattan, the miniseries version of the Judith Krantz best seller, takes up CBS’ 9-11 p.m. slots Sunday through Wednesday.

NBC’s 9 p.m. Sunday offering is The Dirty Dozen: The Deadly Mission, a new TV movie sequel to the late Robert Aldrich’s bleakly humorous, spine-tingling war classic about a maverick U.S. Army major ordered to train 12 GI convicts for a dangerous mission. The new mission involves Telly Savalas, Ernest Borgnine and Vince Edwards in an attempt to rescue chemical-warfare scientists from the Nazis.

The Karate Kid (NBC Monday at 8:30 p.m.) is one of those movies in which everything works right from the start. Director John Avildsen and writer Robert Mark Kamen capture a rhythm and naturalness in pacing, dialogue and acting that sustains this irresistibly shameless heart-tugger straight to the finish. Slight, dark-eyed Ralph Macchio, newly arrived from Newark to Reseda, learns how to handle the bullies whe1847617637strict Noriyuki (Pat) Morita (who won an Oscar nomination for his performance).

Another endearing film, Wayne Wang’s Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart (Channel 28 Monday at 9 p.m.), evokes with tenderness and humor the plight of a young Chinese-American woman (Laureen Chew) trying to leave her beloved mother (Kim Chew) in order to make a life of her own.

Gena Rowlands (on the cover) stars in The Betty Ford Story (ABC Monday at 9 p.m.), which recounts the former First Lady’s successful battles with cancer, prescription drugs and alcohol.

The slam-bang police yarn Bullitt (Channel 5 Monday at 8 p.m.) launches four nights of Steve McQueen movies on KTLA at 8 p.m. The Sand Pebbles, which finds McQueen in a large-scale China adventure, screens in two parts on Tuesday and Wednesday. The sleek, sophisticated thriller The Thomas Crown Affair (Thursday) finds a well-tailored McQueen skirmishing delightfully with Faye Dunaway.

The exciting Black Sunday (Channel 13 Thursday at 8 p.m.) envisions how a band of terrorists might hold in thrall thousands of Super Bowl spectators. Marthe Keller’s Black Septemberist, Robert Shaw’s Israeli secret service major and Bruce Dern’s unhinged former Vietnam POW become dangerously entangled in this well-crafted 1977 thriller, which has the timeless appeal of collision-course suspense.

For the umpteenth time, Dorothy, the little Kansas farm girl, and her dog Toto will trek down that Yellow Brick Road in The Wizard of Oz (CBS Friday at 8 p.m.). Judy Garland, of course, is Dorothy, Ray Bolger the Scarecrow, Jack Haley the Tin Man, Bert Lahr the Cowardly Lion and Margaret Hamilton the Wicked Witch of the West. With the recent death of Bolger, among its principal figures only the beloved 1939 classic’s producer Mervyn LeRoy is still living.

The HBO production Finnegan Begin Again (Channel 13 Saturday at 8 p.m.) is a real winner about two people who are starting to think of themselves as losers. Heartwarming and funny, this bittersweet romantic comedy begins by having widowed schoolteacher Mary Tyler Moore meeting seemingly over-the-hill newspaperman Robert Preston on a Richmond, Va., bus. Joan Micklin Silver, who excels at intimate drama, directed from Walter Lockwood’s offbeat script.

Passions (CBS Saturday at 9 p.m.), a so-so 1984 TV movie, finds wife (Joanne Woodward) and mistress (Lindsay Wagner) confronting each other for the first time when a wealthy businessman (Richard Crenna), long torn between the two, dies suddenly.

Selected evening cable fare: Return of the Jedi (Sunday, Movie Channel at 6:30, HBO at 7, SelecTV at 8; Saturday, Z at 8, Movie Channel at 9); Gung Ho (Z Sunday at 7, Wednesday at 9); Lucas (Showtime Sunday at 8); The Ploughman’s Lunch (Bravo Monday at 8); Bliss (SelecTV Monday at 8); The Flight of the Eagle (Bravo Tuesday at 8); Nights of Cabiria (Movie Channel Tuesday at 9); Agatha (Cinemax Wednesday at 6); Bed and Board (Bravo Wednesday at 7:30); The Empire Strikes Back (Movie Channel Wednesday at 9); The Woman Next Door (Bravo Wednesday at 9:30); Woodstock (Movie Channel Thursday at 9); Full Moon Over Paris (Bravo Friday at 7:30); Salvador (Z Friday at 9); Always (Bravo Friday at 9:30); Pretty in Pink (Showtime Saturday at 8); Stranger Than Paradise (Bravo Saturday at 9).