Weekend TV : 18-Hour ‘Easter Seal Telethon’ on Channel 5; Andy Rooney Returns to ’60 Minutes’

Viewer participation is the name of the TV game this weekend.

The 18-hour “Easter Seal Telethon” to raise funds for the disabled begins tonight at 11 p.m. on Channel 5. Hosted by Pat Boone, Mary Frann, Robb Weller and Dick Van Patten, this marathon of live entertainment and appeals concludes at 5 p.m. Sunday.

Public-television station KCET Channel 28 will also be out pitching for funds Sunday with a lineup of special programs that includes the TV movie “Danny, Champion of the World,” with Jeremy Irons, at 7 p.m., and a concert featuring Joan Baez and Jackson Browne at 9 p.m.

Viewers of the debut of Michael Feldman’s “Whad’ya Know?” won’t have to cough up any money, but they will have to be pretty darn smart to answer any of his challenging call-in trivia questions Sunday at 9 p.m. on the Disney Channel. The program, which began as a Wisconsin Public Radio show nearly five years ago, also includes plenty of talk with guests, humor and profiles of randomly chosen “towns of the week.”

And thanks at least in part to an enormous public response decrying his three-month suspension from CBS News, irascible commentator Andy Rooney returns to “60 Minutes” Sunday at 7 p.m. (2)(8) after missing three broadcasts. The program will also include reports on the environmental group Earth First, the tunnel currently being dug beneath the English Channel and the controversial author of a high-school math textbook.