WEEKEND TV : Summit, Football, New Shows Too

News of the Bush-Gorbachev summit in Finland and the tense situation in the Persian Gulf is likely to overshadow everything else this weekend--even the kickoff of the pro football season, the finals of the U.S. Open tennis tournament and the debuts of several new entertainment shows.

Prior to the season premiere of “NFL Live” Sunday, for example, NBC will broadcast 4 1/2 hours of live news from the summit, beginning at 5 a.m. ABC, CBS and CNN will also provide extensive coverage of the meetings in Helsinki all weekend.

NBC (4)(36)(39) debuts “The Fanelli Boys,” a new sitcom about an Italian family, tonight at 9:30 p.m. (The show will air regularly this season on Wednesdays at 9 p.m.) Following at 10 p.m., Gary Collins hosts the “Miss America Pageant.”

Fox counters at 10 p.m. tonight with the Mardi Gras premiere of Mark Frost’s and David Lynch’s new documentary series, “American Chronicles.”

Sunday, “The Late Mr. Pete Show,” once an outrageous Westside public access cable talk show, moves to broadcast television on Channel 5 at 11:30 p.m. Mr. Pete (Peter Chaconas), the flamboyant host who habitually sports a hideous plaid red jacket, is nothing if he is not one zany guy. Martin Mull guests.