Top Gun NBC Seeks New Ammo in Ratings War : Televison: With sweeps week looming, the network pulls out a Larry King variety show and adds guest stars to ‘Fresh Prince.’

TV or not TV. . . .

CIRCUS: NBC is doing everything but handsprings to attract attention as the November ratings sweeps approach.

First came the successful Jackie Collins and Danielle Steel miniseries.

Now, this weekend, comes NBC’s attempt at a 1990s Ed Sullivan-type show: “Sunday Night With Larry King.”

Donald Trump was recently added to King’s guest list, which already includes Sylvester Stallone, David Letterman and even cartoon anti-hero Bart Simpson from rival Fox TV.

On Monday, meanwhile, NBC piles on the names again with another hour special--this time an extended Halloween episode of “Fresh Prince of Bel Air,” with Bo Jackson, Quincy Jones and Malcolm-Jamal Warner joining series star Will Smith.

In fact, both specials are clever attempts by top-ranked NBC to cover its weak spots.

The King hour, which could be good news for viewers if it works, fills the 8-9 p.m. slot where NBC is getting killed by “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” “America’s Funniest People” and “Murder, She Wrote.”

As for “Fresh Prince of Bel Air,” NBC is trying desperately to make it the major hit network executives expected it to be.

Curiously, while NBC has won the ratings five years running, quietly confident ABC is acting more like the leader.

NBC has triumphed most weeks this season, but not the way it wants to. It continues to be carried by its old hits, such as “The Cosby Show,” “Cheers” and “The Golden Girls,” and its viewers are graying while the network is unsuccessfully pulling out the stops to attract young viewers.

While NBC has been “stunting” with gimmick specials, unflappable ABC has simply stuck by its regular series and performed solidly--poised, it seems, to become No. 1 if the champion network falters even slightly.

With shows ranging from “The Wonder Years” to “Full House,” “Twin Peaks” and “Roseanne,” ABC has also become, this season, the dominant network with viewers 18 to 49, who draw the biggest prices from sponsors.

The Nielsen ratings sweeps, which help determine ad prices for stations, begin Nov. 1. And CBS, flying high with the World Series, is surely furious that it ended so suddenly with Cincinnati’s annihilation of Oakland.

There could have been two more games this week to build CBS momentum into the sweeps.

STOP THE MUSIC: Disney Studios, which co-produces Carol Burnett’s “Carol & Company,” rejected her plans for an hour musical special in November. “The timing wasn’t right,” says a Disney spokeswoman. Meaning, perhaps, that the ratings failure of such series as “Hull High,” “Cop Rock” and “The Tracey Ullman Show,” all of which integrated music into the show, may have caused jitters.

UPDATE: It’s now 41 consecutive weeks that “Today,” without Jane Pauley, has lost in the ratings to “Good Morning America.” That’s every week this year.

BETWEEN IRAQ AND A HARD PLACE: There aren’t many TV reporters better than CNN’s U.N. correspondent, Jeanne Moos, when it comes to thinking on their feet, analyzing events quickly and explaining what’s going on in clear and simple language.

A COUPLE OF SWELLS: Walter Cronkite visits the Letterman show Nov. 9. Make a note.

FAIR GAME: Hard-hitting “60 Minutes” couldn’t have been more flattering Sunday in its profile of Vanity Fair editor Tina Brown. Her magazine, she explained, simply tries to project the attitude, “You will die if you don’t read me.”

MURDER MOST FOUL: The Nick at Nite channel celebrates Halloween with an “Alfred Hitchcock” marathon--140 episodes over seven days starting Monday. We always liked his observation that “There is nothing quite so good as a burial at sea. It is simple, tidy and not very incriminating.”

AFTERMATH: What ever happened to trash TV? What ever happened to Geraldo?

TWIST OF FATE: Remember when the fine actress Meg Foster was dropped as Tyne Daly’s partner in “Cagney & Lacey” because CBS--we kid you not--thought they weren’t feminine enough as a team? Well, Sharon Gless got Foster’s role in 1982 and, of course, did wonders with it. And now . . . Foster will be a guest star on Gless’ new series, “The Trials of Rosie O’Neill,” Dec. 3 and Jan. 7. That, as they say, is show biz.

BALLOT BOX: KCBS Channel 2 beefed up its election-year coverage by adding veteran political columnist Joe Scott to its 5 p.m. Thursday newscasts.

NIGHTWATCH: CBS doesn’t seem to realize that Charles Kuralt and not Lesley Stahl is the natural center of its new, late-hour series, “America Tonight.”

THE HIGH COUNTRY: When Joel McCrea died Saturday, I couldn’t help thinking of Maureen Stapleton’s tribute to him on the 1982 Oscar telecast. Accepting for her role in “Reds,” she thanked “everybody I ever met in my entire life, and my inspiration, Joel McCrea.” Backstage later, when asked how he inspired her, she replied: “He’s always been a good actor and because I’m madly in love with him.”

GOING IN STYLE: Blair Brown told The Times that she directed the episode of “The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd” in which, as Molly, a single mother, she gives birth. It’ll be seen when the series winds up on Lifetime cable early next year.

TOUGH GUY: Whenever I come across him on cable, I think what fun it would have been to have dinner with George Raft, a very underestimated performer.

Say good night, Gracie. . . .