WEEKEND TV : NBC, Other Channels Set for Super Time

The Super Bowl celebrates its 30th birthday Sunday with the favored Dallas Cowboys locking horns with the Pittsburgh Steelers live from Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Ariz. NBC’s coverage of the ballyhooed event starts at 3 p.m. on Channels 4 and 36, with Dick Enberg, Paul MacGuire and Phil Simms reporting.

Super Bowl fever, however, runs throughout the weekend, starting today at 3 p.m. with the “Touch Down in Phoenix: Super Bowl” on Channel 4. And NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” presents “Sports Extra,” at 11:30 tonight, featuring many of the professional athletes who have hosted the show, including Deion Sanders, Joe Montana and Michael Jordan.

On Sunday, ESPN features a special edition of “NFL Game Day” at 9 a.m. And “Super Bowl at 30: Big Game America” airs tonight at 8, repeating at 10 a.m. Sunday on TNT.

NBC’s pregame festivities begin at 12:30 p.m. Sunday with host Greg Gumbel. But pay-per-view is offering competition at noon with “Real Men Don’t Watch Pre-Game,” featuring “Baywatch’s” Gena Lee Nolin, Playboy Playmates and others competing in sporting events from a resort in the Bahamas.

During halftime, MTV premieres two new “Beavis & Butt-head” cartoons. And following the Super Bowl at approximately 7 p.m. is a special one-hour episode of NBC’s “Friends” with special guests Marcel the monkey, Brooke Shields, Chris Isaak, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Julia Roberts.

There will be alternatives for a non-football Sunday. The History Channel is presenting all 13 hours of the classic British series “I, Claudius,” beginning at 8 a.m.; TBS’ popular “8 Great Hours of Andy” marathon kicks off at 10:05 a.m. with 15 episodes of “The Andy Griffith Show”; and KCET repeats the “Nature” miniseries ‘The Nature of Sex,” starting at noon.