Couch Potato’s Guide to Makin’ Whoopee Tonight

Guy Lombardo is long gone, but homebodies will still find a variety of ways to ring in 1989 with television tonight--everything from Placido Domingo to Gladys Knight and the Pips to Buffalo Bob.

The New York Philharmonic gets things rolling early with a concert from Lincoln Center in New York featuring music by Rimsky-Korsakov, Johann Strauss, Verdi and others. Domingo and soprano Adriana Morelli will join Zubin Mehta and the Philharmonic for this two-hour concert beginning at 8 p.m. on Channels 28, 50, 15 and 24.

New Year’s Eve revelry continues on those same four channels at 10 p.m. with “Happy New Year USA!” from Baltimore’s Omni International Hotel. The 2 1/2-hour program offers performances by Rosemary Clooney, the American Ballroom Theater and the Glenn Miller Orchestra as well as midnight fireworks over Baltimore Harbor.

Rock ‘n’ rollers can choose from three New Year’s parties beginning at 11:30 p.m.

“Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve ‘89,” complete with the dropping of the silver ball in Times Square, features Natalie Cole, Taylor Dayne, D.J. Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince, Richard Marx, Reba McEntire and Frankie Valli in an ABC musical special from the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in New York.

CBS counters with “Happy New Year, America,” a music and dance party starring Gladys Knight, Sheena Easton and Freddie Jackson from New York’s Palladium and the Grand Ballroom at the Waldorf-Astoria.

Channel 5 offers “Bowzer’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Party” from Caesars Palace in Atlantic City. Buffalo Bob from the original “Howdy Doody Show” will join Jon (Bowzer) Bauman, Ben E. King, Del Shannon, the Shirelles, Gary (U.S.) Bonds, the Coasters and the Marvelettes in counting down the seconds to 1989.

And Japanese-speaking revelers can usher in the New Year with “Asahi’s New Year’s Eve Countdown” on Channel 18 beginning at 11:30 p.m.

Finally, those too excited to hit the sack when the parties are over can stay up all night with a trio of Marx Brothers films on Channel 5 begining with “A Night at the Opera,” at 1:30 a.m.