THE BEST OF 1983

Cheers (NBC). Now in its second season, this barroom sitcom has found its saucy stride and, in Stars Ted Danson and Shelley Long, has created a mismatched pair that could give Tracy and Hepburn a run for their moxie.

Faerie Tale Theatre (Showtime). These slightly fractured but never completely Grimm tales, produced by Actress Shelley Duvall, give a hip, witty twist and dreamy visual style to storybook classics.

The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (Mobil Showcase Network). Even squeezed to fit the small screen, the Royal Shakespeare Company's epic entertainment still ranked as a unique theatrical treat. The nine-hour drama preserved 150 great performances in a format Dickens would have loved: the miniseries.

Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever (NBC). A stirring video jukebox of the most memorable sounds of a quarter-century of soul, from the still irresistible Temptations through the stylized showmanship of Michael Jackson.

Nickelodeon (Warner Amex Satellite Entertainment Co.). A channel devoted to children without being childish. Among its most notable enticements: the Pinwheel puppets for preschoolers, and Livewire, an exuberant variety talk show for early teens.

NBC News Overnight. "Being best is not enough," rued NBC News Chief Reuven Frank in canceling this late-night paragon after 17 months. Insomniacs will miss Overnight's tough reporting, its sprightly sense of the absurd and especially its Queen of Tart, Co-Anchor Linda Ellerbee. The first nightly news show good enough to warrant reruns.

Special Bulletin (NBC). Gripping in a way that The Day After was not, this docudrama presented a fictional nuclear crisis as a news event actually in progress. The result was a dark parody of the pontifical way in which the networks package disaster.

Sunday Morning with Charles Kuralt (CBS). Light but never lightweight, this 90-minute eye opener demonstrates that long-form magazine shows can work, and that Kuralt is as nimble off the road as on.

Swan Lake, Minnesota (ARTS). Swan maidens in tutus riding bales of hay up a conveyor belt? This poetic, disarmingly simple adaptation of the classic ballet inventively mixed a country-and-western twang with Tchaikovskian lyricism.

Viet Nam: A Television History (PBS). With its painstaking marshaling of detail, this 13-hour documentary was television as the first draft of history. It was, by turns, poignant and chilling and never blinked.