"NBA Playoffs: Pistons vs. Bucks" (8 p.m. WDWB-TV, Channel 20, WB). Attention, fans of "7th Heaven" and "Everwood." You’ll find the new episodes of those shows preempted by tonight’s game. They’ll air 8-10 p.m. Saturday on Channel 20. Meanwhile, let’s go Pistons!

It’s prom time

"How I Met Your Mother" (8:30 p.m., WWJ-TV, Channel 62, CBS). Attack of the prom zombies. When her wedding date is pushed up, Lily (Alyson Hannigan) recruits Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) and Robin (Cobie Smulders) for party commando duty. While fiance Marshall (Jason Segel) stays behind to stuff wedding invitations, Lily & Co. crash a high school prom to check out a band for the rock ’n’ roll reception. Chucklehead complications ensue.

Going, going, gone

"24" (9 p.m., WJBK-TV, Channel 2, Fox). Let’s see, we only hired William Devane for three episodes this season. Hmmm. OK, we’ll just have Secretary of Defense Heller (Devane) drive off a cliff into a lake and be done with him. Yep, part of the fun of "24" is watching a frankly preposterous (and preposterously entertaining) show occasionally wobble out of control and drive off a storytelling cliff as it were. And tonight? Wack Jack (Kiefer Sutherland) the plane stowaway is relying on Chloe (Mary Lynn Rajskub) to get him intel to ID the creep with the hot potato tape that incriminates President Vermin.

Brokeback, it’s not

"Texas Ranch House" (9 p.m., WTVS-TV, Channel 56, PBS). Grab your dusty chaps and saddle up, cowpokes. This new experiment in retro living — a variation on such similar PBS shows as "Colonial House" and "Frontier House" or the British "Regency House" series — finds suburban Californians Bill and Lisa Cooke and their three teenage daughters playing 1867 Texas cattle ranch owners, joined by a posse of other ordinary 21st-Century folks as 19th-Century ranch hands. The documentary miniseries continues through Thursday. Happy trails.

Sheen muddling through

"Two and a Half Men" (9 p.m., WWJ-TV, Channel 62, CBS). Still tracking tabloid mud from his increasingly messy, mean-spirited split with ex-wife Denise Richards, Charlie Sheen the jokily suave sitcom playboy continues to create ratings whoopee for CBS. So no damage there yet. And tonight, while brother Alan (Jon Cryer) bonds with Jake’s (Angus T. Jones) charming teacher, Uncle Charlie (Sheen) helps his nephew prepare an audition song for the school musical.

Kiss-kiss, bang-bang?

"Medium" (10 p.m., WDIV-TV, Channel 4, NBC). Blast from the Brat Pack past. Molly Ringwald, the 1980s teen queen of "Sixteen Candles," "Pretty in Pink" and others, guest stars as the evening’s designated woman in deadly jeopardy. Psychic sleuth Allison (Patricia Arquette) has too much to dream about every night. She’s having visions of a faceless man who repeatedly breaks into the home of a woman (Ringwald) but leaves her unharmed and steals only a kiss. Creepy.

Metal mania

"40 Greatest Metal Songs" (10 p.m., VH1). Headbangers Ball. It’s the merry month of metalhead May on VH1, kicking off with a four-night countdown of heavy metal hits that run the gamut from Iron Maiden’s "Number of the Beast" to Metallica’s "Master of Puppets." Later in the month, its "Behind the Music" specials on Ratt and Pantera and a four-night retrospective "Heavy: The Story of Metal." Just remember, Ozzy rules!