Highlights (and lowlights) for the week ahead, May 13-19

Say goodbye to a pair of series whose lengthy prime-time runs made them more than appointment viewing for their fans. They became something of a TV ritual.

Tomorrow, “7th Heaven” takes its departure after 11 oh-so-wholesome years (including the current “grace” season, an unexpected reprieve when the show was cancelled last spring).

After months of concern about his heart condition, the Rev. Eric Camden (Stephen Collins) has finally gotten a clean bill of health. Feeling renewed (even if his series isn’t), he and wife Annie (Catherine Hicks) make a snap decision to leave their hometown of Glenoak and hit the road for a journey through America in their shiny new RV.

“We’re going on a vacation, a long vacation,” Camden explains. “Maybe a permanent vacation.”

But since this has been TV’s reigning family drama, virtually the entire extended “7th Heaven” family also piles into the RV for the trip — and the final fade-out.

It airs at 9 p.m. on the CW.

Then, on Monday at 9 p.m. on CBS, “The King of Queens” ends its nine-season run with a one-hour finale.

Focusing on Doug and Carrie Heffernan, a blue-collar couple who shared their homestead with Carrie’s loudmouthed father, Arthur, this family sitcom will conclude by resolving several vital questions:

Will the Heffernans finally become parents? Or, since they’re currently squabbling about a certain Manhattan apartment, will they divorce instead? Or both?

Will long-widowed Arthur get remarried? And who will the, um, lucky bride turn out to be?

Kevin James and Leah Remini star as the Heffernans, with Jerry Stiller as Arthur.

Other shows this week to look out for>

* Before his notorious death, Alexander Hamilton was second only to George Washington as the most powerful man in America. He remains perhaps the most significant person in American history who never served as president. A two-hour “American Experience” tells the story of this genius who laid the groundwork for the nation’s modern economy — including the banking system, Wall Street, and an “opportunity society” in which talent and hard work, not birth, determine success.

Born illegitimate on the Caribbean island of Nevis, Hamilton was educated on a scholarship at New York’s Kings College (now Columbia University) and became Washington’s most valued aide-de-camp. He led the Battle of Yorktown, its victory decisive in the Revolutionary War. But Hamilton was feisty off the battle field, too. He was afflicted with stubbornness, brutal candour and arrogance, and, at age 49, he died in a duel with his political enemy, Aaron Burr. “Alexander Hamilton” airs on PBS on Monday at 10 p.m. (check local listings).

* Play bingo without leaving the house! A new ABC series, “National Bingo Night,” plays in-studio variations on the familiar game, while inviting viewers at home to participate for a chance to win prizes of their own. In each game, a contestant will race against the studio audience as “official bingo balls” numbered from 1 to 75 are randomly selected from a giant sphere in the “Bingo Plex” arena.

The studio audience will track the numbers on their own bingo cards for a chance to win cash and prizes, and send the contestant home empty-handed. Meanwhile, viewers will also be able to join in by printing their own cards on the ABC.com Web site. Hosted by Ed Sanders (“Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”), “National Bingo Night” premieres on Friday at 10 p.m.

* In the jungles of Central Africa lies a wilderness where an ancient world clashes with a modern one. A country the size of Colorado, Gabon is one of the few places in the world where someone can stand on a pristine beach and, at once, behold elephants, hippos and humpback whales.

Farther inland, mandrills and lowland gorillas inhabit the largest section of rain forest on the continent of Africa. But these days, the footprints of man and beast are converging problematically as logging, poaching and oil exploration threaten one of the last remaining vestiges of unspoiled wild Africa. The National Geographic Channel journeys to the heart of Africa in “Gabon: The Last Eden,” airing on Friday at 11 p.m. Glenn Close narrates.