Lawrence.com

Proof that sweeps month razzle-dazzle can undermine the quality of even the best-written shows can be seen on tonight's hourlong "Will & Grace" (8 p.m., NBC). At their best, season finales tie up loose ends and keep you guessing until next season. Think of the runaway bride cliffhanger on last year's "Frasier." At their worst, gimmicky finales sacrifice the integrity of the story for stunt-casting and coy coincidences. Tonight's "Will & Grace" is guilty on both counts.

Let's all hope the writers on the "Will & Grace" staff come back rested and refreshed from their summer vacation. This trite season finale is a profound disappointment coming from a show that seemed to be getting stronger this year.

� "Friends" (7 p.m., NBC) wraps up its seventh season with that most traditional season finale, the long anticipated wedding between Chandler and Monica.

Weddings and near weddings are a kind of theme for this series. After all, "Friends" debuted with Rachel leaving a man at the altar. Ross has been married and divorced three times. And who can forget the same sex wedding ceremony of his wife Carol? Tonight's episode features the return of Kathleen Turner as Chandler's cross-dressing father, Morgan Fairchild as his mother and a cameo by screen heavy Gary Oldman.

� "ER" (9 p.m., NBC) has always vacillated between character-driven stories and catastrophe-driven melodramatics.

Tonight, the hospital drama ends its season with an episode titled "Rampage." Enough said.

� Given the smash Thursday night success of "CSI," CBS has scheduled a festival of forensics. First is a repeat "CSI" (7 p.m., CBS) about a body found in the swimming pool of a posh couple. In the series' season finale (8 p.m.), Grissom balks at FBI interference in their investigation into a Vegas serial killer.

"48 Hours" (9 p.m., CBS) follows with a look at "cold" cases include a mother's search for her baby's killer, 20 years after his death, and the use of DNA evidence to identify the corpse of a dead boy discovered in a box 44 years ago.

Tonight's other highlights

� Real-life prisoners submit to DNA testing to determine their guilt or innocence. Results will be announced live on "Judgment Night: DNA The Ultimate Test" (7 p.m., Fox).

� On back-to-back episodes of "Charmed" (WB), Prue's old beau seems to be on a wicked path (7 p.m.), and the sisters' witchy ways are exposed on television (8 p.m.). The first is a repeat, and the second episode is the season finale. Shannen Doherty (who was kicked off "Beverly Hills 90210") has now left "Charmed."

� Eric Roberts and Mariel Hemingway star in the 1983 biography "Star 80" (8 p.m., TNN) about doomed actress Dorothy Stratten.

� Scheduled on "Primetime" (9 p.m., ABC): an undercover test of honesty involving cabbies and cops in New York and Los Angeles; an interview with space tourist Dennis Tito.

Series notes

Drew Carey hosts back-to-back episodes of goofy hit sketch show "Whose Line is it Anyway?" (7 p.m., ABC) ... Wrestling drama and fights on "WWF Smackdown" (7 p.m., UPN).

Regis Philbin hosts "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" (8 p.m., ABC).

Late night

Jack Hanna and Ricky Martin appear on "Late Show With David Letterman" (10:35 p.m.) ... Jay Leno's guests include Jennifer Lopez, Steve Irwin and David Gray on "The Tonight Show" (10:35 p.m., NBC).

Bill Maher hosts Kellyanne Conway and David Brenner on "Politically Incorrect" (11:05 p.m., ABC).

Kathie Lee Gifford and Leah Remini are booked on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" (11:35 p.m., NBC).