Watch It! on Monday, Nov. 26, 2007

Legen — wait for it! — dary. On “How I Met Your Mother” (7 p.m. CBS/KWTV-9), Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) blanks out on all his myriad come-ons just before being invited to a Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show after-party. Few modern sit-coms are this successful at creating their own internal culture, or are as creative at deploying it. To say that “Mother” is better than the structurally similar “Friends” was at its prime would be to damn it with faint praise, but this show’s cast has genuine chemistry. And yes, it’s a traditional four-camera studio show, but it’s all in the writing and performance.

Save the Cheerleader, Save the Show — One of the few series that acknowledges and accepts that the Writer’s Guild strike is truncating the 2007-08 season, “Heroes” (8 p.m. NBC/KFOR-4) is down to its final two episodes. These will supposedly wrap up the current storyline (admittedly a lukewarm one that has only heated up in recent installments) and set things up for next season. I’m getting antsy — I mean, I support the writers’ need to receive royalties for home video (they were fools to give this up back in the late-’80s negotiation), but I don’t support the return of “American Gladiators” to fill the void left by a short “Heroes” season. Get ready for spandex!