Celebration time for ‘7th Heaven’

These would seem to be the best of times for “7th Heaven,” billed as the WB’s highest-rated series for the last seven years. The show, which tracks the domestic dealings of Eric (Stephen Collins) and Annie (Catherine Hicks) Camden and their seven offspring, has been such a solid performer in its family entertainment niche that the network recently renewed it not merely for an eighth season, but a ninth as well.

But the series isn’t taking anything for granted. For its 150th episode tonight at 8, the show has scheduled a wedding, a reunion with a couple of original castmates, and a chance to see Bo Derek and Phyllis Diller trade acting chops in the same episode, a grab-bag hour of moist-eyed sentiment and ludicrous plot leaps titled “We Do.”

The action centers on the hastily arranged nuptials of volatile Camden daughter Lucy (Beverley Mitchell) and handsome cop Kevin (George Stults). A powerful thunderstorm is threatening to keep many of the out-of-town guests from getting to the church on time, and then Lucy begins experiencing some emotional turbulence of her own, wondering if she’s really ready to take this big step.

All the hand-wringing gets a little tedious as we crawl past the half-hour mark, so when Derek’s character gets into a mixed-doubles brawl en route to the ceremony, we are grateful for the diversion. Ditto for whenever Diller pops in to deliver a line or two with a Shatnerian gusto that harks back to her stellar “Pruitts of Southampton” work.

Even for a series that several weeks back featured Collins crooning a raft of Elvis tunes during hospital dream sequences, the mood swings tonight are pretty extreme. And yes, rather entertaining.

With 150 shows in the bank, they must be doing something right. Right?