“Desperate Housewives” may have lost a bit of its luster, but it still inspires imitators. The new 15-episode true-crime series “Suburban Secrets” (9 p.m., Court TV) features an unseen female narrator with a droll delivery and a credit sequence that hints at the graphic techniques of the show set on Wisteria Lane.

But after this slick teaser, “Secrets” settles down to a standard investigative procedural, not unlike A&E’s old standby “City Confidential.”

The first “Secret” takes place in the small town of Conway, S.C., a place where everybody knows his or her neighbors. This becomes obvious when we hear the taped voice of the 911 operator interrupting a concerned caller to introduce himself and to inform the hysterical mother that he not only knows her missing daughter but was in fact her piano teacher.

In a grim sequence of events, the girl is found brutally murdered, and everybody in town becomes a suspect. Was it her shadowy, much older boyfriend? An anonymous fly-by-night construction worker? Or her oldest friend, a football star who served as her pallbearer and comforted her grieving mother? Hey, it’s a small world after all.

¢ Heather Locklear stars as the sole survivor of a restaurant massacre trying to rebuild her life in the 2007 melodrama “Angels Fall” (8 p.m., Lifetime), based on a novel by Nora Roberts. “Angels” is the first of four Roberts novels to be adapted for the small screen and to air on Lifetime tonight through Feb. 19.

¢ “The Power of Choice” (9 p.m., PBS, check local listings) profiles the late economist Milton Friedman and discusses how his influential theories transformed economic policies all over the world and continue to inform contemporary debate over issues ranging from the volunteer army, school vouchers and the flat tax.

Completed before his death last November, “Choice” chronicles Friedman’s years as an outsider, challenging the popular notion of big government as a mechanism to spur economic growth and promote full employment. Friedman argued — with an intellectual rigor that would earn him a Nobel Prize in 1976 — that these policies were bad economics and ultimately limited citizens’ basic liberties and their freedom to choose.

“Choice” recalls his stint as a TV star on the popular 1970s PBS series “Free to Choose,” which was later turned into an influential best-seller.

“Choice” is not so much a historical documentary as a laudatory film that might precede a testimonial dinner. But any program that champions a thinker and the notion that ideas matter and can change the world is a welcome sight on the TV landscape.

¢ “American Experience” (8 p.m., PBS, check local listings) recalls the Berlin airlift of 1948, when the American and British Air Forces defied a Soviet blockade and performed a logistical and humanitarian miracle, supplying a defeated city of 2 million civilians entirely by air.

Tonight’s other highlights

¢ Michael, Lincoln and Kellerman face the media on “Prison Break” (7 p.m., Fox).

¢ Chris goes on a power trip on “Everybody Hates Chris” (7 p.m., CW).

¢ Mario Lopez (“Dancing with the Stars”) hosts the 2007 Miss America Pageant (7 p.m., Eastern and Pacific, CMT).

¢ Barney feels boring on “How I Met Your Mother” (7 p.m., CBS).

¢ Howie Mandel hosts “Deal or No Deal” (7 p.m., NBC).

¢ Dating disasters on “All of Us” (7:30 p.m., CW).

¢ George Takei beams up on “Heroes” (8 p.m., NBC).

¢ A very special Bauer family reunion on “24” (8 p.m., Fox).

¢ On bended knee on “The Game” (8:30 p.m., CW).

¢ Love on a rooftop on “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” (9 p.m., NBC).

¢ A weekend by the lake on “What About Brian” (9 p.m., ABC).

¢ Will Smith and Evanescence appear on “Late Show with David Letterman” (10:35 p.m., CBS).

¢ Jay Leno hosts Bill Cosby, Mary Lynn Rajskub and Katharine McPhee on “The Tonight Show” (10:35 p.m., NBC).