The Week in Gay TV: Robin Sparkles is a "Space Teen" and 25 years of "People"'s Sexiest Man Alive

Welcome to another edition of The Week in Gay TV, your guide for the shows that will be battling for your attention in the week ahead. The November sweeps are in full swing this week, which means we can look forward to seeing the special episodes like the return of Robin Sparkles on How I Met Your Mother, an appearance by Gwyneth Paltrow on Glee and Cybill Shepherd in conflict with William Shatner on $#*! My Dad Says.

Make that "Herbig, as in her big, scary glare."

Ever since Smallville producers announced that Clark’s final villain would be Darkseid and the forces of Apokolips, the show’s comic-reading fans wondered if the CW could capture the craziness of Jack Kirby’s New Gods characters. We got a taste of that with Smallville’s take on Glorious Godfrey, which brought the sight of Lois going undercover as the most conservatively-dressed dominatrix in an S&M club which was — well, it wasn't the usual Smallville episode.

This week, we get to see Smallville’s take on Granny Goodness (played by Christine Willes, who Dead Like Me fans might recognize as Delores Herbig) and (presumably, Mad) Harriet as Tess investigates an orphanage run by the supervilain. Meanwhile, Lois’ story gets meta when she discovers a videotape left by her mother, played by Teri Hatcher. As long as that tape doesn’t involve a Susan Meyer-esque series of increasingly-complicated lies, I think I’ll enjoy the joke.

After Smallville, a new Supernatural sees the Winchester brothers encounter a skinwalker, a shapeshifting fiend I’ve always found pretty creepy. Supernatural has certainly been invigorated this season and I’m sure part of it is how we’re taking a new look at the show’s take on various monsters.

Teen Nick has the fall’s penultimate Degrassi. Frustratingly, there’s no sign of Riley or Zane. Instead we get Jenna throwing herself in between Sav and Holly J. At least, we also get to see Fiona and Adam get closer.

Finally, Friday also brings a new Law & Order: UK on BBC America.

Saturday brings a new episode of The Graham Norton Show with an amazing sounding line-up including Joan Rivers, Johnny Knoxville and Catherine Tate with The Pet Shop Boys as the musical guests. I’m tempted to call this the gayest lineup ever but I’m sure if I looked up an archive of Graham’s past guests, I’d find that he’s reached these levels plenty of times in past seasons.

The 77-year-old Rivers is the focus of a new documentary about her life, A Piece of Work, which comes from filmmakers who previously tackled the story of a man who was acquitted of a rape charge after serving 20 years in prison as well documenting the ten steps a country takes on the road to fascism. I’d guess after those two docs they needed some comedy in their lives.

Knoxville, meanwhile, has Jackass 3-D to promote. Hopefully, Graham will give Knoxville a chance to talk about Jackass’ history of being a “humanitarian attack against homophobia”.

Saturday also brings the latest Logo Documentary, Ladies or Gentlemen. Narrated by RuPaul, this documentary takes a look at the history of drag in film from Some Like It Hot to Big Momma’s House, asking why drag isn’t more accepted since it’s been a part of pop culture for so long.

Saturday also brings a new and gay-adjacent Celebrity Ghost Stories with stories from Buffy and Greek alum Charisma Carpenter, designer Cynthia Rowley and Orlando Jones. Finally, Danielle Fishel has the latest pop culture snark on The Dish. Hopefully, Fishel won’t ruin any more celebrity crushes, like she did when showed a clip of Mario Lopez cluelessly making offensive, racial jokes.