Let's Dance! The Lavender Tube on 'Spookys,' 'Revenge' and 'DWTS'

The new fall season is upon us and with it some –never enough!– queerness to keep us going through this relentless midterm election season.

Dancing With the Stars
Some history-making news is that ABC's "Dancing With the Stars" will feature "RuPaul's Drag Race" star Shangela in season 31 of the series. Shangela is the first drag performer to compete on the show.

Shangela, a gay man, has been paired with dancer Gleb Savchenko. The duo will compete as a same-sex pairing, as JoJo Siwa and Jenna Johnson did in season 30.

Shangela is not the only queer performer this season, either. WABC-TV New York weather anchor Sam Champion will also be featured, paired with top dancer Cheryl Burke.

Another first for the season is disabled actress Selma Blair. Blair, a long-time LGBTQ ally and AIDS activist, came out about her multiple sclerosis (MS) diagnosis in 2018. Blair wrote about living with MS in her memoir, "Mean Baby: a Memoir of Growing Up," which was published in May 2022. Blair was among the Silence Breakers selected as the 2017 Time Person of the Year. Blair is paired with Sasha Farber.

Also in the "DWTS" cast are singer Jordin Sparks with partner Brandon Armstrong, "Charlie's Angels" star Cheryl Ladd with partner Louis van Amstel, and "Sex and the City" star Jason Lewis with partner Peta Murgatroyd. "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" star Teresa Giudice pairs with Pasha Pashkov, actor and comedian Wayne Brady with partner Witney Carson, Arnold Schwarzenegger's son and fitness model Joseph Baena with partner Daniella Karagach, and "Jersey Shore" star Vinny Guadagnino with partner Koko Iwasaki.

This season should be a blast. With host Tyra Banks, the series premieres Sept. 19.

"Los Espookys"
Being such a weird and quirky and queer series, we assumed it had been cancelled after one season. But "Los Espookys" is back for a second season after a prolonged pandemic hiatus. and really – you want to see it.

The HBO series "follows a group of friends who turn their love for horror into a peculiar business, providing horror to those who need it, in a dreamy Latin American country where the strange and eerie are just part of daily life." Sounds legit.

The series was created by Julio Torres, Ana Fabrega, and the always-hilarious "SNL" alum Fred Armisen, who is spectacular here. The trio costar with Bernardo Velasco, Cassandra Ciangherotti, and the great Carol Kane. It premieres on HBO on Sept. 16. In Spanish and English, with subtitles.

"Do Revenge" is hilarious and smart, and Mendes and Hawke are pitch-perfect at every step of their malicious, revenge-fueled journey. The dialogue is superb, the acting stellar, and oh –"Do Revenge" is queer AF, and premieres on Netflix on Sept. 16.

Sarandon previously told Pride Source in 2017 that her sexuality was "open" and "up for grabs." On a 2021 episode of the "Divorced Not Dead" podcast she said, "I don't care if it's a man or a woman. I mean, I'm open to all age, all color. And those for me, those things are just details."

Sarandon currently stars in "Monarch" on Fox, a multigenerational musical drama about the Roman family. The family is headed by Dottie Roman (Sarandon) and Albie Roman (Trace Adkins) who have created a country music dynasty together. However, the origins of the dynasty are not what they seem to be. Roman's daughter Nicky Roman (Anna Friel) steps in and does all she can to protect the dynasty's reign in country music while ensuring her own stardom.

Trace Adkins said of working with the powerhouse actress, "You just have to swim in her wake and hang on."

There had long been requests for the popular children's series to add a same-sex couple. A petition signed by over 23,000 people making the request of the show notes, "Children watching Peppa Pig are at an impressionable age, and excluding same-sex families will teach them that only families with either a single parent or two parents of different sexes are normal."

The petition says, "This means that children of same-sex parents may feel alienated by Peppa Pig, and that other children may be more likely to bully them, simply through ignorance." The series airs on Hulu.

In an interview (via Mediaite), Schneider says "SNL" was "killed for good" when McKinnon sang Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" as Hillary Clinton during the cold open of the show's first episode back after the 2016 presidential election. McKinnon had played Hillary throughout the 2016 election cycle.

"I hate to crap on my old show," Schneider, a Republican and outspoken anti-vaxxer, said. "I literally prayed, 'Please have a joke at the end. Don't do this. Please don't go down there.' And there was no joke at the end, and I went, 'It's over. It's over. It's not going to come back.'"

McKinnon, Aidy Bryant, Pete Davidson, and Kyle Mooney left "SNL" after the season finale in May. Melissa Villaseñor, Aristotle Athari, and Alex Moffat have now also announced they are exiting ahead of the long-running sketch comedy show's 48th season.

So for the newest series, old faves, and the latest lunacy, you know you really must stay tuned.

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