CBS, 8:00 p.m. ET
In this week's new episode, “The Closure Alternative,” Sheldon (Jim Parsons) gets frustrated when a TV show he loves gets canceled unexpectedly and leaves without completing its story line. See you and raise you, Sheldon. I'm still fuming over the sudden end of HBO's Deadwood - and that was seven years ago.
Encore, 8:00 p.m. ET
Next month, American Masters presents a biography of Mel Brooks, and one of the surprises tucked inside that program is Brooks’ assertion that, despite its poor critical reception at the time of release, his 1987 Star Wars parody, Spaceballs, has now sold more copies on DVD than any other Brooks film. See it for yourself, and decide whether the satire, starring John Candy, Bill Pullman, Daphne Zuniga, Rick Moranis and Brooks himself, deserves a higher grade.
Fox, 9:00 p.m. ET
It may be unfair to invest tonight’s plot with larger meanings about this series itself, but on this new episode, the high school has to move forward after having lost its power. In any event, what it means is that the New Directions singers have to go unplugged – and respond with an acoustic set that includes Queens’s “We Will Rock You” and the Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin.’”
NBC, 9:31 p.m. ET
For some reason, this seems like the perfect habitat for these characters: On tonight’s new episode, Leslie (Amy Poehler) and company fight for (and, on occasion, fight at) a miniature golf course.
BBC America, 10:00 p.m. ET
BBC America has moved this talk show from Saturdays, where its sci-fi lineup has built more momentum, to Thursdays, but the episodes remain new, and the guests – including, tonight, Gwyneth Paltrow – can always be relied upon to be caught off guard, and to react unexpectedly. That, in itself, is such a TV talk-show rarity that Norton and company are worth watching, even if some members of the company are less familiar to U.S. viewers.