jmsellens@watrose.UUCP (John M Sellens) (04/17/84)
x
I have been asked (two people on the same day!) to post a summary
of the article that I read concerning gays on TV.
"Family Affair", Richard M. Levine, Esquire March/84 p.225-226.
The article is essentially a short history of homosexuality on TV,
a critique of the current state, and a prediction of the future.
The Steven Carrington character from Dynasty is used extensively as an
example of how gays are treated on TV. Levine refers to a meeting
with Dynasty's executive producer in January/81 (before it went on the
air) in which the producer said:
"The theme for Steven is a person trying to find himself. The
fact that he ultimately chooses to be gay is in the future."
This is not how things turned out - Steven is now a "reformed homosexual".
"They had a chance to do something different and they chickened out."
-Al Corley - the original Steven Carrington actor
"... unlike any other social issue, homosexuality is too threatening
to the medium's basic values to be dealt with in a realistic, ongoing
way."
Levine points out that TV's main audience is families, in the family
home.
The article closes with:
"But what television will never give us is a Steven Carrington who lives
the way most gays do, particularly young urban gays who have seen
Christopher Street. There was a brief moment when it seemed possible to
represent diversity on television, but by now it seems clearer than ever
that our society's prevalent lifestyle will continue to be viewed as
its only one. Blake Carrington had the last word on the possibility of
such an invigorating challenge - and he had it on that first episode
of Dynasty: "I'm even prepared to say I could find a little
homosexual experimentation acceptable," he told Steven during their
angry confrontation in the library, "as long as you didn't bring
it home."
If you are interested/concerned with this subject, I recommend this
article - take 15 minutes to read it at your local public library.
John M Sellens - watmath!watrose!jmsellensmsimpson@bbncca.ARPA (Mike Simpson) (04/27/84)
Here's something I came across in the April 28-May 4 issue of TV Guide.
------
GAY CHARACTERS ALMOST ROUTINE
With an upcoming series on Showtime, an episode of THE
LOVE BOAT and a pilot at NBC, gay characters and situations in
prime-time TV are becoming almost commonplace, and gay groups are
happy about it.
"We're very pleased." says Chris Uszler, chairperson of
the Alliance for Gay Artists, "because they're getting away from
treating gays and lesbians as an issue or a problem. There are
more of what we call 'happens-to-be-gay' characters."
'Brothers' concerns two older brothers who try to deal
with their younger brother's announcement that he is homosexual.
the six episodes will be shown on Showtime this summer.
Next season, THE LOVE BOAT will air an episode in which
one of the three subplots involves a gay couple. Roy Thinnes will
play a former fraternity brother of Doc's who tells his old
friend about his new life.
'All Together Now', an NBC pilot, is a comedy in which
Tom Byrd (who starred in 'Boone') plays a son in an All-American
family who comes out of the closet.
------
Well, this is a start. Comments?
--
-- cheers,
Mike Simpson, BBN
msimpson@bbn-unix (ARPA)
{decvax,ima,linus,wjh12}!bbncca!msimpson (Usenet)
617-497-2819 (Ma Bell)sdyer@bbncca.ARPA (Steve Dyer) (04/28/84)
Speaking of TV, did anyone see the Wednesday night broadcast of "David
Letterman?" Letterman was interviewing Harvey Fierstein, author of "Torch
Song Trilogy", and the book of the musical, "La Cage aux Folles."
I had always suspected that beneath Letterman's smarmy delivery lay a
frat-house mentality. While it's expected that any interview with
Fierstein would be funny--he's a very funny guy, Letterman just could
not get off the "gay" schtick, thinking it was just hilarious that
Fierstein now has a lover who was an "ex-heterosexual" and that he brought
him home to meet his mother. None of what Fierstein was relating was
funny, a-priori, but you'd never tell that by Letterman's school-boy grins and
barely suppressed chuckles. You could tell that he regarded Fierstein's
behavior as a quirky aberration to be subject to the same ridicule as
the normal fodder of his humor.
You could best describe Fierstein's responses as "polite"--he's been there
before, I'm sure.
--
/Steve Dyer
{decvax,linus,ima}!bbncca!sdyer
sdyer@bbncca.ARPA