Billy Crystal Portrayed First Openly Gay Ma Character on TV — si the 'Soap' Story

LBGTQ TV: A HISTORY OF GAY CHARACTERS, OM STONEWALL TO ‘BATWOMAN’

Gay characters the post-Stonewall era go a lot wir and eper than ‘Will & Grace’ and ‘Ellen.’ * the first gay character on tv *

As a Vulture say about a groundbreakg “All the Fay” episo noted, “In a moment where crics pot to ss as a medium that helped change public opns about gay rights, we should remember that the procs didn’t beg wh ‘Will & Grace’ or ‘Glee.

Long before that, though, there were signature, cludg the 1971 episo of “All the Fay” which the bigoted, homophobic Archie Bunker was stunned to disver that an old buddy was gay.

In 1972, Hal Holbrook played a divorced dad hidg the fact he was gay om his son “That Certa Summer, ” nsired one of the first sympathetic pictns of gay characters on televisn. The 1980s brought AIDS to the nversatn, wh movi such as “An Early Frost, ” an NBC movie about a gay lawyer who mt break the news about his AIDS diagnosis to his parents.

TV'S GAY CHARACTERS, BEFORE AND AFTER ELLEN

Univisn ma history this week when aired<a href="; target="external"> a same-sex weddg</a> on the telenovela "Amor Verdaros" ("Te Lov"). It's the first weddg of s kd (the, you know, same-sex kd) to be aired on the work. * the first gay character on tv *

The same thg happened when ABC’s “thirtysomethg” beme the first seri to pict two gay men bed together 30 years ago, a dynamic that ed work officials to thk twice about approvg such storyl. Ellen Man wasn't the first gay character on TV, but her g out on the ABC s Ellen, followg star Ellen DeGener' own claratn — "Yep, I'm gay" — on the ver of Time magaze, opened the door to portrayg them more openly and more often. A list of some of TV's more important gay characters, before and after Ellen: Bewched: Pl Lyn plays Uncle Arthur, who wasn't gay then — but probably would be now.

(1977)Love, Sidney: Tony Randall as a nfirmed bachelor who was gay the TV movie Sidney Shorr: A Girl's Bt Friend, but whose sexualy beme ambiguo the follow-up TV seri. (1989)20-year flashback: Ellen DeGener me out, and paved the way for more gay TV rolMelrose Place: Matt Fieldg (Doug Savant), who's gay, is the only person on this sexy soap opera who never seemed to have sex.

10 MILTONE MOMENTS GAY TV HISTORY

Back 1977, actor and edian Billy Crystal stunned dienc when he portrayed the first openly ga ma character a TV seri, "Soap." and opened the way for gay ins like Ellen DeGener * the first gay character on tv *

(1999)Queer as Folk: Gale Harold's Brian and Randy Harrison's Jt are among the more proment characters this Showtime seri about gay men Ptsburgh, adapted om a (much better) Brish seri. (2009)Morn Fay: Wh Mch and Cam (Jse Tyler Fergon and Eric Stontreet), no show has ever done more to fully rporate a gay uple to a fay story and normalize their relatnship and, later, marriage.