The Gay '90s - TV Trop

Contents:

• THE GAY '90S
• GAY 90S
• GAY NETI
• SPECIAL REPORT: THE GAY 90'S
• THE GAY 90S
• GAY 90’S: MNEAPOLIS’ MOST INFLUENTIAL GAY BAR
• THE GAY NETI

THE GAY '90S

It was where what we now regnize as " nostalgia" was born, and The Gay Neti beme a popular settg for films of the 1930s, the 1940s and, to a lser gree, the 1950s and 1960s, by which time was seen as that nocent age before World Wars and atomic bombs. In fact, the "everybody's rich" stereotype stems om a nflatn of this perd wh "The Gild Age" (1876-1896), as the Gay Neti were also marked by enomic prsn and much labor agatn (see Panic of 1893 on The Other Wiki), not to mentn the Spanish-Amerin War. Even then, the term "Gild Age" (as , "ated gold") was specifilly meant to dite that the good tim were only a surface veneer, wh ser problems lurkg jt beneath (as the Gay Neti themselv later monstrated).

" Also, a French aristocrat by the name of Pierre Coubert would revive the Olympic Gam for the Gay Neti, which would be hosted Greece (the se of the origal Olympics).

This wasn't ually done whout at least a b of irony (ually only satiril or Cloudcuckoolanr works), but wrers and artists returned to the Gay Neti well so often that s nventns beme even more stereotypil.

GAY 90S

However, kooky Gay Neti stuff still pops up ocsnally, most often works directed at preteen children, or surreal edy seri such as The Simpsons or Fay Guy. Ironilly, real life, the Gay Neti were the perd where the world began to move beyond tradnal steampunk/gaslamp fantasy athetics bee of new technologi and movements such as Art Nouve. One Goln Age Batman story (wrten the 1940s) featured Batman and Rob visg an island where all morn technology was banned and the populatn lived like was The Gay Neti.

To Hartley's story: An Archie Comics om the eighti has Betty pg for The Gay Neti and fallg asleep, only to learn her dream that wasn't such a great time after all. Whilst Jeev and Wooster is set The Roarg '20s (or perhaps more accurately, Genteel Interbellum Settg), one story revolv around Sir Watks Basset's Compromisg Memoirs (and the multu of parti who sire the stctn thereof) of the var thgs he and other proment personag did durg The Gay Neti. The openg for Cheers starts off showsg the Gay Neti and then gradually go through the s — and one episo, Rebec disvers that the bar, which opened 1889, will soon have s 100 year anniversary.

GAY NETI

Though Disney lived there the early 20th century, the athetic of Ma Street is very remiscent of the Gay Neti, plete wh ice cream parlor, horse drawn and horsels rriag, and a barbershop quartet. The game also nstcts the ncept, as featur some of the ls pleasant parts of the Gay Neti, like blatant racism and thls robber barons nng Company Towns that keep people cshg poverty. Is set the Prent Day, still borrows que a b of Gay Neti athetic, notably crowd scen, where the background extras are often gsied up top hats and dner jackets (for the men) and illy hats and long drs (for the women).

" It foc on the '90s, as the untry moved om the Reagan years to a Clton princy, the AIDS epimic was peakg, and the untry beme eply divid polilly over gay rights and other hot-button issu. CORNISH: It me to sound like the openg salvo to the culture wars over the rights of gay And signified Buchanan's succsful ph of the Republin Party further to the right. And so for Bill Clton himself adm that he was wrong about gays the ary, he was wrong to sign the Defense of Marriage Act, says everythg that you need to know about his impact on the LGBTQ muny durg his princy and, ankly, the damage that his support of those polici and posns did at the time.

Or maybe was Tom Hanks, acceptg an Amy Award for his portrayal of a gay lawyer Philalphia, and tearfully thankg his high school drama teacher and a classmate—"two of the ft gay Amerins that I had the good fortune to be associated wh"—before a billn movie fans around the world. But however all began, look at where 's led: Jt as Elvis and his ilk plumbed Ain-Amerin mil tradns and turned them to mastream rock & roll the 1950s, moviemakers, TV producers, media people, and rock stars have turned entertament on s head by eely mg the gay culture for s sarsm and style, s glter and gr, s secrets and celebratns.

SPECIAL REPORT: THE GAY 90'S

Comedy's most popular styl now utilize the gay sensibily—a reliance on irony that's omni-prent products as varied as Letterman (not him, jt his raised eyebrow) and The Ln Kg ( which Timon and Pumbaa are … well, whatever you want them to be). On Broadway, gay-themed works are the most domant genre, and for three seasons, gay-themed plays by gay playwrights (Tony Khner's two-part Angels Ameri and, most recently, Terrence McNally's Love!

Now straight men are expected to be jt as mosed and buffed as their gay unterparts; and they are subtly prsured to emulate the exhibnistic sex appeal of mols like Marky Mark and Michael Berg, who have posed sctively ads tend to sell shorts not jt to gay men, but to all men.

" Gradually, the entertament dtry me to realize that gay n sell a niche-market art film (such as the mor summer h The Incredibly Te Adventure of Two Girls Love), as well as help to sell a film wh crossover appeal (Four Weddgs and a Funeral). NYPD Blue's gay male replacement receptnist (whose boyiend happens to be a p) proved so popular last season that the show's producers are brgg him back this fall. Explas David Lee, the gay creator of Frasier and director of last season's accintal date episo, "There was humor the suatn [the characters] found themselv , but you weren't lghg at anyone bee he was gay.

THE GAY 90S

The ntroversial "Men on Film" segment of Fox's In Livg Color (1990-94), which two flamg black queens offered a gay perspective on movi, sharply divid even the gay muny. "I ed to watch wh my black gay iends and jt hoot, " says Donald Suggs, the associate director of the watchdog group Gay & Lbian Alliance Agast Defamatn (GLAAD).

Conversely, a le punctuated by an antigay ephet ABC's pilot of The Naked Tth, about a tabloid photographer (Tea Leoni), is gettg some lghs—even om gay viewers. The revolutn has been slower to take hold at movie studs, which all but banned gay characters after the dismal failure of Makg Love, the oh-so-ser 1982 drama which Michael Ontkean left Kate Jackson for Harry Haml (actually, dienc shied away om the film bee stank).

GAY 90’S: MNEAPOLIS’ MOST INFLUENTIAL GAY BAR

Still, by the early 1990s, seemed almost every movie hero or heroe had a lovable gay neighbor–a lovelorn iend Frankie & Johnny, a flower-totg sissy The Prce of Tis. But not until 1993 did a major stud, TriStar, release a film hgg on gay characters—Philalphia, which was cricized wh the gay muny for playg safe and never even givg Hanks and his lover Anton Banras an on-screen kiss. ) Even many recent pictns of gay characters—the psyt-strokg upstairs neighbor 1992's Sgle Whe Female, for stance—seem posively Cro-Magnon today, so rapidly are perceptns evolvg.

Or so said gay groups earlier this year when the actor-turned-director (who has received flak for publicly exprsg his disda for homosexuals the past) picted Braveheart's Prce Edward as a rouged-up, mcg queen (a pictn, should be noted, that might have a basis historil fact). It's drawg long l s limed release, and 's st wh an imprsive lot of stars playg a balanced array of gay characters, om Patrick Stewart as a likable (and stereotypilly flamboyant) terr rator to Steven Weber (Wgs' womanizg Brian) as a stralaced young gay Manhattane who swears off sex for fear of AIDS. And as g out beme more mon, there was a ccial shift the perceptn of those veterate culture nsumers, the baby boomers: Acrdg to an Entertament Weekly/Gallup poll, 71% of 30- to 49-year-olds say they unt a gay person among their relativ, workers, or iends.

THE GAY NETI

" And jt as 's impossible to fe what is funny (or even polilly rrect) when rporatg a gay reference to a punchle, has bee impossible to fe pop material as gay or straight.

For straight dienc are not only embracg gay characters, they're also lghg at the gay sensibily, which is far ls easy to spot than, say, a drag queen. Both Frasier (about a straight man who tak his retired father) and Roseanne (about a uple tryg hard to raise a fay while balancg on the poverty le) are among the Nielsen fay edi wh substantial crossover appeal to gay dienc—and not jt bee they have rporated gay characters.