Cucumber is disappotg TV – which is why we need more gay dramas | Televisn | The Guardian

Contents:

• CUCUMBER IS DISAPPOTG TV – WHICH IS WHY WE NEED MORE GAY DRAMAS
• ARE BOB THE TOMATO AND LARRY THE CUCUMBER GAY? PHIL VISCHER, SEMLER WEIGH IN
• ARE BOB THE TOMATO AND LARRY THE CUCUMBER GAY? PHIL VISCHER, SEMLER WEIGH IN
• BOB THE TOMATO, LARRY THE CUCUMBER ARE NOT GAY, SAYS VEGGIETAL CREATOR

CUCUMBER IS DISAPPOTG TV – WHICH IS WHY WE NEED MORE GAY DRAMAS

It’s hard to overstate the impact of Queer as Folk for those, like me, who grew up gay the late 90s. The sharply wrten and unpromisg cktail of hedonism, humour and human drama saw mastream TV feature gay characters whout rortg to phemism or uchg their sexualy terms of shame or tragedy. The first is disappotment that the show’s characters portray a negative image of gay men as sex-obssed narcissists.

The send argu that Cucumber shouldn’t have to be all thgs to all gay people. We should be celebratg the fact that a show unpromisgly gay enough to feature a lengthy monologue about Ryan Reynolds’ penis is beg aired at all.

An anthology seri focg on a broar spectm of LGBTQ characters, not only is a sharper, more tightly wrten show, but also has the potential to serve as a great sprgboard for up-and-g gay wrers and performers. It would have been a better, braver choice for a Channel 4 flagship urse, we have ma signifint stris gay reprentatn sce 1999, and gay characters are more visible mastream drama and edy than ever before. Gay televisn dramas need to be ee to fail, and gay characters to be fully round human begs rather than walkg issu.

ARE BOB THE TOMATO AND LARRY THE CUCUMBER GAY? PHIL VISCHER, SEMLER WEIGH IN

In a tweet that appears to have been leted, Twter er Qun Smh said, “@philvischer was Milwkee at a @relientK ncert, and @gracebaldridge suggted that Bob & Larry are gay, n you nfirm? ” From his rponse, is unclear whether Vischer was nyg that the VeggieTal characters are gay, or if he was simply sayg that he uldn’t publicly nfirm the theory. Tweetg a screenshot of the teractn between Smh and Vischer, Semler said, “LET THE CARTOON VEGETABLES BE GAY PHIL.

ARE BOB THE TOMATO AND LARRY THE CUCUMBER GAY? PHIL VISCHER, SEMLER WEIGH IN

While Foreman ma further ments about holdg space for differg views, leavg some ambiguy as to whether he believ homosexualy is sful, Semler terpreted his rponse as affirmg. The creator of the 1999 BBC seri Queer As Folk has ma three new TV seri about gay men and women — and two of them are g to the U. Cucumber, the ma show, tells the story of Henry, a middle-aged gay man and his life and his lov and his adventur.

Interview Highlights On Cucumber begng wh a uple who don't get married even though gay marriage is legal Bra. When the [gay marriage] laws are passed, y, as a person I celebrate and I have a civil partnership myself and I'm lighted and happy. On wantg to wre middle-aged gay characters I'm gettg olr — I was once that betiful, dancg young man, believe or not, and I've had 20 years to kd of look at life and reflect and bee that olr man.

I thk there's a tenncy for gay characters who are now brilliantly, marveloly croppg up more and more numbers and more and more shows and beg more and more visible — I thk we're culturally at a stage where those characters are pretty and sexy. But I thk gay terms, [my shows ver] new terrory.

BOB THE TOMATO, LARRY THE CUCUMBER ARE NOT GAY, SAYS VEGGIETAL CREATOR

The gay kids don't, as a le — we tend to be the on stg back. This is changg, you now have such a thg as the gay teenager the world, which is so wonrful. That lerally didn't exist [when I was a teen], the out gay teenager, I mean.

I thk that om people watchg and maybe those quiet teenage gay years gave me that abily – so, hooray.

On the rponse to Queer As Folk When I wrote Queer As Folk, which had a 15-year-old young gay character g out of the closet ( the Amerin versn he was 17),...