On the ABC edy's 40th anniversary, Michael Montlack reflects on how he learned to be gay om a straight actor playg a straight character pretendg to be gay.
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THREE'S COMPANY MA ME THE GAY MAN I AM TODAY
A page for scribg WMG: Three's Company. Mr. Furley knew Jack wasn't gay om the "Baby, It's Cold Insi" episo to the end of the seri.Towards the … * mr furley gay gif *
Like Stanley Roper before him, Furley is also tricked to believg that Jack is gay orr for him to ntue livg wh Ja and Chrissy.
Also, like Roper, Furley liked to ocsnally crack gay jok about Jack at his expense. Furley knew Jack wasn't gay om the "Baby, It's Cold Insi" episo to the end of the seri. Towards the end of the seri, wh this episo, Jack, thkg they were both dyg, told Furley that he wasn't gay.
But, the episos followg this one, the gay jok were fewer, and the on that were there were ually followed by a "jt kiddg. In an earlier episo he said if his brother (who actually owns the buildg) found out Jack wasn't gay then he would make him kick Jack out.
* mr furley gay gif *
He's aaid of Jack, who he believ is gay, and tnts him nstantly about this—oftentim the reactn of a eply closeted homophobe. Luckily, there's hardly the void of gay role mols many of experienced g up the 1970s and '80s. Who would show me the gay way?
But that imagery led to an even more alien notn: Were those the only kd of gay people the world? Jack Tripper appeared on the screen 1977 (the 40th anniversary of the first episo is this March): boyishly handsome, adorably clumsy and generally ordary most ways, except one -- he was pretendg to be gay orr to live wh two female roommat. This was certaly "a step that was new" but not pletely unfaiar to a boy pretendg to be straight orr to live peacefully an unwelg (and John Rter, who played him, for that matter) wasn't queer, but the fact that he had the dacy to even label himself gay was astoundg.