Longtime TV cric Dan Avery charts the history of gay, queer, and transgenr reprentatn popular Amerin seri om 1971 to today, om Ellen to Pose.
Contents:
- LBGTQ TV: A HISTORY OF GAY CHARACTERS, OM STONEWALL TO ‘BATWOMAN’
- TV'S GAY CHARACTERS, BEFORE AND AFTER ELLEN
- BILLY CRYSTAL PORTRAYED FIRST OPENLY GAY MA CHARACTER ON TV — SI THE 'SOAP' STORY
- 10 MILTONE MOMENTS GAY TV HISTORY
- 14 TV SHOWS THAT BROKE GROUND WH GAY AND TRANSGENR CHARACTERS
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.’ * first gay main character on television *
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 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. (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.
TV'S GAY CHARACTERS, BEFORE AND AFTER ELLEN
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 * first gay main character on television *
(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. " At a time when homosexualy wasn't discsed, Jodie Dallas me out as would be nearly 20 years until Ellen DeGener' character on her s "Ellen" me out 1994 -- as did the edienne -- but Crystal's portrayal of the assured and openly gay Jodie paved the Crystal onstage at the 'The Comedians' panel discsn durg the Televisn Crics Associatn prs tou r 2015 Pasana, California | Source: Getty ImagMEET JODIE DALLASJodie Dallas was one of the characters of the hilar ABC s "Soap, " a farse based on the plex and outrageo plotl and dramatic twists and turns of the ever-popular daily soap gay Jodie was a televisn mercial director his twenti livg wh his mother, Mary Campbell.
BILLY CRYSTAL PORTRAYED FIRST OPENLY GAY MA CHARACTER ON TV — SI THE 'SOAP' STORY
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. * first gay main character on television *
Jodie is love wh a pro footballer who is also gay, but ep the closet, and ends up turng his back on him out of fear of was only "Will & Grace" 1996 that another ma character a prime time TV program -- Eric McCormack's WIll -- is openly Crystal wh the st of "Soap" 1977 | Source: Wikimedia Commons/ ABC Televisn, Soap full st 1977, marked as public domaOut of speratn, Jodie has a one-night-stand wh a woman, and fathers a child.
Crystal revealed that he and the productn of "Soap" worked to make Jodie more realistic, and his stggl reflected many of the homosexual muny's challeng and are still valid today, more than 40 years TODAYThanks to Jodie, characters s and drama seri slowly me out of the closet. In the 80s "thirtysomethg" gay uple Rsell and Peter are shown layg chastely bed together -- but never seri like "Melrose Place" and "Friends" featured mor gay characters, but was only "Will & Grace" 1996 that another ma character a prime time TV program -- Eric McCormack's WIll -- is openly COMEDYCrystal, famo for his acute w and acerbic stand-up edy act went on to build an extremely succsful reer as an actor a seri of h edi, such as "Cy Slickers" alongsi Jack Palance who won the Osr for Bt Supportg Actor for his his many hs, Crystal unts "Analyze This, " wh the legendary Robert DeNiro, "Ameri's Sweethearts, " wh Julia Roberts, John Cack, and Cathere Zeta-Jon, and MIracle Max the cult fantasy, "The Prcs Bri. "Crystal immortalized some of the most quoted l of all tim cludg "men and women n't be iends, " but even Harry Burns didn't equal the massive impact his Jodie Dallas had on attus the may jt be that funnyman Billy Crystal's most endurg legacy is the life and tim of a slightly geeky gay man livg wh his mother, tryg to live a world tolerant of his differenc, and dog wh humor.
10 MILTONE MOMENTS GAY TV HISTORY
Can you gus which nostalgic TV show troduced the first gay character back 1972? * first gay main character on television *
To celebrate this tone queer visibily, we looked back over the past three s and round up the 30 most inic LGBTQ characters TV history, om loveable gay uple Mchell and Cameron to trans trailblazers like Sophia Burset.
Even though Jack McFarland’s character has received a mixed receptn for perpetuatg gay stereotyp, he’s one of the longt nng and most inic queer characters on televisn, appearg ten seasons and 188 episos of Will & Grace to date. Mark Inlito has gone on rerd to say that he received a lot of fan mail for his portrayal, wh young gay kids ‘thankg’ him bee they’d never seen themselv reprented on televisn before. 12/48ABC1994: My So-Called LifeWhile One Life to Live had s first gay teen 1992, primetime's first openly gay teen seri regular character me to My So-Called Life's Enrique "Rickie" Vasquez, played by Wilson Cz.
15/481997: Ellen"The Puppy Episo" of Ellen featured Ellen Man (Ellen DeGener) g out as gay, the same time the star me out on the ver of Time magaze, makg Ellen the first show to feature an openly lbian actrs playg an openly lbian character. 22/48CBS2007: As the World TurnsMen were kissg primetime long before daytime fally got on board, but the soaps ught up 2007 when As the World Turns featured the first-ever gay kiss between two male characters, Le Snyr (Van Hansis) and Noah Mayer (Jake Silbermann). Played by Vcent Schiavelli (Fast Tim at Ridgemont High, Ghost), Peter was met wh risn by, among others, the Gay Activists Alliance, which took issue wh the character’s flamboyance.
14 TV SHOWS THAT BROKE GROUND WH GAY AND TRANSGENR CHARACTERS
Few characters on Fox’s mil dramedy were as well-veloped and fully realized as Santana, who evolved om a qutsential mean girl to a plex, beloved gay character durg the show’s six-season n. Santana’s arc h so many beats that were important and fluential for LGBTQ viewers: Her relatnship wh Brtany was among TV’s sweett, most scere portrayals of young love (regardls of sexualy); like many gay teenagers, she was nonted wh tolerance om her clost fay after g out; and even as Santana’s sexualy remaed a re facet of her character, she wasn’t pigeonholed to exclively Very Special Storyl. Will & Grace s heyday ma great stris for gay reprentatn, and Will Tman — his small, subtle way — helped nudge that progrs forward, makg safe for gay men to play the “straight man, ” as were.
Relig groups took umbrage wh the ABC s’s cln of (among other topics) a gay character, while LGBTQ anizatns were ncerned about the portrayal beg stereotypil and/or nflated wh transsexualism, based on the scripts for early episos. From vatng on a gay cise to servg as the print of the Malibu Stacy Fan Club, Smhers has never been anythg other than himself — and he’s got the growg list of ex-boyiends to prove . Rickie provid an unapologetilly lorful and rg prence as his perplexed pal Angela navigated her high school’s social circl, but Cz’s portrayal went even eper, wh storyl about homophobia and abe wh Rickie’s own fay.
The Fox sudser may have done Doug Savant’s character dirty wh that off-screen ath the fal season, but Matt will still be remembered fondly as one of the first openly gay ma characters on a work TV drama. Though Blake’s send-olst child was touted as the first openly gay ma character a primetime drama, the handlg of Steven’s sexualy — largely amed as a stggle, and a tra he often had to nceal — was joyls and imperfect to a pot that origal portrayer Al Corley vated the role.