Will & Grace is back. But has gay life on TV left behd? | Gareth McLean | The Guardian

Contents:

• WILL & GRACE BROKE GROUND FOR GAY REPRENTATN—CAN IT DO IT AGA?
• HOW WILL & GRACE PAVED THE WAY FOR GAY CHARACTERS ON TV
• HOW ‘WILL & GRACE’S’ RELATABLE VIBE HELPED AUDIENC ACCEPT GAY CHARACTERS
• WILL & GRACE IS BACK. BUT HAS GAY LIFE ON TV LEFT BEHD?
• ‘WILL & GRACE’ IS BACK. WILL ITS PORTRA OF GAY LIFE HOLD UP?

WILL & GRACE BROKE GROUND FOR GAY REPRENTATN—CAN IT DO IT AGA?

In 2012, former Vice Print Joe Bin ced the NBC s Will and Grace as a reason for Ameri's "evolvg" attu on homosexualy 2012: "I thk Will and Grace probably did more to te the Amerin public than almost anybody has ever done so far. Broadst televisn the early 2000s was a powerful form of reprentatn wh work UPN and s Ain-Amerin geared programmg, diverse soaps like telenovela adaptatn Ugly Betty, and y, ss like Will and show, starrg a gay man and his straight female roommate, at least partially managed to te straight people on the ia that there's more than one type of gay person—albe rich, whe, affluent on. There was Jack, the flamboyant one most people assumed gay men to be; then there was Eric McCormack's Will Tman, the mundane, everyman that tght straight people their next-door neighbor uld be gay.

Will's portrayal has gone on to be the blueprt for most gay men on televisn sce then, whereas Jack is somehow seen as negative, and regrsive. As portrayed by Megan Mullally, Karen was the boozy, outspoken bch of the NBC s, often ed as a gay male surrogate the way that the women of Sex and the Cy uld often be. Much has been ballyhooed about whether Jack's feme, theatre-lovg, melodramatic portrayal did a disservice to gay men as the one mastream reprentatn on televisn.

HOW WILL & GRACE PAVED THE WAY FOR GAY CHARACTERS ON TV

The stereotyp are nstantly nonted by seri like RuPl's Drag Race and films like Moonlight, but there are still gay men who prefer to date a "mascule" man, one who do not project to the world like a Bat signal that he's a homosexual. If Karen were a gay man, would have been a tly revolutnary portrayal and one of the first steps towards fantastilly three-dimensnal characters like T on The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Lafayette on Te Blood.

But an attempt to make gays palatable to mastream dienc, the homo part of Jack's personaly beme ripe for jok but the sexual part remaed behd closed doors. A much bolr portrayal of Jack would've shown how a brash, no-nonsense feme gay man uld enjoy sex and relatnships jt as anyone exists a long le of female characters wrten by gay men who keep you tung wh their outrageo behavr and snappy one-lers. Ryan Murphy has practilly ma a reer out of the women (Jsi Lange, Nene Leak, Jane Lynch, and Ellen Bark have all portrayed one or many), whereas his gay men tend to be sad, tortured begs like the perpetually sacchare Kurt and Blae on Glee or Fd's pictn of gay actor Victor Buono.

Hay, who told gay fans last year he "owed them a huge apology for g out too late, " is now an openly gay man who has an ia of what 's like to fully embrace your sexualy 2017. Will’s inty as a gay man was troduced to dienc through the unrstandg that they wouldn’t have known he was gay if he didn’t say anythg—nearly nothg about his immediately noticeable appearance or mannerisms the early seasons read as explicly queer. Will’s foil was Jack—a feme, rambunct, and somewhat idtic gay man who nearly always served as the punchle of a joke, pecially the early seasons.

HOW ‘WILL & GRACE’S’ RELATABLE VIBE HELPED AUDIENC ACCEPT GAY CHARACTERS

3 ln weekly viewers watched this seri about a gay man a perd where a majory of Amerins did not believe that gay people should be allowed to marry—a 2004 poll found 60% of Amerins opposed gay marriage. Merely one year later 1998, Will & Grace would premiere wh a gay lead character om the start and would go on to air for a lengthy 8-season origal n. Official to endorse gay marriage, notably tellg Meet the Prs that the s “did more to te the Amerin public more than almost anythg anybody has done so far.

But for others, the characters fall short—Jack, particular, whose hilar high mp persona has been cricized as a sort of gay mstrelsy some circl. Bee once Will and Jack kicked open TV's closet, there was no lookg NBC ma the cisn to add -creators David Kohan and Max Mutchnick's bawdy ltle edy, the ultimate unrequed love story between terr signer Grace Adler (Debra Msg) and her nrotic gay lawyer BFF Will (Eric McCormack), to s stable of programmg 1998, there were no real gay characters on TV to speak of. Prr to that, there had been a smatterg of gay characters a handful of seri, though they were always a supportg role—and often they befell some great tragedy while any realistic pictn of a love life was avoid at all sts.

WILL & GRACE IS BACK. BUT HAS GAY LIFE ON TV LEFT BEHD?

The characters were GINOs—Gay Name Only—and ually only when me time to die of when Will & Grace h the air, fally there were two gay men who did not pretend to be anythg other.

And bee show bs is, above all else, jt that—a bs—work executiv were quickly realizg that puttg gay characters ont and center wasn't ratgs suici. 'All the Fay' (1971-79)Livg up to s trailblazg reputatn, Norman Lear's legendary edy be the first s wh a gay storyle 1971, as bigoted Archie has trouble believg an old buddy is gay. While many shows remaed hant, other Lear shows troduced LGBTQ characters, cludg a gay uple on "Hot L Baltimore" (1975); a trans woman on "The Jeffersons" (1977); and a trans ma character on the short-lived "All That Glters" (1977).

‘WILL & GRACE’ IS BACK. WILL ITS PORTRA OF GAY LIFE HOLD UP?

'An Amerin Fay' (1973) This landmark documentary followg the Loud fay is primarily known as the precursor of realy TV – wh the chet of PBS – but also stood out bee one of the fay's sons, Lance, was openly gay at a time when society was ls hospable.

In 1985, NBC aired "An Early Frost, " the first TV movie alg wh AIDS, which followed a young gay man (Aidan Qun) alg wh HIV and g out to his parents.

'One Life to Live' (1968-2013)As an openly gay teen, Billy Douglas (Ryan Phillippe) was a groundbreakg character daytime televisn when he was troduced 1992. 'My So-Called Life' (1994-95)This much-praised but short-lived ABC high school drama featured Wilson Cz as Rickie Vasquez, the first openly gay actor to play a gay ma character on a primetime seri. 'The Real World: San Francis' (1994) Pedro Zamora, a young gay man who was HIV-posive, offered an empathetic human face to challenge hostile ritur the third season of the inic MTV realy soap.