Good Opinion Piece on Lack of Gays on Network TV

[EricMontreal22]

The G&M tv critic is a self aknowledged grump but one I actually usually agree with:

A good piece in yesterday's Globe & Mail (which is kinda the Canadian equivalent to the NY Times) about gays on network tv, etc. I'm pasting the whole thign here as the website only works for subscribers:

Thank God for gay neighbours on Wisteria Lane

JOHN DOYLE

E-mail John Doyle | Read Bio | Latest Columns

October 25, 2007

So I read in the paper about this Dumbledore chap being gay.

You probably read it about it too, this being big news, apparently. Perhaps, like me, you were unsure of the identity of this Dumbledore. See, I'm no expert on the Harry Potter thing. Because I'm old and cranky, I suppose. (I'm not really, but Teddy, my former Occasional Summer Assistant, took that view daily.) I saw a Harry Potter movie on a plane, once, but was distracted from the drama by my ever-present copy of the Good Book. And yes, the Good Book is J.P. Donleavy's The Ginger Man.

Anyway, moving along - and thank heavens, says you - the emergence of a gay character in popular culture seems to have caused an inordinate amount of fuss. This is especially true of the U.S. media, which has reacted as if Dubya had announced that Mel B was his favourite Spice Girl and Tinky Winky was his favourite Teletubby.

The fact is that there are too few gay characters on U.S. network TV. It's a bizarre anomaly, and there is good reason to savour the arrival of gay neighbours on last Sunday's episode of Desperate Housewives.

It was done with delicious wit and irony. Bob (Tuc Watkins) and Lee (Kevin Rahm) moved to Wisteria Lane because Bob was fed up with the seediness of the city and fancied a nice, clean life in the suburbs. It appears that Bob is a businessman and Lee, obviously his long-time companion, is the househusband. Lee's not too thrilled about moving to the 'burbs. He's quite pointedly suspicious of the whole thing.

So Bob and Lee move in and are first greeted by Susan (Teri Hatcher). By the way - I'm not giving all away here, there's much more fun to enjoy if you haven't seen it yet. Lee glares at the perky, friendly Susan when she burbles about how great it is to meet her new neighbours. Then it dawns on her that she's meeting a gay couple.

"I watch cable," she says, to signal her profound knowledge of gay men living together. "I think it's super!" she exclaims with unerring stupidity. Then Bob arrives and mentions "Raphael." Susan tries to take this in stride. "Oh, there are three of you. That's just great!" she asserts. Lee looks at her the way some people look at me when I suggest that Little Mosque is, you know, an okay show. "Yeah, right" Lee snaps. "We're gay Mormons."

Raphael is actually Bob and Lee's dog. There follows some good comic business centred on Raphael.

The key element in this droll exchange is Susan's declaration that she knows about gay couples from watching cable TV.

In fact, ABC, which airs Desperate Housewives, is the leader in having gay and lesbian characters on network series. According to the annual study of these matters by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), network series in the 2007-08 TV season will feature eight regularly seen characters who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered (ie characters played by actors who have a contract with the show), which is down from nine characters in 2006 and 10 the season before. Note that the seven emerge from analyzing the content of a total of 87 comedies and dramas with 650 characters.

Those eight characters are on seven shows - Brothers & Sisters, Desperate Housewives, Ugly Betty, Dirty Sexy Money, The Office and the upcoming midseason series Cashmere Mafia. Of the eight, seven are on ABC and one is on NBC. The GLAAD study concluded that there are no lead or supporting characters who are gay on CBS, FOX or CW shows.

Meanwhile, looking at cable networks, including HBO, Showtime and FX, which air a considerable amount of drama and comedy, GLAAD found 40 gay characters appearing regularly on 21 scripted shows.

Now, call me naive or a know-nothing, but this situation is just nuts. If the kids who are captivated by the Harry Potter stories can take the news that Dumbledore is gay, surely most grownups watching network TV can accept more gay characters in dramas and comedies.

But, perhaps, it's going to be like this - the next time a network (other than ABC) airs a Harry Potter movie, Dumbledore goes mysteriously missing. Riddle me that.