On 1/15/2022 at 12:33 PM, All My Shadows said:

Yes, this is what would work for me. I remember AMC had the very, very occasional recurring character Kenny, who was the Fusion girls' lawyer. I think he made some regular appearances in the early days of Fusion and then maybe showed up for an episode or two a few years later. He wasn't a fixture on the show in any way, but I *think* there was always a playful flirtation between Simone and he, and if he'd come back with a boyfriend at some point, I would have never questioned it.

Perfect example of a character being gay when they clearly weren't gay before: Doug Witter on Dawson's Creek. The entire series, Pacey made jokes about Doug being gay, and Doug denied it in a very unbothered "I know I'm not gay, but please stfu, Pacey" way. Then all of a sudden in the series finale, he's gay after all and was gay the entire time, and his boyfriend is one of his little brother's friends (who is younger than him by at least 7 or 8 years). Okaaaaay...and also another example of two characters being together just because they're the gay ones on the show.

In fantasy land, I like to imagine TV always being an accurate reflection of the real world and all of the public and personal dramas people have always had. Bill Bauer cheating on Bert with a man in the 60s would have knocked the light right out of the lighthouse.

I totally forgot they made Doug gay in the finale for no reason 

In 1977 the unhappily married Sharon Duval (Sally Stark) admitted to her dear friend Julie Williams that she was bisexual and was in love with her. I think Susan Seaforth Hayes has mentioned this in more than one interview, and she said that she would have been fine with Julie being bi, but the show decided not to go there.

According to welovesoaps,
the storyline was quickly wrapped up when problems broke out backstage between head writer Pat Falken Smith and the NBC top brass. 
https://www.welovesoaps.net/2008/07/gaylesbianbisexual-television.html 

Julie being confused about her feelings for Sharon/towards women, while feeling like she's betraying Doug, would've been so angsty; I love it. 

From what I’ve read, Julie was actually pretty homophobic about Sharon’s love for her.

@jam6242 What do you remember of the above-mentioned Sharon/Julie storyline?

And what was the approximate age of the characters at that time?

Edited January 20, 20223 yr by janea4old

A bit off topic but didn't Bell try to do gay stories on DOOL?

13 minutes ago, janea4old said:

@jam6242 What do you remember of the above-mentioned Sharon/Julie storyline?

And what was the approximate age of the characters at that time?

Sally- Stark Sharon was 38 and SSH -Julie was 34

3 hours ago, janea4old said:

According to welovesoaps,
the storyline was quickly wrapped up when problems broke out backstage between head writer Pat Falken Smith and the NBC top brass. 
https://www.welovesoaps.net/2008/07/gaylesbianbisexual-television.html 

I wonder what her original plans for the storyline had been.  Did she intend for Sharon to be an unlikely spoiler in Doug and Julie's relationship?  Was Sharon eventually going to find love with another Salem resident?

Re Sharon and Julie, can't say it was handled well.  Julie strongly rejected Sharon's advances and Sharon ended up slashing her wrists over it.  I don't think it was ever meant to be a serious relationship.  Julie had only recently finally married Doug and had no idea Sharon was interested in a romantic relationship with her.  I always had the impression that Sharon's husband Karl was also interested in Julie, and for some reason I thought Sharon and Karl were "swingers" and wanted Julie to participate.  Julie and Sharon did make up right before Sharon left town.  I remember Sharon giving Julie a brooch at that time.  I'm pretty sure it was all cut short because of fan hate mail.  This was around the same time the David/Valerie story was airing.

Between the Sharon Duval story and the David/Valerie story, not to mention the surrogate story w/ Doug, Pat Falken Smith was really trying to push the envelope.  It's just a shame TPTB panicked and cut it all short.

I can see the layout for the Katherine and JoAnn relationship on Y&R (I assume the plan all along was for this to be a yearning but unbalanced relationship between two very lonely women and the conclusion was in the end likely going to be what happened onscreen, just that version was much more sped up), but the Sharon stuff baffles me in what the message or intent was going to be. If the idea was that Sharon would eventually accept herself and move on with her life, with Julie coming around to support her, I wish they had managed to work that in in a more subtle way - the audience likely still would have lashed out, but maybe not as vocally.

6 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

I can see the layout for the Katherine and JoAnn relationship on Y&R [...] but the Sharon stuff baffles me in what the message or intent was going to be.

That's why I'd love to know what, if anything, PFS had planned for Sharon.  Because, from what I have read, I couldn't begin to guess where she might've been going with that character.