There's no doubt that gay men and lesbians have made significant strides toward a place on American television. Although there is a significant segment of the US population that believes homosexuality is wrong and should not be depicted at all, much less in a positive manner, the last few decades have seen the opposite result. That's largely because of efforts by gay rights groups, who have pressured producers and networks to offer a more realistic view of gay men and women. In the long run, that pressure paid off--but it also had a negative effect in some respects.

Milton Berle may have worn a dress on his groundbreaking variety series in the early 1950's, but he wasn't gay and it was pure camp that never failed to get a laugh from the TV and studio audience. When television began in the late 1940's and early 1950's in the US, homosexuality was a taboo subject in most popular entertainment. Sure, you could hint that a certain effeminate male character was a bit "light in the loafers" or speculate why that spinster never settled down with a man in a decade where marriage and "family togetherness" was almost a religion. Homosexuality, if it was referred to, was spoken in code and never overtly displayed on the new medium. In fact, except for a few documentary shows, there were virtually no references or depictions of same-sex relationships or gay characters in the 1950's and 1960's. One of the few exceptions came from the late, brilliant comedian Ernie Kovacs. His occasional character of Percy Dovetonsils, an effeminate, lisping poet whose manners never failed to get laughs from the audience. (Other examples include the flamboyant Uncle Arthur, played by the late actor Paul Lynde; and Alan Sues' nelly sportscaster with his omnipresent bell on "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In.")

Most historians point to the June 1969 "Stonewall Riots" as the turning point for what was then called the "gay liberation movement" in the United States. New York City police, in its ongoing effort to harass homosexuals, raided the "Stonewall Inn" gay bar. Instead of going peacefully, the patrons began resisting arrest and turned against the arresting officers. The action empowered gay leaders to call for equal rights, at a time when the anti-war, civil rights and feminist movements began taking hold.

Starting in the early 1970's, a new effort was made to show gay men and lesbians on mainstream television series. Surprisingly in the US, it was not drama that gave gays increased visibility--it was the situation comedy format.

The groundbreaking "All In The Family" provided one of the earliest examples; the show's first season in 1971 showed bigoted Archie Bunker making cracks about a seemingly effeminate friend of son-in-law Mike, who displayed the stereotypical signs of homosexuality. But Archie gets a real shock when he learns that his macho, former pro football playing beer-buddy was a "friend of Dorothy". From that point on, the macho gay man became a staple for a laugh in many a sitcom--just like Milton Berle in a dress. (Producer Norman Lear, the man behind "All In The Family", also brought Americans the first gay couple in a series--George and Gordon, older "significant others" on ABC's short-lived 1975 adult comedy "Hot L Baltimore")

"Family" also had an impact on Archie Bunker's favourite president, Richard Nixon. According to recently-released tapes from May 13th, 1971, Nixon told his aides after watching an episode of the comedy that "Archie is sitting here with his hippie son-in-law, married to the screwball daughter...the son-in-law apparently goes both ways....The point that I make is that, goddamn it, I do not think you glorify on public television homosexuality....I do not want to see this country go that way." (For the record, son-in-law Mike was not bisexual.)

Not long after, "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" aired an episode where neighbour Phyllis tried to get Mary's best friend Rhoda interested in her brother. But the blind date didn't work out, and near the end of the show, an angry Phyllis confronted Rhoda, asking her why her brother wasn't good enough. Rhoda's simple answer: "He's gay!" (The surprise gay character also became a television staple.) In 1972, ABC broke new ground with the short-lived sitcom "The Corner Bar", which was set in a New York City tavern. Actor Vincent Schiavelli portrayed a flamboyant set designer named "Peter Panama"--who became the first openly gay character to appear on a regular basis in a US television series.

Meanwhile, dramas began dealing with gay and lesbian characters (usually as a one-shot topic for the week). In 1972, ABC made a bold move by airing the made-for-television film "That Certain Summer"--the story of a teenage boy who eventually learns his father is gay, and lives with another man. It was a well-done movie that earned critical acclaim and good ratings. Near the end of the film, the father tells his son that "A lot of people think (homosexuality is) wrong. They say it's a sickness....if I had a choice, it's not something I'd pick for myself". That line of self-loathing was ordered by the network, to appease those opposed to homosexuality. Still, "That Certain Summer" gave gays new legitimacy on television by just being depicted on the small screen.

1973 brought America a real-life look at a real-life homosexual: "An American Family", the groundbreaking PBS documentary about the Louds of Southern California became notable for two developments. Parents Pat and Bill Loud's marriage deteriorated before television audiences, and son Lance came out to his family. Lance Loud's revelation drew the most controversy, but brought plenty of viewers to public television. It was the first time, but not the last, that reality and homosexuality merged on the tube.

Meanwhile, the growing gay rights movement became embroiled in a fight with ABC over the depiction of homosexuals on its popular medical drama "Marcus Welby, MD". In one episode, a high school teacher molested a 14-year-old boy; another episode had the good Dr. Welby assuring a man with homosexual leanings that he could be "cured" and live a "normal" life. The result was the creation of a group that eventually became known as the "Gay Media Task Force", which attempted--with considerable success--to have producers portray gays and lesbians in a positive light and to sanitize any anti-homosexual portrayal on US television. GMTF was responsible for a character change in the comedy farce "Soap": When the series began, Jody Dallas--the character played by Billy Crystal--was a stereotypical gay man who wanted to wear women's dresses and get a sex-change operation. But the show tended to make Jody the target of anti-gay jokes and slurs by some members of the cast. GMTF forced ABC and "Soap's" producers to strip Jody of some of his stereotypical behaviour. The pressure effort worked; by the end of the show's run, Jody actually had an affair with a woman and fought for custody of his child.

"Soap" was just one example of GMTF's influence; by the late 1970's, a large number of US series and TV movies had at least one occasional gay character. Virtually all were good people, rarely seen but not causing too much trouble either. But the new open attitude toward positive gay images went only so far. Two people of the same sex were not allowed to kiss, or be seen in bed with each other. (One exception: The sexually-oriented sitcom "Three's Company", the US offspring of Britain's "Man About The House". Lead male character Jack Tripper pretended to be gay so he could live with two women; the show was essentially a bedroom farce.) But the GMTF-approved characters and situations led to one-sided, "politically correct" images of homosexuality as well. In a script for a TV movie where a woman left her husband for another woman, the final scene had the woman return to her husband and tell him "It's good to be home again". The television executive who read the script wanted the line changed, noting: "Don't you realize this will offend every lesbian in America"?

With the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 and the rise of the so-called "conservative movement", groups opposed to homosexuality took on new power. Broadcast networks, fearful of boycotts and viewer backlash, initially backed off on gay characters and themes. One example was the NBC sitcom "Love Sidney". Sidney Shorr, played by Tony Randall, was to have been the first gay character in a lead series role (and indeed, the made-for-television pilot showed Sidney as a homosexual). Conservative groups such as the "Moral Majority" forced the network to make Sidney a older, single man with no clear sexual preference. "Love, Sidney" lasted just two seasons.

More successful on its own terms was "Brothers", a sitcom about three siblings that aired on the Showtime pay cable network; Paul Regina played gay brother Cliff Waters in the series and Phillip Charles McKenzie was his flamboyant best friend Donald Maltby. Originally pitched to the broadcast networks (and rejected); "Brothers" ran for five seasons--and proved to be somewhat ahead of its time. By the early 1980's, a new factor emerged: AIDS. In the US, the first cases of the then-mysterious disease were gay men. Although several series began dealing with AIDS (most notably "St. Elsewhere") NBC was the first network to tackle the topic head-on with the 1985 television film "An Early Frost", the story of a man who comes home to tell his parents he is not only gay, but dying of AIDS. Also that same year, Laura Z. Hobson's "Consenting Adult", about a mother's relationship with her gay son, became a successful made-for-TV movie on ABC, with Marlo Thomas as the mother and Martin Sheen as the homophobic father. (Ironically, Sheen played Hal Holbrook's lover 13 years earlier in "That Certain Summer".)

As the 80's came to an end and the 90's dawned, most TV viewers (though certainly not all) accepted occasional homosexual characters on movies and series. And as cable began making its way into more homes, providing content that pushed the boundaries, the US broadcast networks began pushing the envelope as well. Some highlights of the mid and late 1980's:

"Dynasty" featured Steven Carrington (Al Corley and Jack Coleman), the gay son of family patriarch Blake Carrington (John Forsythe), who killed Steven's first lover.... An episode of "L.A. Law" featured attorney C.J. Lamb (Amanda Donohoe) kissing fellow lawyer Abby Perkins (Michelle Greene) in a parking lot; it's believed to be the first woman-to-woman kiss on US network television....An episode of ABC's drama "thirtysomething" featured secondary characters Russell Weller and Peter Montefiori in bed together, clearly after a sexual encounter; ABC ran the episode virtually without commercials because advertisers refused to sponsor it...Fox's sketch comedy "In Living Color" featured a recurring skit called "Men On....", which featured two effeminate African-American men named Blaine Edwards and Antoine Merryweather (Damon Wayans and David Allen Grier) who reviewed everything from film to art, giving a negative review to anything having to do with women and/or heterosexual behaviour.

In the 1990's, musicians such as k.d. lang, Melissa Etheridge and Elton John found out that their public coming out didn't hurt their careers. Bill Clinton became the first US president to openly seek the gay and lesbian vote; his victories in 1992 and 1996 encouraged more dialogue on such hot-button issues as gays and the military; same-sex marriages; and funding for AIDS. As the decade progressed, producers used gay themes to draw attention to their series, and most found relatively little negative feedback, allowing them to push the "pink envelope" even further.

High-profile series such as "Melrose Place"; "NYPD Blue"; "Northern Exposure" and "Friends" began featuring regular or recurring gay and lesbian characters. A "Seinfeld" episode famously implied that Jerry and best friend George were lovers. They weren't of course...not that there was anything wrong with that. "Frasier" occasionally used mistaken sexual orientation as the basis for some very funny plots. Even "The Simpsons" had its own "friend of Dorothy" in Wayland Smithers, the assistant to rich and nasty nuclear power plant owner Montgomery Burns; Smithers had an unspoken (or sometimes whispered) affection for his elderly boss. "Roseanne" generated plenty of controversy (and great ratings) when the title character kissed a lesbian. Public broadcasting seldom shied away from gay-related issues; in 1995, PBS aired a miniseries based on Armistead Maupin's classic "Tales of the City"; the program was co-funded by Britain's Channel Four and drew record ratings for a PBS show in the US. But pressure from conservative lawmakers, who had taken over Congress, forced government-funded PBS to back down from co-producing a sequel. A second version "More Tales of the City" aired on both Channel Four and the Showtime network.

No doubt the gay-related event that caused the most controversy to date came on April 30th, 1997, when the sitcom "Ellen" aired a one-hour episode where lead character Ellen Morgan (and her real-life alter ego, Ellen DeGeneres) came out as a lesbian. (For more information on the show and its history, check out the review of "Ellen" on our sister site "Television Heaven".) In retrospect, "Ellen's" coming out was seen by some critics as a last-gasp effort to revive the show's ratings; had Ellen Morgan been a lesbian when the series began, who knows what would have happened? What DID happen was that after a series of clashes between DeGeneres and ABC, "Ellen" was yanked from the schedule in 1998, the victim of low ratings and controversy within the gay rights movement on whether DeGeneres went too far in "politicising" what was essentially a lighthearted sitcom. Three years later, DeGeneres tried again with "The Ellen Show", playing a gay dot-com executive who moves back in with her family; it caused far less controversy but barely lasted a season on CBS.

It wasn't the end of the gay sitcom, however. The same year "Ellen" was cancelled, NBC introduced audiences to "Will & Grace", the story of straight designer Grace Adler and her friendship with gay attorney Will Truman. With a strong supporting cast, snappy scripts and situations that focused on the characters instead of the sexuality, "Will & Grace" immediately caught on and remains a top-ten hit for the network, despite the fact it airs against the top-rated drama series in America, "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation". (More about "Will & Grace" can be found on Television Heaven's review section.)

The taboo about two people of the same sex kissing each other remained on US broadcast television; it took the pay cable network Showtime to shatter that taboo with the premiere of "Queer As Folk". A hit drama in the UK about a group of relatively young and horny gay men, the US version premiered in late 1999. It was in part an act of desperation by Showtime, which needed some type of programming breakthrough against larger rival HBO, which was riding a wave of critical and popular success with such series as "The Sopranos" and "Sex & The City". "Queer" definitely broke new ground for a US series (the American version was produced by the same team who wrote the 1990's drama "Sisters"). For one thing, it was far from subtle; "Queer's" in-your-face sexual acts weren't depicted on screen, but they left little to the imagination of the viewer--even though the American version was a rather formulaic drama closer to the level of a "Melrose Place" than a "Sopranos". Still, "Queer" quickly drew more than a million viewers every week to Showtime, making it the network's highest-rated series.

The new genre of reality television also paved the way by showing real-life homosexuals with both virtues and flaws. MTV's "The Real World" began featuring gays and lesbians in "synthetic" families of young twenty-somethings who live together under one roof. The first winner of the US version of "Survivor" was a gay man; calculating Richard Hatch was the castaway Americans loved to hate in the summer of 2000. America's version of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" featured gay players (we knew they were gay because their partners were introduced from the audience). And this past year, the upscale arts channel Bravo featured a short-run reality series called "Gay Weddings", which showed real-life couples preparing for their ceremonies; a new series will air in 2003. All are a far cry from the Louds and "An American Family" indeed.

But there were fewer fictional gay characters in US prime time. The "Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation" (GLAAD), noted that in the fall of 2002, only six new and returning series on the major broadcast networks had regular homosexual characters--"Buffy The Vampire Slayer"; "Dawson's Creek"; "ER"; "MD's" (which has been cancelled); "NYPD Blue" and "Will & Grace". (Add to that several cable series, including "Six Feet Under"; "Oz"; "Queer As Folk" and "The Shield".) The year before, 13 broadcast series featured a recurring gay character. No one is sure why; it could likely be the usual ebb and flow regarding minorities on the tube.

The next step could well be a channel specifically aimed at the gay and lesbian audience. Canada already has such a cable network called PrideVision; but there are reports its operator is having financial troubles. For some time, there have been reports US media giant Viacom (which owns CBS, Showtime and MTV, among other properties) is moving forward with its own gay channel with the working name of "Outlet"; memos allegedly written by Viacom executives claim the new network will be launched in the spring of 2003 as a pay cable service. (If it is launched, it would likely be only on digital cable systems and the two US home satellite firms DirectTV and Dish Network.)

But does America's gay community really need its own television network? Author Paula Martinac, in a recent article for the website PlanetOut, wrote that "the plans for (Outlet) seem to be motivated mostly by greed for the disposable gay bucks the marketing surveys insist we all have".

Martinac has a point, but to be fair, that's how the broadcast media works in America. If there's a dollar to be made from specialized entertainment, someone will do it--whether it's Viacom, News Corp., General Electric, Disney, AOL Time Warner, or another company. And its success will depend on what is broadcast on the new channel. Whether Outlet translates into more than just a few gay sitcoms or dramas, with an occasional queer dating show thrown in, remains to be seen.