Who's Gay On TV? Dads, Journalists, Investigators And Footmen
Think about one of the most popular sitcoms on TV today, says Max Mutchnik, who helped create Will and Grace.
"Modern Family introduced us to the whole world of gaybies," he noted.
Mutchnik's latest show, called Partners, also gay-themed, was recently canceled. But Mutchnick says any show with openly gay characters should reflect people audiences could know in their real lives. So we see gay men and lesbians in real life with babies — or "gaybies," if you will.
Meanwhile, gay TV pioneer Ellen DeGeneres is a face of the multibillion-dollar cosmetic company Cover Girl, and television overflows with gay and lesbian characters, from the pudgy bro Max on the ABC show Happy Endings to the crusading lesbian journalist on the cable hit American Horror Story.
Ryan Murphy dreamed up American Horror Story. And The New Normal. And Glee. His memories of watching TV as a child are best described as bleak.
"I was a little sad gay boy growing up in Indiana," he recalls. "And my visions of what was gay were what I saw on TV. Paul Lynde on Hollywood Squares, who I loved, and Charles Nelson Reilly on the Password shows."
Gay audiences clung to what they had — signifiers and stereotypes — says Dave Kohan, Mutchnick's non-gay collaborator.
"Remember that show called Love, Sidney?" he says, referring to an early 1980s sitcom starring Tony Randall as a wealthy gay man living with a little girl and her mom. The character's sexuality was barely even an open secret.
"He wasn't gay, he was shy," Kohan wryly observed. "It was another three-letter word ending in 'y.' We always said he went to shy bars."
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