The Prime Time Closet: A History of Gays and Lesbians on TV

The Prime Time Closet

By Stephen Tropiano

Copyright © 2002 by Stephen Tropiano All rights reserved

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any other information storage or retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publishers, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review written for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper, or broadcast. All inquiries should be directed to the author.

 

 

Unless noted, all photos courtesy of Photofest.

 

 

Tropiano, Stephen.

The prime time closet / by Stephen Tropiano.

p. cm.

1. Homosexuality on television. I. Title.

PN1992.8.H64 T76 2002

791.45’653--dc21

2002003220

 

 

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

9781476847993

 

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Table of Contents

This book was written with the financial assistance of a James B. Pendleton Grant from the Roy H. Park School of Communications, Ithaca College. I would like to extend my appreciation to Dean Thomas Bohn, Elizabeth Nonas, and Patricia Zimmermann for their encouragement. In addition, thanks to all of my students and colleagues at the Ithaca College Los Angeles Program, especially Robert Meunier, Grant Rickard, and David Kelley for their support and patience.

I am also grateful to the staffs of the One Institute Gay and Lesbian Archives (
www.oneinstitute.org
), now located in its new home near the University of Southern California campus, and the Human Sexuality Collection at Cornell University (rmc.library.cornell.edu/HSC) in Ithaca, New York. Rosemary Rotondi conducted valuable research for me in the Manuscripts and Archives Division of the New York Public Library (
www.nypl.org/research/chss/spe/rbk/mss.html
). Thanks for doing such a thorough job!

I was able to track down copies of several hundred gay-themed episodes with the help of my friends and fellow collectors around the country. My thanks to Matthew Beck & Michael Santori, Ron Becker, Lance Clement, Paul D’Ambrosio, Greg Daskalogrigorakis, David Garland, Jeff Greenberg, Joe Griffin, Ted Johnson, Allen Lane, Marla Leech, Chris Nickerson, David Pendleton, Greg Richman, Ilka Rivard, Jamie Schmidt, John Shaffner & Joe Stewart, Lloyd Scott, Mike Werb, and Bonnie Zane. Special thanks to Steven Capsuto, author of the informative
Alternative Channels: The Uncensored Stories of Gay and Lesbian Images and Television,
for exchanging information and tapes with me on an ongoing basis. I also appreciate the support I have received from James Robert Parish, author of
Gays and Lesbians in Mainstream Cinema
, which is also an invaluable resource.

This book would not have been possible without the groundbreaking scholarship of film historian and author Vito Russo. I had the privilege of hearing Mr. Russo speak when I was in college. His dedication to the study of homosexuality in film and television, which culminated with the publication of
The Celluloid Closet,
continues to be an inspiration to me.

On a personal note, thanks to my family, Faith Ginsberg, Linda Bobel, Barry Sandler, Neil Spisak, Christine Tucci & Vincent Angell, Peter Kaufman at TV Books, Arnold Stiefel, Mart Crowley, Matthew Beck, Ted Johnson, Shannon Kelley & my friends at OUTFEST, Tom Teves, and all my friends at SEFAL. Thanks also to Mark Glubke and Matthew Callan at Applause Theatre & Cinema Books.

This book is dedicated in loving memory to Gary Petrillo, Brian Lasser, David Fox, Bill Strouse, and Brad Wojcoski; to the writers, directors, producers, and actors in the television industry, past and present, who approached the subject of homosexuality with honesty and integrity; and to my lover and best friend, Steven Ginsberg.

 

Stephen Tropiano
West Hollywood, California

 

W
hen I was a junior in high school, I saw an episode of the television series
The White Shadow
entitled “One of the Boys.” The story focuses on a teenager named Raymond Collins (played by
thirtysomething’s
Peter Horton), who transfers to Carver High School and is recruited to play on the school’s basketball team. His teammates soon discover Collins left his other school to escape a rumor that he’s gay. When the rumor follows him to Carver, Collins feels he has no choice but to drop out of school. However, in the final scene, he has a heart-to-heart talk with Vice Principal Buchanan (Joan Pringle), who tells him he must not let hatred and bigotry control his life. As a result of their talk, Collins changes his mind and decides to return to his old school.

The episode had a profound effect on me because as a gay teenager, I identified with Collins’s confusion, pain, and loneliness. I too felt different from everyone else. And I was also in need of a heart-to-heart talk with someone as sympathetic, understanding, and wise as VP. Buchanan — someone to assure me everything was going to be all right.

Nine years later, I am sitting with my lover Steven in a Los Angeles movie theatre, waiting for the film to start. When I look over at the guy who just sat down next to me, I realize it’s Peter Horton. For a brief moment, I consider striking up a conversation and maybe even mentioning the impact the
White Shadow
episode had on me. But I’m not the type of person to initiate a conversation with a total stranger, let alone a recognizable actor. And he probably would have thought I was crazy.

My Peter Horton “sighting” made me think more about the integral role television has played in the formation of my identity as a gay man. Many of my older gay male friends have described how the negative stereotypes of gays and lesbians in Hollywood films of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s served as their first introduction to the subject of homosexuality. As a member of the post-Kennedy generation, I consider myself fortunate to have grown up (and come out) in an era when some television programs (like
The White Shadow
) and made-for-TV movies were beginning to tackle the subject of homosexuality in a sensitive, intelligent manner.

In 1992, I started to research, catalogue, and view hundreds of hours of television programming. My goal was to gain some insight into the evolution of the images of gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender people on television as well as the medium’s treatment of homosexuality and gay-related issues. As I began to research TV programs from the 1960s and 1970s, the number of current television series with regular and recurring gay and lesbian characters was increasing at such a rapid rate, it became difficult to keep up.

Then, in April of 1997, history was made when Ellen DeGeneres, along with her television alter-ego, Ellen Morgan, declared on the cover of
Time
magazine those three little words: “Yep, I’m gay.” By opening the prime time closet door, Ms. DeGeneres told all of America — gay and straight — that we can and will no longer remain invisible. For the gay and lesbian youth who were among the 36 million viewers who watched that evening, Ms. DeGeneres delivered the most important message of all:
It’s O.K. to be gay. Be who you are.
For Ms. DeGeneres’s act of courage, this gay man is truly grateful.

The title of this book is
The Prime Time Closet: A History of Gays and Lesbians on TV.
The reason it’s
A
History and not
The
History is because this isn’t a traditional historical account of homosexuality on television. Instead, it examines, in a historical context, the representation of gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender characters, and the treatment of gay subject matter and themes in relation to the major television genres.

The book is divided into four sections, each of which focuses on a major television genre: 1) medical dramas; 2) “law and order” dramas, which includes police and detective shows and courtroom dramas; 3) dramatic series, including prime time soap operas, teen dramas, made-for-TV movies, and mini-series; and 4) situation comedies. I am by no means a purist when it comes to categorizing TV series in terms of genres. Some programs are grouped on the basis of their content (i.e.
Popular,
a comedy-drama hybrid, is discussed in the section on teen dramas rather than in the comedy section).

While this study concentrates on television programming dating back as early as 1954 through the present day, some programs will be discussed in greater detail than others. I have included an appendix, which contains a fairly comprehensive listing of program and episode titles as well as of regular and recurring characters. If you don’t see your favorite series, episode, made-for-TV movie, mini-series, or character on the list, please feel free to drop me a line.

A word about language: when referring to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender characters, instead of using an acronym like GLBT (which always reminds me of a BLT), I use the word
gay.
The term
gay
will also be used in reference to male homosexuals when it precedes the word
male
or
males,
as in the sentence, “My, there are so many gay males on prime time television!”