THE AIDS STORY
In the 1970s, the
issue du jour
was gay teachers. In the 1980s and 1990s, it was AIDS. The disease proved to be an even more challenging subject for sitcoms to tackle because it’s difficult to find humor in so devastating a disease. A gay story line involving AIDS also poses an even greater challenge for TV writers because, in addition to the disease itself, they needed to address the homophobia surrounding AIDS and the stigma attached to AIDS as the “gay plague.”
With too much ground to cover, many sitcoms focused on an adult heterosexual or a child who became infected through a blood transfusion. The story generally involves a series regular who meets someone who has AIDS or is HIV positive. Through their interaction, the series regular witnesses first-hand the injustice PWAs and HIV-positive people experience in such areas as education, employment, and health care. The situation usually gives the main character the opportunity to examine his/her own feelings, while at the same time demonstrating how society should be treating PWAs and people who are HIV positive. Thus the episode’s primary goal is to educate its public about the transmission of HIV so they will understand there is no reason to fear someone who’s positive or has AIDS. In many instances, the individual who is HIV positive or has AIDS isn’t given the opportunity to speak for him or herself. That task is assigned to the show’s main character who demonstrates empathy for the outcast by delivering a passionate speech.
Mr. Belvedere
featured a sensitive episode (“Wesley’s Friend”) about 9-year-old Wesley (Brice Beckham), who’s afraid to be around his friend Danny (Ian Fried), a hemophiliac who contracted the disease through a blood transfusion. Danny isn’t allowed to attend school because his classmates’ parents are afraid their children will catch it. During a school pageant, Wesley assures the audience Danny poses no danger and should be allowed to attend school. Through his friendship with Danny, Wesley, along with his family and classmates, learn the straight facts about AIDS.
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Adam Arkin, who spent most of the 1990s playing Dr. Aaron Shutt on
Chicago Hope,
guest-starred on the
Golden Girls/Empty
Nest spin-off
Nurses
as an AIDS patient. In “Love, Death, and the Whole Damn Thing,” Peter checks into Miami’s Community Medical Center, where he’s reunited with one of his many old girlfriends, Nurse Julie (Mary Jo Keenan). She’s afraid of contracting the disease, but eventually comes to her senses and assures a lonely and angry Peter he won’t die alone.
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On
Doogie Howser M.D.
(“A Life in Progress”), a street artist with AIDS, Jeff Moore (Robert Clohessy), paints a wall mural in the children’s wing of Eastman Hospital. When word gets around Jeff has AIDS, the hospital takes him off the mural. Doogie goes up against the hospital board, which prompts one board member (James McMullan) to admit he contracted AIDS from a blood transfusion. The board reconsiders and the mural is completed.
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On
Grace Under Fire
(“Positively Hateful”), Grace reluctantly helps the curmudgeonly HIV-positive janitor at her kids’ school, Mr. Mullens (Robert Klein), when his job is in jeopardy.
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Another strategy for tackling the subject involves a character taking the AIDS test because they risked exposure via contaminated blood or unprotected sex. On
The Golden Girls
(“72 Hours”), Rose fears she may have received infected blood during her gall bladder operation.
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Sex and the City’s
sexually active Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall) takes the test at the request of her new boyfriend (“Running With Scissors”).
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When a woman who contracted AIDS through unprotected sex comes to speak to the students of Hillman College on
A Different World
(“If I Should Die Before I Wake”), Dwayne (Kadeem Hardison) and Ron (Darryl M. Bell) both decide it’s time to get tested.
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On
Titus
(“The Test”), Christopher and girlfriend Erin both get tested because they each had unprotected sex during a brief period apart. To no one’s surprise, all of the series regulars test HIV negative.
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Ironically, few sitcoms have featured gay male characters with AIDS or who are HIV positive. The first show to approach the subject is an episode of
Designing Women
entitled “Killing All the Right People.” Written by series co-creator Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, whose mother contracted the disease from a blood transfusion, the show views the issue from two perspectives. The first involves Mary Jo (Annie Potts), who reluctantly participates in a PTA debate about distributing birth control materials to students. The second involves an interior designer, 24-year-old Kendall Dobbs (Tony Goldwyn), who announces to the women he’s dying and asks if they’ll decorate a room at the funeral home which can be used for others who die of AIDS. Sweet and soft-spoken, Kendall is chastised by Julia’s old “friend” and client, Alma Jean Salinger (Camilla Carr), who overhears the women planning Kendall’s funeral. Right in front of Kendall, she tells them “if these boys hadn’t been doing what they were doing, they wouldn’t be getting what’s coming to them now...As far as I’m concerned this disease has one thing going for it...it’s killing all the right people.” An angry Julia boots Alma Jean out, but not before going on one of her tirades over the suggestion AIDS is God’s punishment:
JULIA: Alma Jean, get serious! Who do you think you’re talking to? I’ve known you for twenty-seven years and all I can say is if God was giving out sexually transmitted diseases to people as punishment for sinning, that you would be at the free clinic all the time. And so would the rest of us!
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This prompts Mary Jo to express her position — it’s not just about preventing births anymore, it’s about preventing deaths:
MARY Jo: More important than what any civic leader, or PTA or Board of Education thinks about teenagers having sex or any immoral act that my daughter or your son might engage in, it’s the bottom line that I don’t think they should have to die for it.
A touching episode of
Dream On
(“For Peter’s Sake”) approaches AIDS from a more personal perspective when book editor Martin Tupper is assigned to edit the memoirs of AIDS-afflicted western writer, Peter Brewer (David Clennon). Martin’s sleazy boss Gibby (Michael McKeon) decides Whitestone Publishing needs a bestseller for Christmas. He decides it should be the memoir of someone dying of AIDS because “it’s hot, it’s now, it’s got sex, it’s got drugs, everyone is getting it.”
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Martin is reluctant, but agrees to work with Peter. At first Martin is uncomfortable — he can’t bring himself to say the word AIDS in front of Peter, let alone drink from his glass when he offers him water. He eventually loosens up and even plays along when he’s introduced to Peter’s mother, Kitty (Gwen Verdon) as his lover. When Kitty has a minute alone with Martin, she tells him “I’m so glad he’s found someone. Take good care of him.” He assures her he will.
Gibby throws a wrench into Peter’s hook when he decides to cancel it and replace it with the memoirs of a famous male heterosexual athlete with AIDS. Martin can’t find it in his heart to tell Peter when he visits him in the hospital. Instead, he helps his friend get comfortable. (“You make me feel like Ali McGraw,” Peter quips.) In the final scene, it’s revealed Peter has died. Martin returns to the apartment which Kitty has just finished packing up. He gives her a copy of Peter’s manuscript, which will be published at Christmas by Random House. Kitty gives him something to remember Peter by — a silver yo-yo given to Peter by his father.
RECURRING AND REGULAR GAY CHARACTERS
The first television sitcom to regularly feature an identifiably gay character was the 1972 limited-run comedy,
The Corner Bar.
Produced by comedian Alan King, the series was set in a New York City tavern, Grant’s Toomb, owned and operated by Harry Grant (Gabriel Dell, one of the original Bowery Boys). One of the six regular customers who frequented the bar was a gay theatre set designer named Peter Panama (Vincent Schiavelli). Rich Wandel, president of the Gay Activists Alliance, noted the historical significance of having a regular gay character. Still, he called Peter’s character a “ludicrous stereotype,” which the GAA could not accept “no more than the black community would accept a watermelon-eating, tap-dancing stereotype of a black man.”
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According to
Variety,
the series included a scene featuring
a male character with exaggerated femme gestures and intonation complaining to a group at the table in the bar about the said trend in New York parties. He attended one recently, he says, that was loaded with weirdos — all married couples.
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In their review,
Variety
noted how Schiavelli’s interpretation of Peter “could raise beefs from some quarters...but he was treated no better or no worse in the rapid fire repartee exchanges — and belongs on the show.”
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In response to the criticism, actor Schiavelli observed
It’s a little curious playing a fag especially if you’re not...Peter isn’t feminine and doesn’t do drag numbers. He is as sexual as everyone else in the place...He isn’t stupid. He’s a warm funny human being. He’s as real as everyone else in the bar, and his emotional range is the same — he’s not toned down.
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Nevertheless, in response to the GAA’s criticism, King agreed to tone down Peter’s character if the show returned. When it did the following year, Gabriel Dell and most of the original cast, including Schiavelli, were gone.
As with the majority of regular and recurring gay characters, Peter served a dual purpose: he was the source as well as the target of humor. While the gay male characters who appear on single episode of shows like
All in the Family
and
Alice
are overtly masculine, regular and recurring characters are typically more feminine than masculine — a strategy by producers to insure they pose no “threat.” Smart, quick-witted, and at times a little bitchy, they often serve as the “entertainment” for the other characters, particularly the series’s protagonist, who usually considers the gay character an ally.
But these stereotypical characters also serve as the target for jokes by the other characters. Of course, sitcoms consist mostly of characters, often close friends, slinging insults at each other. While insults directed toward straight characters are usually about a specific character flaw (he’s cheap or sloppy or dumb), jokes aimed directly at gay characters are usually about their sexuality. So when Harry’s preparing for a congressman’s visit to the bar, he tells Peter, “maybe you could put a splint on your wrist.”
There’s a definite pattern in the roles assigned to gay and lesbian characters, from the premiere of
The Corner Bar
to the present day. Before shows like
Ellen, Will & Grace,
and
Normal, Ohio,
gay characters were there primarily to assist, support and advise the main character. The roles they regularly assume — personal assistant, co-worker, and/or close friend/confidante — have been limited, yet there has been definite progress made since the early 1970s in regards to their depth and function.
THE GAY ASSISTANT
Dedicated, loyal, and a model of efficiency, the gay assistant makes the professional and personal lives of many television characters run smoothly. The first gay assistant introduced on a situation comedy was also one of the earliest regular gay sitcom characters. On
The Nancy Walker Show,
Terry Olfson (Scott Folson) is a struggling actor who pays the bills by working as a live-in secretary for Hollywood talent agent Nancy Kitteridge (Nancy Walker) . Terry keeps Nancy’s chaotic life in order, which in the show’s pilot becomes even more chaotic when her husband Kenneth (William Daniels), retires from the navy and returns home. Kenneth wants Nancy to shut down her business and doesn’t understand why she needs Terry, who he thinks is strange.
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Equally gay and efficient assistants include the suave and very sexy Stefano (Luigi Amodeo), who helps
High Society’s
Dorothy Emerson (Mary McDonnell) keep her publishing firm running smoothly; Brice (Drew McVety), who also worked for a New York publishing house with
Molly Dodd
(Blair Brown); N.Y.P.D.
Blue’s
John Irvin (Bill Brochtrup), who transferred to a vice squad unit for a single episode of
Public morals;
and Jules “Julie” Bennett, Catherine Hughes’s (Ann Magnuson) assistant at
Chicago Weekly
magazine on
Anything But Love.
And then there’s
The Simpson
s’s Waylon Smithers (voice of Harry Shearer), assistant to Homer’s boss, Mr. Burns. Smithers’s sexuality has never been explicitly stated, though it has been made clear repeatedly through innuendoes (seeing him in “Trouble With Trillions” warbling “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” while ironing in his pink dressing gown seems like all the reason you really need).
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In another episode (“Lisa the Skeptic”), in which everyone thinks the world is coming to an end, Smithers says “What the hell!” and plants a kiss on Burns’s lips. Afterwards, he assures Smithers the kiss was “merely a sign of respect.”
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There have never been any kisses exchanged between Brian (Scott Thompson) and Larry Sanders’s sidekick Hank Kingsley (Jeffrey Tambor), though that doesn’t mean gay Brian is any less devoted. When Hank’s assistant quits (“Hank’s New Assistant), he hires Brian without knowing he’s
a gay.
Hank tries to find an excuse to fire him, but when he overhears Brian talking about Larry’s feelings being hurt over comedian Dana Carvey’s imitation of him, Hank realizes he’s worth having around — gay or not.
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Brian gets closer to his boss, who takes him to a gay bar when he’s upset over a recent break-up (“The Matchmaker”) and ends up in
Variety
the next day in Army Arched’s column.
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When Brian experiences harassment on the job, it’s not from his boss, but the show’s sexist head writer, Phil (Wallace Langham). Brian decides he’s had enough of Phil’s cracks and sues him (“Putting the Gay Back in Litigation”). He puts him to the test by showing up in a pair of pink hot pants, a tight black shirt, and a leather hat. Phil cracks in a few seconds. (“Where did you get that? The Freddy Mercury estate sale?”) In a heart-to-heart discussion, the boys open up: Brian admits he went too far and Phil admits to having a big mouth. Ironically, their talk turns into an intense make-out session.
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At the same time he appeared on
The Larry Sanders Show,
actor Wallace Langham became an assistant himself on
Veronica’s Closet.
As lingerie queen Ronnie Clark’s (Kirstie Alley) right-hand man Josh, Langham became television’s first officially closeted gay male character. Everyone knew Josh was gay except Josh, even though all the signs were there. His idol is Tara Lipinski and he loves Broadway shows. When his co-worker Leo (Daryl Mitchell) temporarily crashes at Josh’s apartment (“Veronica’s Got a Secret”), Josh enjoys the pampering and gourmet food so much, he doesn’t want Leo to leave.
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Josh almost comes out of the closet when his friend Scotty (played by Langham’s
Larry Sanders’s
co-star Scott Thompson) announces he’s getting married (“Veronica’s Great Model Search”). Josh convinces him to out himself, but unfortunately Scotty can’t get Josh to do the same.
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In fact, Josh soon heads in the opposite direction and becomes engaged to Chloe (Mary Lynn-Rajskub), though he manages to put off having sex with her. Then when she’s forced to push the wedding date up because her father’s going into the witness protection program, he suffers anxiety attacks.
Everything starts to change when Josh meets his neighbor Brian (Alan Smith), who, like Josh, is engaged and gay as a goose. Although he knows him for only a short period of time, he asks him to be his best man at his wedding. At Josh’s bachelor party, Leo catches Josh and Brian smooching. Ronnie finds out and has a heart-to-heart with him on his wedding day. Instead of saying “I do,” Josh says “I’m gay.” (“That’s my boy,” Ronnie wails.) As Josh deals with coming out, Brian soon follows him out of the closet and in the close of the series, the couple look like they’ll be living happily ever after.
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