TV Tuesday: Pride Memories

[yourlibrarian]

As it's Pride month, what are your memories of LGBTQI representation in TV shows? Do you have favorite characters, episodes, or shows that were significant in their depictions? How have you seen audiences responding to broader views of the population?

Comments

Yes ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

The Dragon Prince is a favorite. It's one of the most diverse and inclusive shows I've seen. There wasn't just one QUILTBAG appearance, there were characters sprinkled around foreground, background, all kinds of different representations.

Canonically queer characters in TDP

Trans and nonbinary characters

[dine]

I'm old, and have seen a huge change in representation over the decades.

long before I came out, Jodie in Soap caught my attention big time, both because Billy Crystal is massively talented, and probably also because the character resonated for unknown reasons.

as a baby dyke, I became completely addicted to Dynasty, partly because the OTTness of characters/lifestyle was amazing, but also because of Steven. that was the first gay character I'd regularly seen onscreen, and although his life was *nothing* like mine or my friends, it was still representation of a sort.

later shows like Ellen and Will & Grace were awesome for representation, even if my life didn't look like theirs. and since then there's been a cavalcade of LGBTQ+ characters in all sorts of shows. it's wonderful that you can now watch shows featuring or focused on folks of varying orientations. it's not yet boring, but maybe we'll get there eventually.

[devilc]

I didn't watch Dynasty, but over on YouTube Matt Baume did a great history of what it took to get Steven on screen.

[yourlibrarian]

I watched the early seasons of Dynasty but never saw the later ones or reunion special. Interesting to see how that arc made such an important turn over the 1980s!

[dine]

oh my, isn't that something! what an amazing trip down memory lane - thanks for the link

[china_shop]

Thanks so much for linking that -- it was great! (I watched Dynasty as a teen for Michael Praed and Catherine Oxenberger, and I remember nothing of Steven's storyline, or anyone else really.)

[devilc]

Most of my early memories are from seeing movies on TV when the local LA PBS would air them during Pride Month, but for things that are TV specific ....

Let's see, my earliest memory is An Early Frost (1985)

Followed by Andre's Mother (1990)

After that it was watching bits and pieces of both the British & American Queer as Folk at a friend's house.

And OZ kept my husband and I glued to the screen. We couldn't believe that The Sopranos got so much attention over OZ. OZ is one of my favorite shows ever and Beecher/Keller is hot like fire.

My most recent favorites are Spartacus and Black Sails.

At this point, I would be hard pressed to list all the queer media I've watched. When once upon a time, it was like finding a unicorn, and it was reserved for "very special episodes". Today it is much easier to find decent queer representation on TV ... though the asshole brigade is working double time to change that.

One of the things I would say is that the representation is no longer all about the AIDS pandemic, and that we're now seeing stories about people who happen to be queer, or getting historical queerness, as in Spartacus and Black Sails.

[yourlibrarian]

My first memory was of Tony Randall's sitcom "Love, Sydney" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love,_Sidney

I'm surprised to see in the Wikpedia entry that it ran for 2 full seasons. I remember there being controversy about it and it not doing well in the ratings, but it didn't do any worse than a lot of shows. I never watched the show myself but I'm not surprised that it rarely referenced the fact that Randall's character was gay.

I think it's also interesting that much earlier, 3's Company featured a character who declared himself to be gay. This is not because it was a good portrayal but more that his being gay was clearly not an impediment to his renting an apartment, compared to him being a straight man potentially having it on with his roommates!

[author_by_night]

Honestly, Ugly Betty may have been the first show I watched regularly that had queer characters. The representation is flawed, but it was there. I don't think I'd ever seen a trans character on TV before at all, now that I think about it. (Rebecca Romijn's character was done such a disservice, though. She actually left the show because she got tired of how her character was written, and I also believe she has since said a trans actress should have played Alexis.)

In much more recent years, my favorites are Heartstopper, Schitt's Creek, and Our Flag Means Death. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Brooklyn Nine-Nine are up there as well. All of these shows portray queer characters (some more prominently than others) and relationships in a positive way.

[yourlibrarian]

Your mention of Heartstopper reminded me that we can now have, as in Red, White and Royal Blue, an entire romance show about a queer relationship. Certainly Queer As Folk and The L Word broke new ground in that respect, but they were dramas featuring an cast of mostly queer characters with a lot of different storylines. Rather different than having shows with socially prominent characters or teens figuring out their love lives.

[author_by_night]

Very true!

[flo_nelja]

It's been a long time, but Revolutionary Girl Utena was one of the things that made me realize I was queer.

And also, I'm so glad there's more representation now. If I don't like a show with queer characters, I can jump to the next one. :D

[yourlibrarian]

Choices \o/

[executrix]

I love my Disaster Bisexuals, Nolan Ross from Revenge and Tim Bayliss from HLOTs (and even wrote a fic shipping them!). Verilybitchy's YouTube channel has some very interesting discussion of the history of LGBTQ+ representation.

[china_shop]

I remember the Ellen episode where she came out. My gf at the time and I didn't have a TV, but we would make a point of going to a friend's house to watch every week because of that. Willow on BtVS was a big deal too. (Those both seem very obvious; I feel like I should have a slew of other examples...)

Oh, our local soap, Shortland Street, has had various same-sex pairings. Back in the 90s when I'd sometimes watch, the couples always ended up moving to the other end of the country, for some reason or another. It became a running joke after a while.

More recently, I adored Eric (Ncuti Gatwa) in Sex Education -- there was a lot of varied representation in that show. And of course, lots of BL shows out of Southeast Asia. :-)

[feurioo]

Significant lesbian/gay characters that I remember from my youth: Jack on Dawson's Creek, Dr. Weaver on ER, Carter on Spin City, Jessie/Katie on Once and Again, Haruka/Michiru in Sailor Moon, Tom Ripley/Peter Smith-Kingsley on The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999 movie), and Philip on GZSZ (German daily soap). I also remember loving crossdressing M/F storylines for all their potential queerness, like Jake/Hamilton (Kate Moennig/Ian Somerhalder) on Young Americans. The first trans character I ever encountered, Julia, appeared on Mallorca – Suche nach dem Paradies (German soap opera, played by a cis actress on whom I developed an instant crush).

Unpopular opinion (maybe): Dr. Erica Hahn from Grey's Anatomy has my entire heart, and I gave up on the show after she left. Would've adored Erica/Cristina, but I also appreciated the few glimpses of true Erica/Callie happiness.

Favorite ace-aro representation: Both leads on Koisenu Futari. :)
Favorite bi representation: Annalise Keating on How To Get Away with Murder, not necessarily because her bisexuality was represented so well, but because I loved her as a character and Viola Davis was truly stunning in that role.

I don't have a favorite F/F representation, but I thoroughly enjoyed Anni/Rosa and Anni/Katrin on GZSZ. I also adored Chiana/Ina (Chiana) on AWZ (German daily soap) until TPTB trashed the storyline. Moreover, I have a soft spot for Annalise/Bonnie on HTGAWM and Rachel/Quinn (fanon, but it makes a lot more sense than any of the canon stuff) on UnREAL.

Queer shows I recommend: Feel Good, Somebody Somewhere, Sort Of, Dead End: Paranormal Park, Work in Progress (only watched S1, but I loved it!), and Angels in America.

[tinny]

I'm pretty sure it wasn't the first one, but it's one I often think about is Ellen's reverse gay episode where the whole episode is the character dreaming that she lives in a world where everyone is gay, and the heterosexuals are in the minority. I loved that forced change of perspective a lot, very clever!

My favorite gay character? Probably Shen Wei. <3

[yourlibrarian]

It says a lot that trying to think of my own favorite was difficult because of so many choices! Justin from Queer as Folk is probably one, Kurt Hummel likely another (if only because I thought Chris Colfer was so talented). Which reminds me that I always thought both Chord Overstreet and Nicholas Galitzine (when he played Prince Henry) looked like Justin.