The Prime Time Closet: A History of Gays and Lesbians on TV (55 page)

“The Fourth Sex, Pt. II,”
Medical Center,
CBS-TV, September 15, 1975, written by Rita Lakin.

Ibid.

“The Mermaid,”
Westside Medical,
ABC-TV, July 7, 1977. My discussion of “The Mermaid” is based on an archival script entitled “The Freak” (though the title is crossed out). The author’s name does not appear on the script. Gay Media Task Force Records, 1972-1988, Collection #7315, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library, Ithaca, NY.

“Aids and Comfort,” St.
Elsewhere,
NBC-TV, December 21,1983, written by Steve Lawson, story by John Masius and Tom Fontana.

“Night of the Living Bed,” St.
Elsewhere,
NBC-TV, October 28, 1987, written by John PiRoman, story by Channing Gibson and John Tinker.

“Split Decision,”
St. Elsewhere,
NBC-TV, May 11, 1988, written by Aram Saroyan, story by John Tinker and Channing Gibson.

“Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,”
St. Elsewhere,
NBC-TV, November 28,1984, written by Channing Gibson and John Tinker.

Anne Lewis, “Prime time’s first Lesbian up in the air,”
Washington Blade,
February 10, 1989, p. 19.

“The Wedding,”
Heartbeat,
ABC-TV, April 21, 1989, written by Dan Wakefield.

Marguerite J. Moritz, “Old Strategies for New Texts: How American Television is Creating and Treating Lesbian Characters,”
Queer Words, Queer Images,
ed. R. Jeffrey Ringer (New York: New York University Press, 1994), p. 132.

Moritz, p. 133.

Darlene M. Hantzis and Valerie Lehr, “Whose Desire? Lesbian (Non) sexuality and Television’s Perpetuation of Hetero/Sexism,” in Ringer, p. 118.

As quoted in “ER Comes Out of the Operating Room — and the Closet,” GLAAD Alert, February 7, 1997..

My primary source of information pertaining to intersexuality is the Intersex Society of North America website (
www.isna.org
).

Alice Domurat Dreger, “‘Ambiguous Sex’ — Ambivalent Medicine?” (
www.isna.org/library/dreger-ambivalent.html
). This article originally appeared in
The Hastings Center Reporter,
May/June 1998, Volume 28, Issue 3, pp. 24-35.

Cheryl Chase, “Making Media: An Intersex Perspective,” GLAAD
Images,
Fall 1997 (
www.glaad.org/org/projects/cultural/trans_visibility/index.html?record=2599
).

“ISNA Recommendations for Treatment,” 1994 (
www.isna.org/library/recommendations.html
).

“ISNA Recommendations for Treatment,” 1994.

Some examples include Geoffrey Cowley “Gender Limbo,”
Newsweek,
May 16, 1997; David Tuller, “’Intersexuals Begin to Speak Out on Infant Genital Operations,”
San Francisco Chronicle,
June 21, 1997; Natalie Angier, “New Debate Over Surgery on Genitals,”
The New York Times,
May 13, 1997.

GLAAD is an excellent source for information on this topic. See GLAAD’S Cultural Interest Media Project (
www.glaad.org/org/projects/cultural/trans_visibility/index.html
).

“ISNA Recommendations for Treatment,” 1994.

“Exploring Gender Identity on
Chicago Hope,”
GLAAD Alert, February 3, 2000 (
www.glaad.org/org/publications/alerts/index.html?record=84
). During the same season (1999-2000),
Freaks and Geeks
introduced the first intersexual recurring character on television. In “The Little Things,” Ken’s (Seth Rogan) girlfriend Amy (Jessica Campbell) tells him a secret — she was born with “both male and female parts” and her parents decided she should be a girl. Although he promises not to freak out, it’s only a matter of time before he’s telling his buddies that Amy is “packing both a gun and a holster.” Thinking he must be gay because he’s attracted to Amy, he goes to speak to the school’s guidance counselor, Mr. Russo (David (Gruber) Allen), who Ken mistakenly assumes is gay (“You kind of have this way about you,” Ken explains). Later, Amy finds out that Ken shared her secret with his friends. She becomes angry, but accepts his apology.

For a discussion of the representation of homosexuals as killers in American cinema, see Vito Russo,
The Celluloid Closet
(Revised Edition) (New York: Harper & Row, 1987).

When gay, lesbian, and transvestite killers first appeared on television in the late 1960s/early 1970s, they were also wreaking havoc on the big screen in films like
The Detective
(1968),
They Only Kill Their Masters
(1972),
Freebie and the Bean
(1974), and
The Eiger Sanction
(1975).

“The Sniper,”
The Asphalt Jungle,
ABC-TV, April 30,1961, written by George Bellak. Virginia Christine, who portrays Miss Brant, is best known as Mrs. Olson on the Folger Coffee commercials. Leo Penn is the late father of actors Sean and Chris Penn.

“Shakedown,” N.Y.P.D., ABC-TV, September 5, 1967, written by Albert Ruben.

N.Y.P.D review,
Variety,
September 6, 1967.

Jack Gould, “’‘N.Y.PD.’ Opens on ABC,”
The New York Times,
September 6, 1967, p. 95.

Ruben, “Shakedown.”

N.Y.P.D.
review,
Variety.

“Weep the Hunter Home,”
Judd, for the Defense,
ABC-TV, November 8, 1968, written by Mel Goldberg and Arthur Singer.

“Dead Witness to a Killing,”
Dan August,
ABC-TV, January 28, 1971, written by Arthur Weingarten.

Harold Fairbanks, “Pro-gay drivel is still drivel,”
The Advocate,
February 13,1974.

“The Ripper,”
Police Story,
NBC-TV, February 12, 1974, written by Don Ingalls.

Fairbanks, “Pro-gay drivel is still drivel.”

Wayne Jefferson, “Does Rewritten TV Show Signal Change?”
Gay People’s Union News,
February-March 1974, p. 13.

Ibid.

Lou Romano,
“Kojak
Disclaimer,”
The Blade,
December 1975, p. 2.

Ibid..

As quoted in Romano, p. 2.

Letter from Richard L. Kirschner, Vice President, Program Practices, CBS Television Network to Mr. Paul Duncan, November 10, 1976, letter in International Gay and Lesbian Archives, Los Angeles, California.

Les Brown, “‘Police Woman’ Episode Withdrawn by NBC,” The New York Times, October 11, 1974, p. 75.

Cecil Smith, “An Emasculated ‘Flowers of Evil,’”
Los
Angeles Times, November 8, 1974; p. 27.

John J. O’Connor, “TV View,”
The New York Times,
November 24, 1974, p. 23.

Smith, p. 27.

“Flowers of Evil,”
Police Woman,
NBC-TV, November 8, 1974, written by John W. Bloch, story by Joshua Hanke.

Les Brown, “NBC-TV Yields to Homosexuals Over Episode of ‘Police Woman,”’
The New York Times,
November 30, 1974, p. 61.

Smith, p. 27.

Bloch, “Flowers of Evil.”

Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law
review,
Variety,
September 20, 1972.

Ibid.

“Media Alert,”
The Advocate,
January 31, 1976.

As quoted in “Media Alert,” January 31, 1976. The list of episode sponsors includes Chrysler Corporation, Johnson and Johnson, General Motors, Armour-Dial, Inc., General Mills, Inc., and Sterling Drugs.

“TV Update: CBS Alters ‘Cagney’ Calling It ‘Too Women’s Lib,’”
TV Guide,
June 12, 1982, p. A-1. For an extensive historical overview and analysis of the series, see Julie D‘Acci,
Defining Women: Television and the Case
of
Cagney & Lacey
(Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1994), and Steve Capsuto, “The Corps,”
Alternate Channels: The Uncensored Story of Gay and Lesbian Image on Radio and Television
(New York: Ballantine Books, 2000), pp. 192-195.

As quoted in “TV Update: CBS Alters ‘Cagney,’ Calling It ‘Too Women’s Lib.’”

Ibid..

As quoted in “NGTF Hits CBS-TV,”
Bay Area Reporter,
July 8,1982.

Ibid.

As quoted in Tim Brooks and Earl Marsh,
The Complete Directory of Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows
(
1946-Present
) (New York: Ballantine Books, 1999), p. 472.

“Death in a Different Place,”
Starsky and Hutch,
ABC-TV, March 15, 1978, written by Tom Bagen.

Douglass K. Daniel,
Lou Grant: The Making of TV’s Top Newspaper Drama
(Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 1996), p. 107.

Brochtrup departed the series for a short time to play the same role in Bochco’s police sitcom,
Public Morals,
which was canceled after one episode. Before returning to
N.Y.P.D. Blue,
he played the office manager on the short-lived 1997 crime drama,
Total Security.

“Welcome to New York,”
N.Y.P.D. Blue,
ABC-TV, January 25, 2000, written by Meredith Stiehm, story by David Milch and Bill Clark.

“NYPD Blue
Goes to a Fairy Bar,” GLAAD Alert, February 3, 2000, p. 1.

In season nine, John Irvin’s sister Delia (Cheryl White) and his estranged father (Peter White) are introduced. His father, who is dying, disapproves of his son’s lifestyle. Irvin also gets asked out on a date by Ray Maxwell (Brian McNamara), a man whose puppies are stolen, and finally gets a vacation.

“Gay Rights Groups Laud NBC for Showing ‘Law’ Lesbian Kiss,”
The Hollywood Reporter,
February 11, 1991, p. 38.

Ibid.

The source of this summary of the policy is taken from
The Survival Guide: An Overview of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Don’t Pursue, Don’t Harass,”
Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, October 31, 2000. See the Network’s website (
www.sldn.org
).

“Pentagon Fires Record Number of Gays” (Press Release) Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, January 22, 1999, p. 1.

Ibid.

“Report on the Military Environment With Respect to the Homosexual Conduct Policy,” Summary of Report No. D-2000-101, Office of the Inspector General, Department of Defense, March 16, 2000, p. 1.

Ibid.

Thomas S. Mulligan, “Gay Group Backs NBC in Episode Flap,”
Los Angeles Times,
October 2,1991, p. D3.

Donald F. Bellisario, “Straight Talk on
Quantum Leap
Dispute,”
Los Angeles Times,
January 27, 1992, p. F3.

“GLAAD Set Record ‘Straight’ on
Quantum Leap
Gay Episode,” GLAAD Media Release, October 1, 1991, p. 1.

“The People vs. Gunny,” JAG, CBS-TV, February 22, 2000.

Dennis Shepard’s statement to the court is available online (
www.wiredstrategies.com/mrshep.htm
).

To learn more about Matthew Shepard’s life, go to the website for The Matthew Shepard Foundation (
www.matthewshepard.org
).

Another version of my analysis of
The Matthew Shepard Story
and
The Laramie
Project was posted on the website,
www.popmatters.com
. Special thanks to my editor, Cynthia Fuchs, for her assistance and support.

Lorimar Productions, producers of
Midnight Caller,
were also the producers of the controversial 1980 film
Cruising,
in which Al Pacino plays a cop who goes undercover in the New York City gay leather-bar scene to catch a serial killer. The primary suspect in the film is played by Richard Cox, who plays the bisexual Mike Barnes in “After It Happened.”

“Malicious
Millennium,”
GLAAD Alert, November 1, 1996.

“New York Undercover
Bashes Bisexuals,” GLAAD Alert, November 27, 1996.

As quoted in Bill Roundy, “On the Air,”
Washington Blade,
February 2, 2001.

Ibid.