Grading the Majors

FOX

Summary

FOX has not had a stellar record in terms of GLBT visibility. While they have featured gay and lesbian characters on popular scripted shows, the network has often seemed to neuter those characters, giving their story lines short shrift. To date, the network's greatest positive contribution to gay visibility is The Simpsons. However, one current FOX series, The War at Home, should be commended for its sensitive handling of a gay teen's coming-out story line.

Discussion

The News Corporation-owned network does not have the lengthy history of its big three competitors. FOX began airing original programming in the early 1980s, and some of its biggest hits were Married With Children, America's Most Wanted, 21 Jump Street and In Living Color.  

One of FOX's crowning achievements — both in terms of gay visibility and in general — is The Simpsons. The animated series is still on the air after 18 years and has never shied away from sensitive subject matter.

Over its run, The Simpsons has featured several episodes that dealt directly with gay issues. In 1990's " Simpson and Delilah," Homer is promoted and gets a new secretary named Karl (voiced by Harvey Fierstein), who later kisses him. In 1997's "Homer's Phobia," the Simpsons meet a gay man named John (voiced by John Waters).

In 2003's Three Gays of the Condo Homer and Marge separate, and Homer moves in with two gay men, one of whom (voiced by Scott Thompson) develops a crush on him. In 2005's There's Something About Marrying, Springfield legalizes same-sex marriage, and Homer becomes a minister to make money from marrying gay couples. The series continues to offer two recurring gay characters: Waylon Smithers and Marge's chain-smoking sister, Patty Bouvier. 

FOX has featured GLBT regular characters on their scripted dramas but has sometimes received criticism for the way these characters' story lines were handled.

For instance, the Darren Star-produced prime-time soap, Melrose Place, featured Doug Savant as gay neighbor Matt Fielding. Even though his cast mates had frequent love scenes, Savant's character essentially lived as a monk during the first season. A same-sex kiss was written and filmed for Savant's character for the Season 2 finale, at the last minute, FOX got cold feet and cut the scene.

Much later, in 2004 on The O.C., Mischa Barton's character was revealed as bisexual and shared an on-screen kiss with another actress. Unfortunately, the character's sexual identity was treated more as a ratings stunt than a serious story line, and after the much-hyped "lesbian kiss," the bisexual story line was quickly dropped.The show also featured several gay storylines with supporting characters and two main male characters--Ryan and Seth--were portrayed as having a "bromance" type of relationship.

Other than two animated characters on The Simpsons, the only other recurring GLBT characters presently on FOX appear on The War at Home and the recently debuted sitcom, The Winner.

The War at Home focuses on the blue-collar Gold family. It shares similarities with All in the Family in that the father, Dave Gold (played by Michael Rapaport), is a hypocritical bigot often at odds with his more liberal family. He has a flamboyant son, Larry, with whom he often clashes. Larry is straight, but his best friend and frequent companion is an Arab-American gay teen named Kenny (Rami Malek).

Kenny's coming-out to his parents (off-screen) and the Gold family's reaction to the news has been dealt with fairly sensitively on the show. Unfortunately, The War at Home's ratings have been unexceptional, and it does not look as if the series will be renewed for a third season.

FOX also recently launched The Winner, starring Rob Corddry (The Daily Show) and featuring Amir Talai as Corddry's openly gay boss, Richard. While it is nice to see another gay man of color on television, the character thus far is rather stereotypically flamboyant and effeminate, in no way presenting anything new or progressive. (Editor's note: Since this article was written The Winner has been canceled.)