Grading the Majors

THANK YOU!!!
I love this article and it must have taken a lot of research on your part.

A few comments:
- The fact that NBC got the lowest grade surprised me. I analyzed my TV schedule and the 3 shows I watch on NBC are gay friendly. The Office has Oscar. My name is Earl is very pro-gay. Heroes is kinda pro-gay also(the problem was the actor and he is now fired).

- I had no idea that CBS was gay friendly at one point... it's a shame that it did a 180 degrees. What is not surprising is that out of the 11 tv shows I currently watch, none are from CBS.

- I'm very satisfied with ABC's grade. Almost every year there are gay characters on ABC even if the shows get cancelled quickly.

- As I said I analyzed my Tv schedule and realized that I watch almost exclusively shows with gay interest(which is not intended.) I guess we all watch shows that represent us. Here are the details of my analyze:

Shows with significant gay characters:
The Office(Oscar)
Desperate Housewives(Andrew)
Brothers and Sisters(Kevin and Boyfriends)
The L Word(At least 9 lesbians and Max)
Dirt (gay brother)
The Riches (gay kid)
Ugly Betty(Marc, Justin, Alexis)
Work Out(Jackie, Jesse, Doug)

Shows without a gay significant character:
Heroes(not technically)
My Name is Earl(but gay friendly)
Lost (nothing gay until next week)

7 of these shows I consider being pro gay
3 are more or less gay friendly(Desperate Housewives has Andrew as immoral, Dirt often treat the gay part negatively and Heroes is well a gray zone)
Only Lost doesn't have a positive gay influence(although not homophobic). No representation in this case is bad for a 3 year old show.

Gay/Lesbian/Bisex/Trans characters in total:
10 gays
13 lesbians
0 bisexual!!! (the worst thing is that I'm bi... Grrr)
2 Trans

Number of shows I watch on each network
ABC: 4
NBC: 3
FX: 2
Bravo: 1
Showtime: 1

Ask Matthew Shepard's family what grade they'd give ABC.

ABC/Disney may have killed new TV show because gay couple won and they didn't want to anger religious right

There is no excuse for leaving out two especially important made-for-TV movies. In 1978, NBC broadcast "Sergeant Matlovich vs. The U.S. Air Force," the first dramatization of the military’s dismissal of gays and lesbians regardless of their performance. Matlovich had won a Purple Heart in Vietnam and, rather than having his gayness discovered, decided to create a test case. Unfortunately, the production, while pro-gay, was tame to the point of being boring. Still it informed many nongay Americans and inspired many gays, in and out of the military, at the time.

Much better dramatically, as evidenced by critical acclaim, was “That Certain Summer” shown on CBS in six years before in 1972. Starring Hal Holbrooke as a divorced father having to come out to his teenage son about his lover, a very young, very hot 31-yr. old Martin Sheen. While imperfect, it was unquestionably groundbreaking for something produced only three years after Stonewall. If that doesn’t adequately place it in time, notice the 8-track cassette music tapes in the several extended clips viewable at:
http://www.outzonetv.com/video/that_certain_summer.php

Then there are your inadequate evaluations of the shows you mention, and the damage they often did, particularly many of those that resulted in their awarding ABC a ridiculous grade of A-. Billy Crystal’s “Soap” character on ABC was far more negative than positive, belying the claim that homophobic visibility is better than no visibility at all. He didn’t just experiment with drag and become engaged to a woman, he considered a sex-change operation. NGLTF called him a “gay Stepin’ Fetchit.” A major step backward.

The gay son on ABC’s “Dynasty” never considered having his dick cut off, but his dignity repeatedly was as he twirled in and out of the closet for nearly a decade. When his boyfriends weren’t getting killed, he was marrying women, or catching the bridal bouquet at his father’s wedding to “Crystal.” One of the biggest hits of the ‘80s, even among gays, it reinforced over and over the myth that being gay is a choice, a major contributor to our having to still fight that myth 20 years later. An even greater step backward than “Soap.”

And while ABC does deserve credit for producing “Ellen” and allowing her character to come out, their courage was short-lived and you fail to mention their having soon cancelled the show when they were inundated with right wing complaints. In a classic case of “blame the victim,” they claimed it was because the show was simply no longer funny. Some ratings loss aside, it was clear they were buckling to the organized religious fascists.

The recurring gay character on ABC’s “NYPD Blue” over all those nine years was little more than a eunuch. Sure he was made a hero in one episode, and Dennis Franz crudely homohating character accepted him to a degree, but he got so little dialogue as he was mincing about that they should have written him as a deaf mute. How do you say, “SSSSSSSergeant” in sign language?

The gay teenage son on “Desperate Housewives” is a borderline sociopath who doesn’t care whom he hurts to further his own ends and survival. From hurting his mother by seducing her bi boyfriend to the hit and run killing of their neighbor’s mother-in-law. THIS is progress???

Applying the theory that it's easier to shape the minds of the young than change the minds of their elders, you give far too little credit to the positive influence of the gay characters on the mega youth hits "Dawson's Creek" and "Buffy...."

Finally, it is totally unrealistic when evaluating the major TV networks treatment of LGBTs to suggest, by leaving out network news specials, that viewers are only influenced by “reality” and scripted programs. While some could be praised, e.g., the ABC [?] special a couple of years ago on celebrity weddings which included that of Melissa Etheridge, there are some that were so negative, so inflammatory, that it is irresponsible to omit them.

In 1979 ABC News “Close Up” presented an hour focusing on “promiscuous,” suicidal gays. The next year, thirteen years after a negative “CBS Reports” at least let some gays such as Frank Kameny speak for themselves, CBS presented “Gay Power Gay Politics,” which widely contributed to the mainstream idea of San Francisco as a modern Sodom & Gomorrah, complete with discussions of S&M, giving life still today to such buzz words as “San Francisco Democrat.” It was so outrageous that it was condemned by the National News Council.

And how could you leave out ABC’s 2004 shameless smear of Matthew Shepard in which they tried to simultaneously blame his death on “gay panic” AND deny that homophobia played any role in his being beaten to death at all. I remember reading letters to the editors of gay papers by gays who swallowed it whole and asked why Shepard is considered a martyr. While condemned by GLAAD, Judy Shepard, and the chief police investigator of the murder, it appeared shortly before the election, and the combination of being eclipsed by Bush vs. Kerry news and GLAAD’s impotence resulted in it not receiving the professional journalist condemnation that “Gay Power Gay Politics” did.

Nevertheless, it should be included in any evaluation of the networks, and it alone makes ABC’s “A-“ grade totally unjustifiable.

Thank you.

Leland Frances

There was a gay couple on Northern Exposure. Maurice "felt that his manhood was threatened when a gay couple, Ron Bantz (Doug Ballard) and Erick Hillman (Don R. McManus)" moved to town. Ballard was in 73 episodes.

Since you did include "An Early Frost" as an important TV movie, I was surprised you didn't mention that ABC aired "That Certain Summer" (and won some prestigious awards for it) in 1972. It was pretty groundbreaking at the time.

I was surprised that you didn't include "That Certain Summer" to ABC's credit. It was a fairly groundbreaking tv movie for 1972, and won a few major awards.