The Year in Gay Television

Hey, there. The Ghost of TV Past here.

No, no, not the Ghost of Christmas Past. Totally different ghost. I’m here as your guide through the past year in gay television.

How am I different from the Ghost of Christmas Past? Well, I’m way more butch. What – I am! Plus, I don’t do the whole look-how-happy-you-were-as-a-child thing. Please. I’m only taking you back a single year. Who cares that you first realized you were gay while watching Johnny Depp on 21 Jump Street?

Look, can we just get on with this?

Go ahead, touch my sleeve. Don’t worry, I promise I’ll bring you back to your computer in one piece.

Good. And away we go!

Ah, here we are. You recognize this place, don’t you? It’s a picket line of the writers’ strike that began at the end of 2007 and carried over into 2008.

Photo credit: Charley Gallay/Getty Images

Ignore the incessant chattering from over on the sidewalk – that’s just The West Wing’s Aaron Sorkin. Trust me, it’s not just his fictional characters who never zip it.

Why is the writers’ strike important to the year in gay TV? Because coming right in the middle of the television season, the writers’ strike screwed everything to hell. Or maybe a better way to put it is that the refusal of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers to consider the writers’ very reasonable demands screwed everything to hell.

So now you know the Ghost of TV Past’s politics. But you get the idea.

Anyway, the strike stopped production cold on almost every scripted show on television. Since the strike wasn’t resolved until early February, that meant many fewer episodes of your favorite gay shows.

Ugly Betty's Marc & Cliff

There was a whole storyline between Marc and Cliff on Ugly Betty that got pared way down — though the loss was forgiven when Eddie Cibrian showed up shirtless. And Kevin and Scotty’s marriage storyline on Brothers & Sisters was sped way up, too (although some, including this ghost, were thankful it gave the writers an excuse to shut Kevin up!).

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Frankly, the writers’ strike — er, the producers’ refusal to consider the writers’ very reasonable demands — didn’t just screw up your favorite gay scripted shows. It may have given new life to your favorite gay reality shows. The nation turned its lonely eyes to you, Reality Television.