Survival of the Fab-est: How Gay TV Characters Evolve

Genus: Wardrobus Anachronisia

Lay Terminology: “The Contemporary Closet Case”

One other interesting way in which Matt, Will, and Kevin are similar is that at one time or another they each became involved with a closeted man whom they ultimately rejected. The presence of these closeted foils for the out main characters reads like an effort at forestalling criticism from gay viewers; it’s as if the shows were announcing that, while these straight-acting main characters might have their issues, at least they’re not as lost or self-hating as these other closet cases.

But more significantly, the fact that these closeted characters only appeared for a few episodes indicates how little interest they hold for audiences today. In other words, the drama of the closet — something that’s been associated with gay characters ever since TV immemorial — has, like the prehensile tail and 11^th toe, lost its utility and become virtually obsolete.

There are, of course, evolutionary throwbacks. And as you’d assume, they can be found on FX. The Shield, Rescue Me, and Dirt. But for the most part, closeted characters are absent from most current network television. It’s simply become a familiar, overworked storyline that no longer holds much narrative potential or novelty.

From left to right: Rescue Me's Mike "Probie" Silletti (Mike Lombardi);
The Class' Perry Pearl (Sam Harris);
Help Me Help You's Jonathan (Jim Rash)

A recent and failed effort to reignite the Closet Case with a new twist was evident on sit-coms like The Class and Help Me Help You. Following on the steps of Frasier’s Gil Chesterton (Edward Hibbert), these shows each featured a character who all the others assumed to be gay, even though the character in question does not identify himself as such. But these shows quickly showed how forced, stale, and limited any laughs emerging from these contrived situations were bound to be. Audiences didn’t respond, and — thankfully — these shows and this demeaning character type are now classified as extinct.

Genus: Psychopathia Homosexualis

Lay Terminology: “The Psycho Killer”

Other than the Closet Case, probably the most long-standing gay character type, particularly in movies, has been that of the Gay Psycho Killer. On television, this character most often appears in guest spots on police procedurals. Law and Order, for example, has had several episodes in which murderers turn out not only to be gay, but their (often-closeted) sexuality plays a part in their motivations. But here too there have been minute yet detectable evolutionary moves toward being more upstanding and realistic.

Exhibit A): Oz’s Chris Keller (Christopher Meloni) introduced in 1998. Exhibit B) The Sopranos’ Vito Spatafore (Joseph R. Gannascoli) introduced in 1999, became “Gay Vito” in 2005. Both men were established as violent, heartless sociopaths right off the bat, before their sexuality was revealed. Their desire for, and ultimate devotion to, another man, rather than being the motivation for their sociopathic behavior, instead served to humanize them, rendering them more complicated, if flawed, individuals.

Keller (left) and Gannascoli

Most significantly, the portrayal of these tough guys and the men they loved (like Vito’s blue collar biker boyfriend Johnnycakes) served as vivid contrasts to more stereotypical portrayals on TV. Not all gay men, they showed, are white-collar fashion plates with male-model good looks. Some gay men could even be brutal killers; but even more important, they weren’t brutal killers because they were gay.

Vito (Gannascoli) & Johnnycakes (John Costelloe)