Gone Too Soon: Eighteen Gays on Television We Would’ve Liked to See More Of

We've all had that friendship that was cut short for whatever reason — because your family moved, because you switched jobs, because you were a "greaser" and they were a "soc" — and we're left to wonder: what might have been?

The same is true for gays on television. Television programs are canceled for a lot of reasons, and it's definitely not always because of a lack of quality.

But what if these characters had stuck around a little longer? Who knows what kind of adoring or intimate relationship we viewers might have developed with them?

Here are a few of the folks I'd like to rescue from the Island of Lost Gay TV Characters:

Fred Savage as Mitch Crumb with co-star Jane Curtain

Mitch Crumb (from Crumbs)

If there was ever a show that coulda been a contender, it was Crumbs, a 2006 vehicle for a grown-up Fred Savage (who had become famous as a child actor on The Wonder Years). In it, Savage played a failed gay screenwriter who returns home to work in a restaurant run by his seriously demented family. 

The show's scripts were funny, and its ratings were respectable, leading many to speculate that it was advertisers' response to Mitch's sexuality had something to do with the show being canceled after a mere five episodes.

Zachary Quinto (left) as So NoTORIous' Sasan

Sasan from (So NoTORIous)

Tori Spelling has her own reality show now, Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood, and it’s all I can do not to run screaming from the room whenever it's on. But Spelling also had a terrific, short-lived single-camera sitcom, So NoTORIous, that ran on VH1 back in 2006 that we now know (based on her reality show) really was based on her life, just like they said at the time.

One of the characters was her Iranian-American gay best friend, Sasan, played by Star Trek's Zachary Quinto (and whose real-life counterpart, Mehran Farhat, occasionally appears on Home Sweet Hollywood). Sasan has his issues — he refuses to come out to his more traditional parents, for one thing.

But he was also quick-witted and (again) the voice of reason in the fictional Tori's life of insanity. And the shirtless seduction scene where he makes out with another guy in the sauna didn't hurt!

Lexington (from Gargoyles)

If you ask me, there aren't nearly enough animated gay monsters — something that the Disney children's program Gargoyles sought to change in its 1994-1997 syndicated run. According to the show's creator, the gargoyle Lexington, named after the avenue, was gay. He was also a technical wizard who harbored a deep-seated resentment of the bully-like Pack, a group of mercenaries who frequently harassed the title characters.

Sadly, the character's sexuality was only hinted at, which is one reason I'd like to see more of him.