As gay men who weren't villains, sidekicks, or flamboyant comic relief, but three-dimensional, complex characters who didn't adhere neatly to stereotypes, funeral director David (Michael C. Hall) and then-policeman Keith (Mathew St. Patrick) were a rarity when this dark and critically acclaimed series about a dysfunctional family of funeral directors debuted in 2001. "Keith and David met in church!" St. Patrick said in an interview this week. "How much more mainstream can you get?" Although Keith and David have had their share of problems, including infidelity, low self-esteem, and internalized homophobia, they are committed to their relationship and have persevered as a couple.

Unfortunately, characters like David and Keith are still as much of a rarity on television now as they were then. Funny, two-dimensional gay sitcom characters remain the rule on network television, and few dramas feature prominent gay characters, which easily makes David and Keith two of the most visible gay male characters on TV. They're also arguably the most honest and identifiable.

The character of Keith also offers a rare three-dimensional, non-stereotypical portrayal of a black gay man. The only other prominent black gay characters currently found on television are The Wire's murdering thug Omar (Michael K Williams), and The Shield's deeply repressed Julien (Michael Jace), a man so in denial about his sexuality that he married a woman. The first decent black gay character on a network TV drama since, well, forever, was Chris Didion (Rick Worthy) on the CBS series Eyes--which was canceled last month after only a few episodes had aired.

Once Keith is gone, the only regular or supporting black gay men left on TV will be Omar, Julien, and a flamboyant gay sidekick on the fall CBS sitcom Emily's Reasons Why Not. Just another reason to mourn Six Feet Under's passing.

This season, David and Keith are still a prominent part of the series--in fact, they're its most stable and enduring couple, at least as the season starts off. But they've been saddled with the Big Gay Parenting Storyline this season, which means almost all of their conversations are focused around trying to have a child. While the couple's constant bickering in the last few seasons may have been frustrating at times--even St. Patrick admits “I would have been happy with maybe not as much fussing and fighting"--this season's arguments over adoption vs. surrogacy may make you long for the good ol' days when David got beat up and Keith slept with a woman.

Two men trying to have a child may be gripping drama for straight people, but it's more likely to provoke groans from gay viewers, who've been assaulted with documentaries, TV shows, and movies on the subject in the last five years.

To be fair, while stories about adoption efforts, insemination attempts, and custody battles have plagued virtually every adult lesbian character on television in the last 10 years, it is still far less common to see two gay men on TV as parents. There have been a few shows that have nibbled around the edges of the topic: the short-lived 2003-2004 sitcom It's All Relative (ABC) revolved around a man with two gay parents, a gay character inherited a baby from a dying friend in the finale of Dawson's Creek (WB) in 2003, and a gay husband and father came out on the first season of Everwood (WB) in 2003--and promptly deserted his family. Will and Grace even had a short-lived storyline in 2002 in which its title characters explored the idea of a having a baby together.

The most prominent depiction of gay parenting so far has been on Queer as Folk, where two gay men have fathered children with the show's lesbian couple.

As these examples illustrate, even when gay men are parents on television, you rarely see them actually parenting. You see them talk about parenting (Will and Grace), become parents (Dawson's Creek), or interact with their grown-up children (It's All Relative), but you rarely if ever see gay fathers actively involved in their young children's lives. Even with Queer as Folk, it's only in the show's final season that the gay fathers are getting involved in their children's lives beyond donating sperm and writing an occasional check.

It's the day-in, day-out trials and tribulations of two gay men raising a child that would make for something new and groundbreaking on television. The closest we've come to that was when David and Keith took in Keith's 9-year-old niece for awhile on Six Feet Under's second and third season (she was eventually shipped back to her parents), and when Michael and Brian took in an HIV+ teenager in the third season of Queer as Folk.

So while David and Keith's quest to acquire a child this season is not exactly old hat yet on television, it's not nearly as innovative--or interesting--as if we had seen them raising a child.

But even with a storyline that doesn't leap off the screen, Six Feet Under's trademark bitter, brutally honest approach at least promises a different take on gay parenting than you've seen anywhere else. Whether it's David's Wizard of Oz-on-crack nightmares about using his sister's eggs, or the couple's off-putting encounter with kids who know way too much about their parents, a bad day with David and Keith is still better than a good day with most of the other gay men on TV put together.

The final season of Six Feet Under airs Mondays at 9pm on HBO