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In 2002, the study was restandardized to exclude less prominent characters, noting, “Other gay and lesbian characters occasionally appear on Friends, The Simpsons, and South Park. However, their presence is relatively minor.” These characters had been included in all previous years, which makes the numbers very tricky to compare — and also likely accounts for the drastic falloff from 23 network characters in 2001 to only 13 in 2002. But while an apples-to-apples comparison may not be possible given the available data, a qualitative study certainly is.

During the 1996–97 television season, the unimaginable happened: The lead character of the critically acclaimed and popular sitcom, Ellen, came out of the closet. The repercussions were huge, and popular reaction varied wildly. For every advertiser who pulled its spots from the show, there seemed to be a cover story in a national magazine celebrating Ellen DeGeneres for her bravery as an individual and as a performer.

At this point there were a decent number of gay characters on primetime network television (25, with three on Ellen and four on Roseanne), but most were in rarely seen, recurring roles. Seventeen of these characters appeared on comedies, with only eight on dramas. The lesbian moms on Friends, the gay food critic on Frasier, and Paul Reiser's lesbian sister on Mad About You made NBC the friendliest place for supporting queers in those days.

It's worth noting that while Ellen's gayness certainly wasn't an accident (one could argue that both the character and the woman playing her had been gay all along), for the audience it was a surprise. It's not as though the audience for Ellen tuned in from the start knowing that the lead character would eventually be coming out. In other words, this character changed her tune several seasons into a successful run (that was subsequently cut short possibly because of this very revelation). Before DeGeneres and her character came out, the chances of a series launching with an openly gay lead character were virtually none.

But while the coming-out may have led to the end of DeGeneres' show, the eventual impact on the network landscape was significant. Soon there were prominent, diverse supporting characters all over the broadcast networks, from gay and lesbian interns on ER to a gay receptionist on NYPD Blue and a gay detective on Homicide. Queer characters were stepping away from their posts as discomforting comic relief on sitcoms and instead were given dramatic roles in more challenging environments.

In 1998, NBC premiered the first major network show in history to feature a gay male lead, Will & Grace. To the surprise of many, the show was solid — and a bona fide success, both critically and in the ratings.

The only way to go, it seemed, was up. From teen dramas like Dawson's Creek to mainstream sitcoms like Spin City and The Drew Carey Show, gay characters were more prominent than ever. But while broadcast TV saw a temporary uptick in central gay characters (with five leads out of 25 network characters in 2000), it wasn't quite the explosion that was expected, or at least hoped for, by many.

Despite the stellar performance of Will & Grace, the networks weren't exactly jumping at the chance to put more gays in the spotlight. In fact, although the 2000–01 season saw 12 lead gay roles (with a heaping handful of supporting players), only five of these characters were on major networks (and one, John Goodman's single gay dad in Normal, Ohio, didn't even survive until Christmas).

For the next several seasons, Will Truman would wear the mantle of Lone Gay Lead Character on Network Television like a second skin. Poor Will had few or no characters at all to share it with, and none for very long (the gay dads of It's All Relative and a bisexual Asian gal on Coupling wouldn't last the year). The sole exception was Alyson Hannigan's character of lesbian witch Willow on Buffy, which aired on the upstart network UPN (since folded into the CW) for the show's last few seasons.

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