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It was great for America to see parents accepting their child's homosexuality—especially considering the father was a priest—but the fact that Adam and Grace got away with what they did is more than a little disturbing.

Daniel faced cancellation after only four episodes.

Show creator Jack Kenny explained the reasons he believed it was cancelled in an impassioned op-ed he wrote for The Advocate's Web site. Said Kenny,

“Advertisers had already been skittish (as they had with Desperate Housewives, Queer Eye, NYPD Blue —any show that pushes the envelope), and [a] controversy, started by a very small group of bullies in Tupelo, Miss. [the American Family Association], pushed them further away. Every show lives or dies on numbers, and ours dwindled due to lack of advertisers and therefore lack of budget and support for promotion. It's just an unfortunate truth about network television. Shows get less and less time to find
an audience.”

At any rate, Daniel probably has a good chance of resurrection on DVD, since NBC seems to recognize the show has a solid fan base: There is currently an unaired episode online to appease miffed viewers.

Another midseason show with a gay character was Love Monkey. It featured Tom Cavanagh as Tom Farrell, a guy who worked in the music industry. He had a gay friend named Jake (Christopher Wiehl).

In a video interview on CBS's Web site, Wiehl said Love Monkey was trying to deal with his character being gay in a realistic way.

Considering that comment, the fact that Jake worked in the often homophobic world of sports, and that one of the unaired episodes was titled “Coming Out,” it would have been interesting to see how his character developed.

But, alas, Love Monkey was shown no love by its network. It was pulled off the air due to low ratings after only three episodes, though many critics said it was an interesting show. Love Monkey 's future is very much up in the air right now. According to TV Guide, “A source close to Monkey confirms that UPN has expressed interest in acquiring the show's five unaired episodes, but as of now, it isn't in the plans.”

If you missed Emily's Reasons Why Not —a likely possibility, since only one episode aired before the show was cancelled—you should probably consider yourself lucky. The show, about a Carrie Bradshaw-type (Heather Graham), did not do well with critics.

But there was at least one good thing about it: a gay character named Josh (Khary Payton), who was one of Emily's close friends. And Josh wasn't only gay, but also in a strong relationship. That certainly would have been a good thing for all those same-sex marriage opponents to see, week after week.

As for why the show left us so soon, McPherson said ABC saw no sign Emily would ever get better, creatively speaking. He said ratings were an issue as well. (Little wonder, seeing as Emily only attracted a little over 6 million viewers in her short life.) Another factor, said McPherson, was that both The Golden Globes and 24 were going to be on against Emily if ABC had aired a second episode.

There were also a few network dramas that premiered in the fall with gay characters.

Inconceivable, a show about infertile couples trying to conceive, showed a gay couple (played by David Noroña and Jonathan Slavin) who had a baby via a surrogate mother. But the show was cancelled after only two episodes, due to poor ratings.

Related also featured a gay couple (played by the openly gay actors Wilson Cruz and Peter Paige). Unfortunately, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Related will soon be taken off the air—possibly for good.

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