Ask the Flying Monkey! (August 24, 2009)

Have a question about gay male entertainment? Ask the Monkey! (Please include your city and state and/or country.)

Q: Years ago, I read about the gay kiss between Topher Grace and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in an episode of That ‘70s Show called "Eric's Buddy." Apparently that kiss had some kind of historical significance, like first primetime kiss between two men or something like that? Could you find out what the significance was, if any? – Mark, Johnson City, TN

A: Okay, this is too weird! Just last week, I was at a party, talking to Liz Brixius and Linda Wallem, the creators of the great new show Nurse Jackie (and who both happen to be lesbians). At one point, one of them mentioned a “gay episode” on the first season of That ‘70s Show, a show they’d worked on previously. I didn’t remember seeing it, but I thought it might be interesting to write about on the site, so I pulled out my recorder and asked them a few questions.

And then today, I get your question. Am I prescient or what?!

Anyway, there absolutely was just such an episode, and it aired December 6^th, 1998. Eric (Topher Grace) makes a new friend, Buddy (Gordon-Levitt in a guest role). When Eric tells Buddy of the problems he’s having with his girlfriend, Buddy kisses him.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt in a scene with Topher Grace

“This was back when there was nothing gay on TV,” Liz told me. “No L-Word, no nothing. It was just a very sweet little episode.”

How did Gordon-Levitt get involved? “The folks at Carsey-Werner, which produced our show, also produced 3^rd Rock from the Sun, and we were all a close family,” Liz said. “And we all just thought he should do it.”

The episode ended up being nominated for a GLAAD Award, but weirdly, there was no controversy – maybe because there were still so few gay characters on television.

In fact, the only people who seemed to get upset were … the folks at Will & Grace. According to Liz, “They hadn’t done a gay kiss yet, so when [creator] Max [Mutchnick] found out about ours, he was mad, because he’d wanted to be the first sitcom to do it. But he was very sweet about it.”

I’m reluctant to say this was the first gay kiss on television ever (there were at least two lesbian kisses before it, on LA Law in 1992 and on Relativity in 1997). But it seems to have been the first gay male kiss on a non-news show played not completely for laughs.

Q: Given all the attention that has been given to gays on network TV lately, why do some say they still aren’t gay-inclusive? – Via Text

A: Because they’re still not.

I like GLAAD – I really do. But every year, I sure get frustrated when they release their annual report “grading” the networks – and then watch how their results are totally misconstrued by stupid or lazy reporters and lying or disingenuous conservatives.

This year, for example, GLAAD revealed that HBO, the network graded the most gay-inclusive, had gay content in 42% of its programming hours. CBS, the lowest-rated network, had gay content in only 5% of its programming hours.

From that, many people, including plenty of conservatives, immediately declared, “Waaaaait a minute! Gay people only make up 5% of the population, and yet 42% of HBO’s content is gay, and activists are still complaining?! It’s just like I’ve been saying all along – see how unreasonable, how incapable of ever being satisfied, those gay activists really are?!?!”

Some people went even further, saying or implying that 42% of the characters on HBO are gay.

But the report didn’t say what those people said it said. At all, at all, at all!

Next page! What the GLAAD report really says.