Entertainment Weekly salutes landmark moments in gay Hollywood

Being a student of television, I would nominate two additional groundbreaking programs--both airing the same year on ABC--to the EW list  One was "The Corner Bar," a short-lived sitcom produced by Alan King and Howard Morris about a neighborhood bar in New York City.  (It was ABC's answer to the "relevant" comedy movement sparked by "All In The Family"--which the network passed on for fear of controversy, but became a smash hit for CBS, to the Alphabet Network's chagrin.)  Character actor Vincent Schiavelli played a flamboyant set designer named "Peter Panama"--to my knowledge, the first recurring homosexual character on an American television series.  The show was given another chance with cast changes in 1973 ("Peter Panama" was out--of the revised version, that is) and the series left the airwaves.  The other ABC program I would add to the list is "That Certain Summer," which aired as part of the network's "Movie of the Week" anthology of made-for-television films.  It starred Hal Holbrook as a divorced father whose teenage son (Scott Jacoby) had to deal with his father's homosexuality.  Martin Sheen played Holbrook's lover; Hope Lange was Holbrook's ex-wife.  When it aired in the fall of 1972, it made a big impact on me.  That's when I realized other people had the same feelings I did.  I recently watched the film again on Logo, and it was just as powerful and moving as it was more than 30 years ago.