Where would they be without great gay assistants?

Entertainment Weekly takes a fun look at TV's great assistants including the gay assistants played by Rex Lee (Entourage's Lloyd) and Michael Urie (Ugly Betty's Marc) as well as Jack McBrayer (30 Rock's gay-seeming Kenneth.) That got me thinking about past examples of gay TV assistants...

Stuart Glazer (Action!)

As bad as Ari Gold may get, things could never be as bad for Lloyd as what poor Stuart (played by out gay actor Jack Plotnick) faced working as a Hollywood assistant. As Peter Dragon's assistant, Stuart had to deal with a temperamental and callous boss who took his frustrations out on Stuart.

Brian (The Larry Sanders Show)

When Hank's assistant, Darlene, suddenly quit on him, Brian (played by out actor Scott Thompson) was able to seize the job opening. When Hank realized he was gay, Hank tried to find an excuse to fire Brian, but quickly realized that Brian was too valuable an assistant to give up.

Stephano (High Society)

Okay, I'm probably the only person who has fond memories of CBS' AbFab knockoff High Society, which featured Luigi Amodeo as gay assistant Stephano. It wasn't original but Jean Smart and Mary McDonnell brought a lot of energy to the show and assistant Stefano enabled their achohol abuse and pill popping. Nowadays, watching Battlestar Galactica makes me flashback to this show. It would certainly be a relief to see McDonnell play a character who's worst problem is a bad hangover.

Josh Blair (Veronica's Closet)

Though most of Veronica's Closet Josh (Wallace Langham) was the subject of countless "You mean he isn't gay?" jokes until he finally came out just befBrian (The Larry Sanders Show)ore his wedding.

Matthew Brock (Newsradio)

While not identified as gay, office oddball Matthew (played by bisexual actor Andy Dick) had an obsessive fixation on station anchor Bill McNeal, with Bill taking full advantage of Matthew's devotion. While Matthew's strange behaviors annoyed his co-workers, the WNYX staff had a fondness for him and worked to keep him around when he was fired by an efficiency expert.

Waylon Smithers (The Simpsons)

They give him some due respect in the EW article but no list of gay (or gay-seeming) TV characters who worked as an assistant would be complete without the iconic Smithers, who is amazingly loyal to his boss, Mr. Burns, even though Burns never shows much appreciation for Smithers' devotion.