Will "Firefly"'s Sean Maher Play Gay Again on NBC's "Playboy"

When former Showtime president Bob Greenblatt became chairman and president of programming of NBC, it seemed highly likely things would improve when it came to that network's GLBT visibility. After all, having the first out man as a broadcast network president would seem to indicate a certain level of acceptance for gay content.

Those hopes look to have been fulfilled this week as NBC announced their fall pickups which include the dramas Smash and Playboy. Smash, starring Debra Messing, is set in the Broadway world of New York, and includes the gay character of Tom (Christian Borle). Based on sides for the pilot, Tom is out and proud, and we even see him in bed with another man (who may or may not be bisexual). All in all, the show appears to have a great deal of promise and Tom looks set to get a decent amount of screentime.

Even more promising is Playboy, set in 1960s Chicago and following characters who work at the local Playboy Club. Much to our surpise, casting sides for Playboy's pilot included two significant gay characters, including Sean who is married to Alice, one of the bunnies working at club. But the pilot reveals Sean and Alice are strictly in a marriage of convenience and both are actually gay. Furthermore, Sean is involved with Joshua. Even more intriguing, all three are gay activists involved with the Mattachine Society, one of the earliest organizations fighting for gay rights.

Sean Maher

It turns out that in the pilot shot for NBC, the part of Sean was played by gay-fav Sean Maher of Firefly fame. Maher is also probably familiar to many gay viewers for his role as John Stamos' partner in the TV movie Wedding Wars. Since Maher's part is listed as being uncredited for the pilot, it's uncertain as to whether or not he'll play the part in the actual series.

Gay viewers can certainly hope so!

Equally important in terms of NBC's GLBT visibility is what NBC decided not to pick up — namely, A Mann's World, set in a high end Beverly Hills hair salon. While the show was created by the out Michael Patrick King and included Mario Cantone as Nicky, the pilot left a bad taste in our mouths. Nicky was to be the assistant to Allan (Don Johnson) and didn't appear to have much more to do than be an assistant who exists solely to support the main character.

Even worse were the minor characters of Snip, Snap, and Snur, three gay hairstylists who at least in the pilot, were every gay cliche imaginable.

Word is that A Mann's World is now being shopped to cable networks.

Will Smash or Playboy make it more than few episodes this fall? Finding success on TV is always a tricky thing and past promising NBC series with gay characters — Kings and Southland — failed to fly on the Peacock Network. But hopefully at least one of these gay inclusive shows will make it to a second seasn.