"Law & Order: Los Angeles" and "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" to Tackle Gay Marriage

It's hard to think of two shows as different from each other as NBC's upcoming Law & Order spinoff L&O: Los Angeles and the long-running FX comedy It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. L&O: L.A. is a "ripped from the headlines" legal thriller while Philadelphia is a very dark comedy about a group of deranged, depraved "friends."

Rene Balcer

But this fall the two shows will have at least one thing in common: the issue of gay marriage as both plan to tackle the subject, albeit in very different ways.

While the L&O franchise is woefully inadequate when it comes to including recurring GLBT characters (only last year, in the show's 11th season, did L&O: Special Victims Unit finally confirm George Hwang is gay), GLBT issues have long been part of the landscape.

And when L&O: L.A. makes it debut this fall, that will continue to be the case as the spinoff will tackle the issue of Prop 8 (which was just overturned by a California court) in its first batch of episodes.

Executive producer Rene Balcer spoke to AfterElton.com about how the show will handle the contentious issue. Said Balcer, "One of the episodes that we're doing is [about] the money behind the Prop. 8 people and the hypocrisy of black churches supporting a Proposition like that, and also looking at the whole "initiative industry" and how these lobbyists make a lot of money."

Asked to elaborate on that "hypocrisy," Balcer is emphatic: "There is a hypocrisy... In fact, that's one of the lines in the script: 'How can you as a black minister who has fought for civil rights now fight to deny someone else their civil rights?' I mean it makes no sense."

And Balcer feels exposing that hypocrisy is one of the goals of the show. "I think there's an obvious hypocrisy [in Prop 8], and if anything we're consistent. We just try to go after hypocrites of whatever stripe."

Asked how the episode came to be, Balcer said, "[We] were sitting around talking about it and thought, 'Okay, we got the first six stories. What's Othe next seven?' And then this came out. And I'd been having lunch with a former judge in the 9th District Federal Circuit.

He and I had been talking about the whole initiative process and how that's totally perverted California politics, and from there I was thinking about Prop 8, and all the money behind it. And who was behind that money.... and once that comes out you can't ignore it."

Asked if the show will address the Mormon influence in the success of Prop 8, Balcer said "Oh yeah, the outside money coming in. That'll be there as well."

Given that Los Angeles is such a diverse, gay-friendly city, might these Law & Order feature a gay character more prominently? Balcer thinks it's a possibility and that the show reflect the city's diversity. "I think [the show] should reflect the community. And the gay community is very important in this city, as it is in many other cities. Especially in this city, politically, it's very powerful."

Meanwhile, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia's creator Rob McElhenney will take a very different approach in his show's first two episodes of the new season. Those episodes involve McElhenny's character Mac opposing the marriage between a transgender woman (for whom he has feelings, but couldn't handle the fact that she was pre-op) and another man. Consumed by jealousy, Mac claims their marriage is actually a gay marriage and therefore shouldn't be allowed. (It's important to keep in mind the character's on Philadelphia are all patently stupid.)

Rob McElhenney

Additionally, the episode will have the characters of Frank and Charlie enter a domestic partnership in order to get health care benefits.

As to why the show is tackling the topic, McElhenney says, "It was important to us to make an episode of television that you are never going to see anywhere else which is something I've never seen. It's part of the national conversation."  

While gay marriage will be at the center of the episode, McElhenney, who is pro-gay and was partly raised by his biological mother and her female partner, doesn't see it as his job to put his political beliefs at the front of show. "I certainly have a strong political position when it comes to that issue, however I don't think it is our responsibility to dictate to other people what we think our position is and that we just try to present both sides of the argument and that there are hypocrisies on both sides of the argument."

Asked about those "hypocrisies," McElehenney explains that he thinks "there are hypocrisies in the arguments on both sides. Ultimately, I feel very strongly about one side, but instead of exploring that and espousing my political beliefs, I feel like I can can take action and steps in the private side of my life, which my wife and I do. 

"But that in terms of the public side of my life and the television show specifically, it's not really the kind of show that lends itself to making political statements besides that this is something that we should be talking about; that either way, on sides of the issue, people are human beings and that the less we treat each other like human beings, the harder it is to find a resolution." 

More than anything, McElhenney feels it's important to have a dialogue about the topic and that in his opinion, neither side is right. "There are so many people that I've found that are almost indifferent to it," says McElhenney. "And when you ask them about it and they say 'Well, I don't know. It doesn't really affect me.' And they think they don't know any gay people when they most likely do. And they say 'Um, I just don't like to think about it. I think the only wrong side to fall on that particular issue is not to think about it, to not talk about it, to not figure it out for yourself."