TCA Day 1: CBS Prez Nina Tassler "We're Not Happy With Ourselves."

In what's quickly becoming an annual summer rite of passage for me at the Television Critics Association Summer Tour, I again asked CBS President Nina Tassler about her network getting another failing grade from GLAAD for the network's lack of GLBT representation.

There were a couple of pilots that we shot this season and a couple of projects in development that unfortunately we didn't get to pick up. But we are adding a few characters to this season because we are very disappointed in our track record so far. We know we will do better.

We're going to meet Alicia's brother on The Good Wife as a gay character. We're also going to be adding a new character to Rules of Engagement. Jeff and Audrey's surrogate will be a member of Jeff's softball team and she's a lesbian. We're also going to be recurring a gay character in Bleep My Dad Says. The character Tim Bagley played will be returning this season.

Once you come out of your pilot season disappointed with yourself, you go into the current series season and say "Let's look for every opportunity to imporove the numbers we have represented in the cast so we're going to do that. And then we'll continue to focus on that as we go into development season. We're not happy with ourselves. 

Well, that's a slight improvement over last year's answer when Tassler said:

Any show can have gay characters. We're conscious of that as well. This year one of our pilots, "Quinn-tuplets," has gay characters. Any series can. This year we made a concerted effort to suggest to producers, if not in pilot, then as we go forward. 

As previously reported, Quinn-tuplets was not picked up. So is it a good thing CBS is shoehorning adding queer characters to their existing shows?

I suppose it's better than nothing. I've seen the pilot for Sh*t My Dad Says and while Tim Bagley's (pictured right) character (a DMV employee) is fine, he's also A) there for mostly comic effect and B) a very minor character. Realistically, how often will the main characters have to renew their driver's license?

As for Rules of Engagement, this broad comedy featured Orlando Jones in four episodes with mixed results. But a lesbian softball player? And she's going to be a surrogate? Man, television cannot get away from having every lesbian get pregnant. (I can't wait to hear what AfterEllen has to say about that.)

It seems as if The Good Wife offers the best chance of CBS finally doing something decent with their scripted programming. Given that Alicia (Juliana Marguiles) is the star of the show, perhaps her gay brother might get some actual screentime. 

But it sure would be nice if the network didn't have to add their gay characters as afterthoughts. 

As for Tassler's not being happy with CBS's performance, well, that makes two of us.