Don’t kill your television

Here’s something you might not know about me: I work in the TV biz for one the biggest global Web media companies. I’m not going to guest on Modern Family anytime soon – it’s not like that – but I sure as hell eat, drink, breathe, and sleep TV shows; it’s my job. What I do revolves around articles and videos for hundreds of shows that are on the air, were on the air, will be on the air. So I can tell you that scripted TV is getting GAY – awesome!

I call it the 21st-century “Modern Family” effect (or “Glee” effect if I’m feeling fancy). Sure, there was the amazing, 16-time Emmy award-winning Will and Grace, the groundbreaking Ellen, and the brilliant and addictive gay-friendly Sex and the City. (Although I could have done without Samantha’s lesbian storyline). Gay storylines go back to The Golden Girls, where my “Lebanese lesbian” phrase actually originated. (YouTube it!) And Three’s Company was basically based on Jack Tripper pretending he was gay. That premiered in 1977.

Having queers on TV is not new, but there has been a recent, heavy-handed shift to put the gays front and center on TVs across America. Should we thank Ryan Murphy? If you didn’t watch the first season of American Horror Story, shame on you. It’s a creepy, freaky thrill ride of massive proportions. It also featured a terrifying ghostly gay couple – one member of which is played by Zachary Quinto, who came out publicly shortly before his stint on the show began and whom I’m full-on obsessed with. What I like most about it is that Murphy didn’t pander to the straight world with this story arc. He showed a gritty and ugly realness that I commend. He showed that a gay couple can be just as dysfunctional and twisted as the thousands of straight couples on TV – a bold move in a world where gays can feel pressure to be perfect and present themselves perfectly in order to not scare away those who are coming to their equal-rights senses.

Then, on the other end of the Ryan Murphy spectrum, we have The New Normal. You probably saw the five million ads for it during the Olympics. Go NBC! I finally watched the sneak-peek pilot episode, which will have aired by the time this column runs. Did you watch it? Did you like it? I am torn. It’s fun, it’s sweet, and I want to like it, but something was off. It was kind of a stereotype Petri dish. The gay couple was divided into the “typical” football-loving, sensible, handsome doctor and the fashion- and weight-obsessed, shallow, pretty boy. They want a baby and find a lovely young woman (with an insanely bigoted mother) who needs money and wants to be their surrogate. Off we go.

What does it all mean? Why did Murphy decide to start the show in this pretty obvious direction? First of all, it’s on a major network, so the viewers are not as niche as those for FX, AMC, Bravo, and the like. Because of this, it needs to have mass appeal. In our world of Two and a Half Men viewers, maybe it is a brilliant move to play so heavily into stereotypes. But as far as an LGBT-centered series, much of America is probably more comfortable seeing gays in a certain light: the masculine and feminine; the bigot versus the open mind. Perhaps the creators have to take this “let us fit into your hetero box” approach at first in order to eventually find our way out of it. I hope that The New Normal eventually establishes itself as more than one-dimensional. Also, no more fat jokes. It’s really not the common thread that binds us all. But I digress.

I often have to remind myself that the general population doesn’t live in my bubble of queer theory. Is it better to push them over the edge with LGBTQ individuals who thumb their noses at the gender binary, or to try and relate in a way that more easily makes sense to our social sense of what’s familiar? Baby steps on network TV might actually be the way go.

So brace yourself, fellow queermos! The fall is going to be gay. From The New Normal to Partners and the lesbian marriage on Grey’s Anatomy, it’s all in the family, it seems. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.