HBO and 'The Gays'

Arts & Sciences Arts & Entertainment
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Grey’s Anatomy has the lesbian gays. Only she used to be married and has already done all the male doctors (everyone in this show has done everyone else, apart from the Chief and the short fat doc.), so they have just made her gay so they can do the ‘daddy you just have to accept who I am’ story, even though they did the ‘daddy, you just have to accept my new husband’ and the ‘daddy you just have to accept my older lover’, in previous series.

We just like the easy conflict and cliched denouement.

62

Well, hello. It is entertainment after all.

Methinks the OP should watch John From Cincinnati or Breaking Bad. That, and stop clicking on gayporn popups…they never end well (for the straight shooter).

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[quote=“Deuce Dropper”]Before I begin this little bit here, I want to fully state my political beliefs on homosexuality: Gays should be allowed to marry …

That being said, why does HBO insist on putting a gay subplot in EVERY freaking show they make? …

Can anyone explain why this is (and please avoid the ‘fair reflection of society’ BS that those of you atop Mt. Pious spew, because that ain’t it)? …

[/quote]

Thanks Deuce Dropper for a bloody good question. It does, sometimes, irritate me to see token gay characters written into shows for the the sake of it - just as it must have been frustrating for African Americans to see themselves semi-parodied decades ago. But you have to start somewhere.

I want to actually answer the question of why: one answer is “pink money”. Any large enterprise must realise that the gay community (consisting of couples who generally don’t have children) have ready cash to spend on entertainment (no need to save for the education of offspring). You would be a damn stupid TV exec not to somewhat cater to this group.

Another reason is quite clear: Deuce Dropper disingenuously asks us not to refer to the “fair reflection of society BS”, but - come on - everbody I know (maybe my social circle isn’t wide enough) knows somebody gay or lesbian. People are (and I know Deuce Dropper with his respect for gay marriages, rights, etc., will probably support this actuality) coming out of the closet like never before and feeling free to be themselves. Parents have to deal with this. Friends have to deal with this. TV will always be topical. And you can’t ask us not to state the obvious - there are gays on HBO and on many other channels because the gay percentage is larger than was admitted two decades ago. Gay people want to watch shows with gay characters, as do their friends. Mothers are trying to accept sons and might be comforted to see that gay friend of the main character. She is not alone. Other people know gay people.

TV will really have hit a milestone when gay characters can kiss more freely on shows; when you could have a few shows with gay characters as the main characters. At least we have “Big Love” to show an alternative to the traditional two parent family, but how about bisexual characters or transsexuals. For the time being though, let’s accept gay characters thrown in as tokens - it’s a start.

So, yes, I am irritated if a character is clearly a token - for whichever “minority” - and stations should work harder to fully develop characters as characters. But I do hope the liberal guys at HBO keep on attempting to reflect society and keep on inserting gay characters as it will, no doubt, slightly encourage TV viewers to accept gay friends. The writers, producers and actors of TV shows are also human and some will be gay - they no doubt want to include characters resembling themselves.

Media represents and creates - artists want to change society. Kudos to any producer encouraging a world in which it is okay to be yourself without self-hate. There may be HBO people actively promoting gay characters - it’s understandable. Other stations can promote other values if they wish.

If HBO’s pink programming offends anyone, we can be thankful for the convenience of a remote control. We can always try to find channels upon which gay people don’t exist.

64

Great post, Sir/Madam. And welcome to forumosa! :bravo:

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Eh? I think he just changed his name, for some reason.

I love that Grey’s Anatomy is a reflection of society. All the people are preternaturally good-looking and superstar surgeons in their 20s and sexually promiscuous in that ‘serial monogamy’ kind of way. And Cally’s hot.

Six Feet Under - everyone was annoying and stupid (although the show wasn’t), so no reason for the gay characters not to be irritating cyphers.

Sex and the city - gay guy was a boring stereotype, the lesbian affair was just the ‘straight woman gets it on with woman’ story. Zzzz.

I guess the question is - why do we fall for all these replays, instead of really stories? Why do we want reruns and cyphers, instead of real art?

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who is “Freethinker”?? Im confused. I am freethinker83 and I didnt make the last post…imposter! lol

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Look, we see your location is San Francisco. Buttercup just put two and two together. :wink:

Anyway there’s room for more than one free thinker here . . .
even if they are both you.

Here’s some gay stuff on Family Guy on Fox on Hulu on Youtube on Forumosa.

68

The TV series “The Wire” has a lesbian character in one of the detective roles.

I think she is smokin’ hot.

69

I’d also add to this that generally men earn more than women, so 2 guys are living together and holding good positions. You should see the size of some of those management packages!

The whole reflecting real-life thing though… Sex In The City, if there were no gay characters in there at least once, that would be a little off. But how many people really have lives like that anyway? It’s just entertainment.

I wonder if a show was made about real life where I hang about in Bitan, possibly going into 7-11 for some beer, would have to have a really camp/effeminate over the top 7-11 guy in the show to help it sell.

70

Well, hello. It is entertainment after all.

Methinks the OP should watch John From Cincinnati or Breaking Bad. That, and stop clicking on gayporn popups…they never end well (for the straight shooter).[/quote]

cheap shot

in reality being gay would be a lot easier, sometimes hanging out with wifey can grow tiring, at least with a dude as a life companion you can do more things you are truly interested in.

unfortunately I wasn’t born that way so I am forced to go the hetero route.

…and BTW John From Cincinnati was utter trash, and Breaking Bad is AMC, not HBO therefore irrelevant to this topic.

great post by freethinker, but again people are too quick to dismiss my points. having a gay subplot in every show is not being true to the art…

what do you mean? everyone knows gay people, so why not have a gay subplot in every show?

this kind of facile analogy takes us all to PC lameness and ruins stories.

everyone knows a black person and an Hispanic too, but sometimes they don’t fit into the show (case in point ‘The Tudors’). if we tried to jam a representative minority into every show it comes off as cheesy and efforted (token ‘___’) and is actually doing more harm than good.

I feel gays are being rammed into every HBO production just for the sake of having them in the plot. a lot of these scenarios are completely out of tune with the main story arc and seem odd (in the story context not in their behavior, please reply fairly, the lack of even handed replies from my detractors in this thread is the real hate here).

pink money is a very interesting explanation, especially in a world with so many viewing choices, that might be enough to push ratings high enough for a show to get another season, but it doesn’t explain why proven winners like The Sopranos write these convoluted plots into their show five seasons down the road.

thanks for most of the replies in this thread, but some of you are a little too butt hurt (no pun intended) to talk about this rationally.

cheers!

71

An interesting plot could develop out of a situation where everybody turns out to be gay and the straight guy can’t fit in or get a job without putting up with a lot of harrassment from gay colleagues and superiors. THAT would be topical but not part of the current take on things (agenda) and so is unlikely to show up anywhere. The majority of people working in the entertainment industry are gay or bisexual and the remainder make a big production out of being gay friendly. It is a REQUIREMENT.

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Poor bob. What a terrible state of affairs. :cry:

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[quote=“Deuce Dropper”] unfortunately I wasn’t born that way so I am forced to go the hetero route.

… what do you mean? everyone knows gay people, so why not have a gay subplot in every show?

this kind of facile analogy takes us all to PC lameness and ruins stories.

… I feel gays are being rammed into every HBO production just for the sake of having them in the plot. a lot of these scenarios are completely out of tune with the main story arc and seem odd (in the story context not in their behavior, please reply fairly, the lack of even handed replies from my detractors in this thread is the real hate here).

…

thanks for most of the replies in this thread, but some of you are a little too butt hurt (no pun intended) to talk about this rationally.

cheers![/quote]

Sorry you had to go the hetero route - you can’t win them all. Lol

Just got this from an article entitled “HBO GLAAD’s Top Network for Showing Gay Characters”:

"HBO scored highest among 15 networks for its representation of gay characters last season, according to a report released Monday.

In its third annual Network Responsibility Index, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation found that of HBO’s 14 original prime-time series, 10 included content reflecting the lives of gay, bisexual and transgender people."

So Deuce Dropper, you are absolutley correct to point out HBO’s violet coloring. What you and I both object to - I think - is bad writing in subplots. I’m quite happy with all those “alternative lifestyle” characters being on HBO shows (as many HBO viewers must be, or HBO wouldn’t have written them in). Let’s y hope that in the future, gay characters can sometimes share more of the spotlight and be well-rounded (on whichever channel).

Writers have many reasons for their gay characters - reflecting society (to some extent), catering to viewers (pure entertainment - gay characters are just fun) and, sometimes just to be able to write stories that are of interest to themselves. Alan Ball, creator of Six Feet Under and True Blood, neither of which are shoddy, is lucky enough to be gay. He no doubt enjoys writing his characters. The gay guy on Six Feet is definitely not a distracting subplot and Lafayette’s sexuality in True Blood doesn’t interfere unnecessarily. I’m a big fan of the latter series and enjoy it because it is pure trashy entertainment but if it does have any themes other than death and religious fanaticism, those would be sex and the themes of discrimation against minorities (gay or vampire). Gay themes here support the overall atmosphere.

I’ve been very happy with most HBO original programming. I hope they continue to turn out entertaining shows and I’ll even watch their shows which don’t have any gay characters - provided there is good writing. Fortunately, their are many channels to choose from.

HBO is pretty queer - and I like it. I assume HBO is proud of it’s gay friendly nature. I, too, will object if gay topics and people are squeezed in unecessarily. So far, HBO has pleased me though. And I’ll pick up my remote and change channels when they stop doing that. The curse of free will and choice.

Whether one likes gay characters in shows or not, they’re not going away. People who want less gayness, could ether ignore them or get used to them and find your entertainment elsewhere if a particular series seems too contrived to you. The writers of many series - I suspect - are happy to use their shows as a platform. When homos have the same rights as hetero in all states, they might be able to be less heavy-handed.

If we were able to take a look at the trends in series over the last few decades, we would see more and more black characters being allowed in over time. That female characters changed from patsies to powerful individuals. Some headway has been achieved with regards to women’s rights and racial issues. With regards to gay issues, there is still quite a lot to be done.

Let’s not forget that it does boil down to entertainment though. TV must be topical. And gay issues are on people’s minds, and therefore on TV.

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Hi freethinker83 (nice name by the way). My sincere apologies - can you forgive me if we share the moniker? Wasn’t aware of your presence when I joined up, but am happy to be in good company.

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But that’s the problem. Women aren’t people, they are ‘powerful individuals’, now. Everything is predictable and boring.

I want to see lesbians and gay guys who are stupid, nasty, ugly, flawed and do not act like place markers for real people in stories. Or are we just going to see snappy dressers who have issues with coming out, or who are adopting children, or are the slightly older woman’s foil when talking about ‘dating’?

TV is bloody retarded and I hate it.

76

Poor bob. What a terrible state of affairs. :cry:[/quote]

I don’t know if you are being sarcastic or not. What I can tell you is that I have definitely been in that kind of situation. Really great opportunities were closed to me because I am straight. And I am probably about the most gay friendly straight person on the planet.

It’s great that gay people are coming out but there is a flip side to EVERYTHING in my experience and frequently because of the mood of a time only one side is discussed or even admitted to. Right now we are at a point in history when gay people are taking there rightful place in society. That’s great but there is a momentum behind that kind of change that doesn’t always allow for a realistic or even honest discussion of things.

For example I think that most people are aware and accepting of the idea that homosexuality is a naturally occuring phenomenon but the prevalance of homosexuality today would suggest that something fundamental has changed, perhaps biologically.

77

Why is it that every “straight” person on this thread has to tell everyone that they’re straight? Scared we’re going to think you lot are homos? :roflmao:

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…

79

I don’t care if you think I’m a homo. Why would any think I wasn’t a homo? EVERYONE is a homo these days. That’s my point.

80

Poor bob. What a terrible state of affairs. :cry:[/quote]

I don’t know if you are being sarcastic or not. What I can tell you is that I have definitely been in that kind of situation. Really great opportunities were closed to me because I am straight. And I am probably about the most gay friendly straight person on the planet.[/quote]

Me, sarcastic? Why would I do that to the most gay-friendly straight person on the planet?