May 16, 2018 · By Chris Parkhurst
Can a tv show with a gay lead character succeed?
The fall tv season is still months away but already the main US networks have begun announcing what will fill up the dial. One show I’m looking forward to is the Real O’Neals, which we reported on last week, a show not only with a gay character as the lead, but a gay teen. Even from the trailer it seems the show will probably be good, but that might not guarantee it survives.
While I don’t want to write about the cancelation of a series before it even begins, unfortunately there have been a lot of shows that didn’t make it with a gay lead character. Really, can a television show who’s lead character is gay succeed while being both realistic and without resorting to a two-dimensional stereotype?
Sean Saves the World didn’t survive a full season despite having Sean Haynes in the lead. The McCarthy’s, another Irish catholic family comedy centered around a gay son, only lasted 11 episodes this year before being canceled.
2012 saw the failure of Partners, created by Will & Grace creators Max Mutchnick and David Kohan, and starring Michael Urie, David Krumholtz, Sophia Bush, and Brandon Routh. It lasted just 13 episodes. The New Normal ran one full 22-episode season but didn’t get renewed. Before Modern Family, The Class gave us a gay couple in Sean Maguire and Cristian de la Fuente (Jesse Tyler Ferguson was on the show in a straight role). Back in 2000 John Goodman tried his hand as a gay lead in Normal, Ohio; you can’t even find episodes of the show anymore.
All these shows had one thing in common, a strong gay male in a lead role. Some had characters who were effeminate, and in most cases the on-screen displays of affection was limited. One of the shows that is succeeding, mostly because they’re well-written and funny, is Modern Family. But as many critics have pointed out, Mitch and Cam are quite sexless characters.
Sean Haynes is a wonderful comic actor and has played off leading roles with ease, but it was his secondary role on the tv show Will & Grace that increased his stock. Sean Saves the World put Sean in the lead of the NBC sitcom about a divorced gay man who’s 14-year-old daughter moves in with him, prompting him to be the best father ever just went his work life becomes more pressured.
Sean’s character was safe, a bit camp and nearly sexless. Of the 18 episodes ordered, only 13 were aired out of 15 filmed. The show was funny, and while Sean is a good comedian, the character was too safe and mild, possibly so as not to offend mainstream audiences, and that left a rather boring show.
Comedy works around standard tropes and formulaic characters, however good writing and acting can make characters likeable, relatable and three-dimensional. As acceptance of the LGBT community makes progress, seeing ourselves reflected on mainstream television is important, as is the need for those characters to be real. Far too often the characters that do get to play the lead are all very similar, and many times lacking a boyfriend or hints of sexual activity.
There are two ways to go about this, comedy or drama. With drama the writers can push the dramatic moments more easily and hope to create some empathy from the audience. Comedy is probably harder and more rewarding; creating characters who we can laugh along with, not just laugh at, breaks down more barriers. It’s easier to be engaged in a comedy and yet you can still have scenes that pull at your heart strings. On the flip side, comedy relies on tropes and cookie-cutter characters which makes it hard to develop a character with enough depth.
The format of the Real O’Neals has been compared to Modern Family and The Goldbergs. Taking the characters away from the studio audience and giving them a narrative to weave the story together while still being funny is a good formula. Judging it just from the trailer, the Real O’Neals is not just about their youngest son being gay; everyone else in the family is battling their own issues and Kenny will probably be the most well-adjusted ‘normal’ character on the show. But unlike previous attempts, Kenny is a gay teen as a lead character, a first for a major network show. That may just be the right formula for success.
But for a tiny few successes (Will and Grace), Hollywood doesn’t have a strong track-record with creating a gay character original and strong enough to lead a show. And ultimately audiences will continue to turn away from fake characters. We don’t even know if views will embrace slightly more sexual gay characters because there again Hollywood has played it safe. Eventually it will stick, and we’ll have a show worth watching.