Come on TV Scoopers, let’s don our thinking caps and cogitate on how the gay and lesbian communities are represented on our goggleboxes. Will and Grace is hitting its final stretch in a disappointing graveyard slot on Channel 4 and there are teenage fumblings going on in Hollyoaks, but with news of a gay couple in the next season of Desperate Housewives – how open-minded is the TV industry when faced with the gay issue?
In the US, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation have gone public with their assessment of American TV’s portrayal of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender characters. Network ABC have earned top marks with Ugly Betty and Brothers and Sisters (both picked up by Channel 4) earning special praise, while Fox came bottom of the list. NBC only just scraped ahead of Fox, though was given credit for its cable network Bravo. Bravo is home to the camp theatrics of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy (Living TV in the UK, with star Carson Cressley pictured right) and Project Runway (Sky One in the UK), and so was deemed “perhaps the most LGBT-inclusive of the general entertainment cable networks.” Now there’s an endorsement that just runs off the tongue.
Do we need such things measured and compared in Britain or are we more open and accepting than America? Is there a need to siphon off sections of society and push their profiles on TV shows, regardless of whether it is appropriate or beneficial to the show? Or is this necessary to re-dress the balance and maintain programming which relates to everyone? Would more gay characters on TV mean more stereotypes and clichés or would quantity bring quality? Have your say on the Scoop.
[via IMDb]
[Image via Getty]
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