Brothers May Just Be the First Gay Sitcom
Added 2021-04-30 07:09:28 +0000 UTC“You Brought a New Kind of Love to Me” (August 16, 1984)
Heads up: In this episode we use the “F” word — no, not that one, but the gay one — but only because the subject matter itself uses it.
This week, we look into Brothers, which ran for five seasons and 115 episodes on Showtime, 1984 to 1989. The show revolved around one of the three titular brothers coming out, and therefore it has a legit claim to being the first gay sitcom, and its second-ever episode featured Uncle Phil himself, James Avery, as a closeted football star.
Listen to our interview with Stan Zimmerman, where we discuss his Brothers script.
Listen to the What a Cartoon episode on Get a Life.
Watch an episode of the early Fox sitcom Open House, starring Philip Charles Mackenzie and Alison LaPlaca.
Watch the Batman: The Animated Series episode with Baby Doll, voiced by Alison LaPlaca.
Watch Drew’s video compilation of every LGBT joke ever on the history of The Simpsons.
Buy Glen’s movie, Being Frank.
Support us on Patreon!
Follow: GEE on Facebook • GEE’s Facebook Group • GEE on Twitter • GEE on Instagram • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
This episode’s outro track is “Brother Louie” by Modern Talking: Apple Music • Spotify • Amazon Music
Comments
We have not watched more but we intend to.
Drew Mackie
2021-05-12 08:01:26 +0000 UTCDid y'all watch any more of this show? I'm toward the end of season 2 and Donald basically becomes the main character. And it is FANTASTIC. There's a whole episode about how his dad reacted to him coming out and them reconnecting (though not really), an episode about him coming out to the people he served with in the Air Force in Vietnam... EDIT: Aaaand I just saw the AIDS episode. Wow. It was profound and really well done. I really hope you cover more episodes of this show.
Steven Bucsok
2021-05-09 01:39:08 +0000 UTCI am 9 episodes in and weirdly charmed by this show. At the moment, Cliff is in love with a gay Russian Olympic wrestler who is defecting from the Soviet Union. Weirdly, It's A Living also had a Russian defector episode.
Steven Bucsok
2021-05-07 20:02:28 +0000 UTCAaaand now I'm watching this show on YouTube. My first thought, not even a minute and a half into the episode: WOW the two oldest brothers are OLD.
Steven Bucsok
2021-05-07 15:16:03 +0000 UTCI'm always curious how you guys will react to characters who are very much a stereotype while acknowledging that they still are a representation of people within the community. I think Donald works well because he avoids a lot of the classic trappings. As you mentioned, he's sexual without being predatory, he's also self aware without being oblivious to others, confident without being vain or selfish, and he's not an idiot, which I think is a trait often put on similar characters. Plus obviously, the fact that there is other representation in the show makes it work too. And is the reason you didn't just do both James Avery episodes together and said you may do a different one in the series because you don't want to cry again, as we all would, with the thought of Uncle Phil succumbing to the miserable death sentence that AIDS was in the early 80's? That's perfectly valid of course. Excellent episode. I know they don't get your most downloads, but some of my favorites are when you introduce me to something not only have I not seen, but never heard of, like this, Que Pasa, USA, and Some of my Best Friends.
Robyn Pavlakovich
2021-05-02 12:58:39 +0000 UTC
