November 6, 2003
"Friends" the Gayest Show?
Vanity Fair's Graydon Carter has discovered "Gay TV."
The proliferation of homosexual themes on prime-time television - "with at least nine gay-centric shows" this season alone - is the slick mag's December cover, which features the stars of NBC's "Will & Grace," Bravo's "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" and Showtime's "Queer as Folk."
But an essay by Ned Zeman comes to the surprising conclusion that "TV's gayest show is, and always has been, 'Friends.' "
Zeman argues: "The hugely popular sitcom put a face on the love that dare not speak its name, starring those three lovably wisecracking girly-boys, Chandler (Matthew Perry), Ross (David Schwimmer) and Joey (Matt LeBlanc), who favor pastel neckties, sweater-vests and hair products, and who spend their days lounging around a coffee bar, sharing muffins and lattes with the gals.
"That only the Friends themselves seem unaware of their obvious gayness says a little about them and a lot about the state of prime-time television, which is so steeped in gayness even the straight guys could go either way."
Zeman adds that one-time superagent Michael Ovitz was partly right when he famously complained about a "gay mafia" in Hollywood - though "it doesn't exist to foil embittered, old heterosexuals." Zeman's mafia includes producers Kevin Williamson of "Dawson's Creek," Dan Jinks of "American Beauty," Darren Star of "Sex and the City," Alan Ball of "Six Feet Under" and David Crane of "Friends."
We always knew Friends was the gayest show on TV. Well, except for Frasier...
Posted by thesword at November 6, 2003 4:01 PMPosted in:
