The TV show Bewitched was shelved for a year because

[cthulu2016]

southern network affiliates thought the premise supported interracial marriage. It eventually did debut the following year.

At the same time, Cicely Tyson was given a recurring role on a TV series (East Side/West Side I think), as the secretary of one of the main characters. Several southern network affiliates dropped the show.

Sydney Poitier's first oscar-winning role was in Lilies of the Field. Like all of Poitier's earlier roles, Lilies had to be budgeted in such a way that it could make money from being shown in only 2/3 of the nation. When oscar-presenter Anne Bancroft hugged Poitier (as is standard in oscar presentations) it was a live-TV scene that would, ironically, have prevented the awards ceremony from playing in southern theaters as a movie. (Most of them had not shown Lilies of the Field on initial release, though more did after the oscar win.)

(source: Mark Harris' book Pictures at a Revolution)

The first interracial kiss on TV was, of course, between Captain Kirk and Lieutenant Uhurra on Star Trek... but they were being mind controlled by deviant aliens when they were forced to kiss. Some affiliates declined to air it.

So when a Mormon owned Utah network affiliate dropped the "pro-gay" sitcom The New Normal this week it was the old normal, western style.

[dsc]

1. I didn't know that about Bewitched

I always felt it was a metaphor about being gay but can see the interracial idea as well.

[lunatica]

12. Being gay?

What a weird thing to say. It was a comedy fantasy about having magic powers that were supposed to be, but were never quite kept secret.

[dsc]

18. yeah what would gay people in that era know about keeping a secret?

[Quantess]

19. And wasn't one of the Darrens gay in real life?

I seem to remember...

[dsc]

21. yep

as were both of Samantha's parents and one of the uncles.

[demwing]

53. Agnes Moorehead was probably not a lesbian

Last edited Sun Aug 26, 2012, 04:06 PM - Edit history (1)

She was a Christian fundie that left a portion of her estate to Bob Jones Univ when she died. The rumors of her sexuality have never been confirmed.

[LiberalFighter]

54. There is nothing in her bio that has her attending BJ univ

[BOG PERSON]

61. when i grow up i want to go to BJ university

[demwing]

64. Yep, you're right. I misread and corrected my post

thanks!

[lunatica]

26. What a stretch!

Women had to keep their sex lives a big secret too, or they would be branded for life as sluts. There was many a shotgun wedding. I know. I was there.

[dsc]

30. It is far more than keeping ones sex life secret

the fact is I haven't had sex in awhile, not necessarily by choice but just the way it worked out. I still, if I were to keep my gayness secret, still be having to tell lies about my life.

[pnwmom]

40. It's not a stretch. There was another recent series with a similar connection.

The series Big Love about fundie Mormons with multiple wives was produced by two gay men who were open about the similarities they saw, in their closeted lives.

In "Bewitched," Samantha was a closeted witch. (So, of course, was one of the actors who played Darrin.)

[hfojvt]

59. How is Sam any more closeted than Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne, Peter Parker, Steve Rogers, Donald Blake,

etc.? And anybody who cheats on a significant other has a secret sex life.

Inter-racial marriage makes more sense as a metaphor since Sam violated some taboo by marrying a mortal instead of another witch.

But I thought the metaphor was also suburban, like The Munsters and the Addams family. It was about having neighbors who were "strange", as in the 1960s more people were moving into neighborhoods where they would live next door to people from different ethnic groups and with different customs, and like the neighbor in Bewitched, they would look out their window and wonder "what is going on over there?"

[yardwork]

60. Again, it's not about the sex life. It's about identity.

[pnwmom]

62. She's not "more closeted." And Bruce Wayne had Robin, remember?

What you need to realize is that any given show can have more than one metaphor, analogy, or theme. That's in large part why they work. Some people can see Samantha through one prism, others through another.

[cthulu2016]

14. To me the most symbolically gay show was

Mister Ed.

As a kid I had a crush on Wilbur's wife and I couldn't understand why it was such a sham marriage. Why wouldn't you tell you wife you had a talking horse? Why couldn't she be trusted?

Mister Ed is not Wilbur's lover, but rather the personification of his secret identity and Mister Ed's behavior, and keeping Mister Ed secret, causes continual conflict with suburban social expectations.

That Mister Ed represents Wilbur's libido is plain. (What a sexualized character Mister Ed was—he was always looking at pictures in Play-Filly magazine and talking about getting some action.)

That the closeted libido that Mister Ed represents is gay didn't hit me until society started to recognize the mere existence of gay people in the 1970s.

[rfranklin]

24. Wiiiiil-burrrr!

Holy tomale, Batman! Mr. Ed was a playhorse! That made me laugh!

[pnwmom]

41. I would say that My Favorite Martian might beat even Mr. Ed in that category.

My Favorite Martian
Sunday nights at 7:30pm
CBS 1963-1966

This oddball sitcom was the story of two single guys - one younger, one an older 'uncle,' who live together in a small apartment. Together they go to great lengths to keep their landlord, the cop and the rest of the town from discovering their terrible secret.

This silly comedy starred Bill Bixby as Tim O'Hara and Ray Walston as 'Uncle' Martin O'Hara, a humanoid alien from Mars forced to hide out until he can repair his disabled spaceship.

Typical plot: 'Uncle' Martin can't get his antennae back down, so he and Tim frantically try to conceal his protrusions from their landlord, Mrs. Brown - who is growing suspicious that the boys upstairs are hiding something.

Apparently, this was TV's first gay sitcom?

http://www.tvparty.com/fall64.html

[PCIntern]

51. Both were Sunday night TeeVee

Interesting...

[BOG PERSON]

63. that is really a revelatory interpretation of Mr Ed

i didn't even think of the horse as a metaphor. da-doy!

[Honeycombe8]

67. To me, it was and is a TV show about a talking horse. He didn't tell his wife...

because Mr. Ed would NOT talk for anyone else. So no one else would believe him. He tried telling other people.

My favorite Martian was about a Martian. It's that simple.

If a person is looking for allegory or symbolism, he/she can find it anywhere. That doesn't mean that was the intention. That's the problem I've always had with symbolism and allegories. Anything can mean anything to a reader, but only the writer can say what was intended.

Bewitched was about a witch married to a not too attractive humanoid. I never could figure out what she saw in Darren. I mean, she was so pretty and had powers, to boot. And she chose this guy? But it was a cute enough show. Who didn't love Elizabeth Montgomery? The sitcom was actually based on an old movie called "I Married A Witch" with the sex pistol Veronica Lake.

[treestar]

2. Really?

Good grief. Never occurred to me.

[Major Hogwash]

3. I hadn't heard about that new sitcom.

Haven't been paying much attention to tv for several weeks now.
Some of it has been making me queasy, what with all the hoopla and nonsense over Romney and Ryan.

[xmas74]

20. It could be an interesting show.

A young woman somewhere in her mid to late twenties, working in a dead end job, realizes that she'll never be able to support her child. She decides to become a surrogate for a gay couple in exchange for payment.

Supposedly a number of groups are angry about this, mostly focusing on the gay couple. From what I've read the shows single low income mothers and gay couples/parents in a good light-both groups that the RR wants to be shown as dirty and disgusting. All around it'll be a show they'll want to protest, except for Ellen Barkin's character. She plays the young woman's mother who is overbearing and makes the most incorrect statements in any situation. She's portrayed as a mirror of those same people who will be protesting this show.

I really want to give it a shot and find out if it's any good. The premise could be very nicely done or it could become an over-the-top disaster, considering it's a Ryan Murphy show.

[zappaman]

4. I did not know that!

Thanks for the info.
Is the book worth checking out?

[cthulu2016]

5. It's a fine book

Pictures at a revolution is the in depth story of the histories of the five best picture nominees in 1967 used as a framework to talk about the many upheavals in the film industry during the early-mid 1960s.

The Graduate, In the Heat of the Night, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, Bonnie and Clyde and... Doctor Doolittle.

[zappaman]

13. Doctor Doolittle???

[cthulu2016]

15. In keeping with a tradition of nominating excess

The bloated "roadshow" picture (Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur, My Fair Lady) was all that was keeping Hollywood afloat and the most expensive/epic movie of the year usually got a nomination.

Hell, Cleopatra was nominated for best picture!

This trend continued with the famous high-quality Oscar year of 1975 — The Godfather Part II, Chinatown, The Conversation, Lenny... and The Towering Inferno

[Berlin Expat]

31. I remember

reading that list! Yeah, Godfather II, Chinatown, The Conversation, Lenny, and The Towering Inferno; it was like one of those tests we took when we were kids......"which item doesn't belong on this list?" or something.

Of course, I can also remember when Titanic beat L.A. Confidential for Best Picture. I was shouting at my TV, most of it quite profane.

[cthulu2016]

50. .

[liberalhistorian]

10. I don't think he meant that Tyson was

on Bewitched, I think that referred to the fact that she was the secretary to a major character on another series at that time. At least, that's the way I read it.

[Motown_Johnny]

11. you are right, I am wrong... delete

[Lydia Leftcoast]

36. Yes, Cicely Tyson was on East Side/West Side, playing George C. Scott's

secretary, and wearing (gasp!) an Afro, although a short one.

The series was about social workers in New York City, and was realistic in having a multiracial cast and stories about different ethnic groups.

[nclib]

7. Did a southern affiliate drop The New Normal too?

I heard about one in Utah dropping it.

[cthulu2016]

9. My bad! Corrected the OP. Thanks.

[nclib]

17. No problem.

Utah is south too, I just wasn't sure if it was the south you meant. It wouldn't surprise me if a south eastern affiliate did drop the show but I really hope that doesn't happen.

[Cleita]

8. I loved Lillies of the Field.

As a person who was convent educated, I related to it quite well. I already knew that Mother Superior. Poiter was wonderful in it. I loved the scene where she throws cold water on a hungover Poiter the morning after a party because that's what the other women told her they do to their husbands when they have been drinking the night before.

[calimary]

42. I did too! I grew up with the nuns as well. I think we all knew that Mother Superior.

That woman was a force of nature in an itsy-bitsy physical body. And Sidney Poitier was magnificent in it! He won the Oscar for Best Actor and made history in the process as the first Black actor to do so. And his accomplishments have kept on coming. Just an all-around classy fellow.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Poitier

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

16. It's gradually getting better (I hope)

The Mormon Utah network is on the wrong side of history. Thirty years ago it would have been almost unthinkable to have openly gay characters in tv dramas like we have today. There was a time in America when the ban on showing films involving interracial romance was not only enforced down south but throughout the country. The films of the international superstar Josephine Baker in the 30s were banned everywhere in the U.S. for quite some time because they showed a black woman involved romantically with white men and also depicted her as a figure of sexual desire to white men. Hell she even had to use the service entrance of the finest hotels in New York when she came back to the U.S. Now her films are available on DVD and given a family viewing appropriate rating.

[mainstreetonce]

23. The first show with a gay character

That I remember was Soap. With Billy Crystal, and he was so outstanding and funny.

Anyone remember Bert and alien Bert both with the same wife? And a daughter having an affair with a priest.....and a son whose spokesperson was a ventriloquist's dummy.


Years ahead of it's time

[rhett o rick]

25. I loved soap. nm

[lunatica]

28. And everyone loved it!

It was wonderful!

[kas125]

32. Soap was, and always will be, the best show ever on tv, IMO.

I've tried to tell my kids so they'd watch it, but of course, they haven't because it's "old." LOL. Jodie putting Bob in the refrigerator was the best!!

[Tx4obama]

39. All in the Family had a few episodes, but they were not full time characters on the show n/t

[blogslut]

49. Soap was great

Much hey was made about Mr. Crystal's character before the program aired.

This is where I remind folks of an overlooked but wonderful show with a protagonist gay character: "Love Sidney".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love,_Sidney

[BumRushDaShow]

52. +1 on Soap

It was the right show at the right time!!!!

[Berlin Expat]

34. Thanks for posting

that clip. Yeah, I can imagine that a good many folks back in the USA would see that, and say, "Oh noes!! The fine young white boys are lusting after a black woman!!! It's the end of the world!!"

When I lived in the Portland, OR, metro area, I had a black girlfriend (this was in the late 80's). Oh yeah, we frequently got some looks, and none of them very good.

[Faygo Kid]

22. Loved Bewitched, HUGE crush on Elizabeth Montgomery. What happened to the DUer who posted here?

The guy who loved Bewitched? I remember him from years ago.

[Kolesar]

33. Wasn't his name Alan?

I hope he's ok, wherever he is

[Faygo Kid]

38. Me, too. I remember him well.

I think you're right. One of my favorite DUers. Hope he surfaces, but it's been years.

[adigal]

37. I am so confused! What was interracial about Bewitched? Nt

[Cleita]

45. Maybe more interspecies than interracial.

Being in that world the witches were a different species to humans. They had all those powers that humans didn't

[Rowdyboy]

58. Haven't heard from Arwalden in years....

In additon to our shared love of Aunt Clara and Endora, he introduced me to Queer Duck!

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=aunt+clara+and+endora&view=detail&id=7A0CD874260CB4F9B79B5096FB9249F97E1F95CC

[murielm99]

27. Interracial marriages were so shocking back then.

I remember many people being repulsed by Sammy Davis, Jr.'s marriage.

Inger Stevens was secretly married to a black man. I always wondered if the pressure of keeping her marriage secret led to her suicide. She was so lovely.

[lunatica]

29. In today's world Inger Stevens would be diagnosed with clinical depression probably

I've read that Ava Gardner probably suffered from Manic Depression as did Vivian Leigh. Connie Francis did too. They are cruel diseases and even today they aren't truly understood or treated.

[cthulu2016]

35. She attempted suicide over a few lovers before that

Bing Crosby, for starters (a real bastard, BTW)

[Cleita]

46. Wasn't her name Britt something? She came into a shop in Beverly Hills one day when I was in there

basically window shopping. I was working in BH at the time and amused myself on my lunch hour pretending I could buy the clothes in the expensive shops there. She had her two little boys with her by Sammy Davis. They were so cute and she was very lovely herself.

[murielm99]

47. May Britt was married to Sammy Davis.

She was Swedish, and very lovely. I remember seeing pictures of her with a little boy who looked just like Sammy Davis.

[Cleita]

48. Yes, that was her. n/t

[pnwmom]

43. Other shows TV didn't want to admit were about gay people.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/22/tv-shows-that-were-obviou_n_471434.html#s69949&title=My_Two_Dads

[demwing]

65. The Odd Couple - I mean come on....

Odd is a synonym for Queer.

[FailureToCommunicate]

44. We recently watched "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner" starring

"...Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier and Katharine Hepburn, and featuring Hepburn's niece Katharine Houghton. The film contains a (then rare) positive representation of the controversial subject of interracial marriage, which historically had been illegal in most states of the United States, and was still illegal in 17 states, mostly Southern states, up until June 12 of the year of the film's release, when anti-miscegenation laws were struck down by the Supreme Court in Loving v. Virginia." (Wikipedia)

It still is pretty amazing to think that was 1967!

[mainer]

55. Wasn't THAT the first interracial kiss?

It was a 1967 film. While Star Trek debuted in 1966, I don't know which season the Kirk-Uhura kiss appeared in.

[cthulu2016]

56. TV versus movies

I just clarified the OP. I meant to say first on television.

[itsrobert]

57. But the Bewitched tv series came before the Bewitched movie.

[dems_rightnow]

66. A retired ABC exec says that's not true

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/09/books/review/Letters-t-001.html

"“Bewitched” was developed by Chevrolet. They brought the pilot to each of the three networks with a simple demand — that it be given a Thursday 9 p.m. time slot. They allowed us to test the pilot — it went through the roof — and since we did not have a returning show on Thursday at 9, we eagerly accepted Chevrolet’s demand. The show went on that fall and became an instant hit."