A question for all my fellow DU members

[loyalkydem]

As you know I recently said in another thread that i'm African-American and that I'm gay. I have noticed that all the successful television series have no minority representation and very few feature lesbian and gay characters.

I have herd an NBC executive say once that he's tired of seeing scripts that come across his desk that feature nothing but white people. I'm in the process of securing a deal with a producer to get one of my series produced. If that's successful I plan on getting some more of my tv treatments approved for sale. These do feature gay and lesbian characters.

My question to you, would you support more television series if they had gay and lesbian characters?

[babylonsister]

1. My favorite guilty pleasure is "Brothers and Sisters". Yes, I most

definitely would.

[NRaleighLiberal]

2. TV, no, but only because we don't watch TV. Movies, absolutely.

Correction - if on PBS, fine. The commercials and drivel on other channels drove us away!

[Crazy Dave]

3. Good luck to you

The most important issue is that it has to be a good show. That's the priority. No one will watch a show just because it has a lot of diversity and having diversity doesn't automatically qualify a show as good.

I heard the same theory about dog food once. The dog food manufactor was stumped as to why their product wouldn't sell. The CEO said, "We've hired the best marketing people, we have a catchy jingle, cute dogs on the can and the price is good so why won't it sell?", Then one of the board members quietly says, "The dogs don't like the food".

Does that make any sense? Good luck and please keep us all posted :thumbsup: :hi:

[bluedawg12]

4. Like anything else, if it's well written

and well acted, then having gays is a plus.

Anything less could be gay-ploitation.

One show comes to mind, MadMen. If something along those lines of qaulity, came along featuring gays great.

BTW- MadMen, one of our favs, does have gay characters and it shows the misery of 1960's style aggressive homophobia - and the damage of repressing one's real self. Of course EVERYone was pretty screwed up in that era of uptight repression, or so it seems on the show. LOL.

[Dragonfli]

5. If written well, yes - most tv shows are not so I don't watch

I suppose the bottom line is the quality of the show.
I watch very little now, part of the reason is the "sanitized" feel of most TV shows that try to portray a world with "no swearing" and characters that are not very believable. It just comes off as so fake and aimed at those with the intelligence of a turnip.

Perhaps introducing more gay and lesbian characters would make it seem more believable and less insulting to my intelligence as it would more closely mirror the world I actually experience, a world that does include gay folks as well as wiccan folks and even folks like me who hate being called folks.

I do not know if this will help you however because the TV does not much care about me as an audience. You would have to appeal to the demographics they wish to grab, whatever that is.

[mondo joe]

6. I support shows I enjoy. That includes shows with GLBT characters. NT

[Ian David]

7. Absolutely!

In fact, I've written to The FCC and requested to see more lesbian sex on television.

[Bluenorthwest]

8. be ready for the fight of your life

And get ready to be specific and clearly spoken. Be ready to explain that which should go without saying.

[RetiredTrotskyite]

9. Oh Yeah, I would definitely....

support a show of that sort!