Pull up a TV tray, grab a Hungryman (or woman), and get ready to sit back and enjoy the remarkably diverse and ever-changing TV images of gays and lesbians of the 1970s.
On the heels of the Stonewall riots and amidst the rapidly expanding gay liberation movement, American television in the 1970s began to openly address homosexuality. Shifting away from the queer subtleties of the Endoras and Uncle Arthurs, the networks drew from the headlines and created one-off gay-themed episodes for a variety of sitcom and dramatic series. While many of these early programs presented gay men and lesbians as an oppressed minority and as victims of bigotry, others trafficked in stereotypes of gender inversion, violence, and pathology. Indeed, most revealed just how threatening, disruptive, and enticing gay visibility was to mainstream America at the time.
Please join us at Central Cinema for drinks, dinner, and a fabulous trip through the gay seventies, the tumultuous decade that produced a complex and contradictory mix of gay and lesbian images that continue to fascinate and inform.
The Trouble with Gay Jocks
Monday, October 15, 5:30pm, Central Cinema
Guest in attendance
A recurring figure in seventies television was the gay athlete. Seventies television often normalized images of gay men (and combated stereotypes) by aligning them with traditional masculine professionals (doctors, cops, lawyers, jocks). We'll see the groundbreaking 1971 episode of All in the Family, "Judging Books By Covers," in which Archie learns a few secrets about his football player buddy. Then watch a moving 1979 episode of the inner-city high school basketball drama The White Shadow, in which a suburban teen (thirtysomething's Peter Horton in a remarkable performance) confronts the homophobia of his coach and fellow teammates.
Predatory Lesbians and Teen Tales
Wednesday, October 17, 5:30pm, Central Cinema
Gay media activism had a major impact on TV's queer representations in the 1970's, and this program begins with one of the most controversial and widely protested episodes of the entire decade, the 1974 "Flowers of Evil" episode of Police Woman. Angie Dickinson's Pepper Anderson goes undercover to expose the murderous operations of a trio of lesbians who run a retirement home for wealthy women. Stripped of explicit references to lesbianism after protests by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the episode is nevertheless laden with Sapphic desires and treachery. This is followed by a far more enlightened episode of Family from 1976 that intriguingly pairs the coming out of a gay male teen with tomboy Kristy McNichol's nervous preparation for her first junior high dance.
Cruising the Gay Bar
Friday, October 19, 5:30pm, Central Cinema
Gay bar scenes were common in seventies television, in part because they provided a space for gay and lesbian visibility. TV characters from this era wander in and out of gay bars, and their fascination with this subcultural space parallels television's own interest in exploring and understanding queer culture. First, a 1977 episode of Maude hilariously uses the gay bar to challenge the homophobia of Anita Bryant-like biggots. Then, the homoerotic buddies Starsky and Hutch take their tight pants undercover to investivge the murder of a gay man. The trail of the killer eventually leads them to "The Green Parrot," a gay bar run by drag legend Charles Pierce.
About The Series
Series curator Joe Wlodarz is an Assistant Professor of Film Studies at the University of Western Ontario. He has published articles on queer television in Camera Obscura and has recently completed a piece that examines the figure of the gay athlete in '70s TV for the upcoming collection, The Pleasures of the Tube: Television, Queerness, Politics (Routledge, 2008). His book American Macho: Masculinity in Seventies Cinema and Culture is also forthcoming from the University of Minnesota Press.
Film & Panel Discussion
Sunday, October 14, 2:00pm, SIFF Cinema
As part of this year’s spotlight on gay TV (including the GAY TV DINNERS at Central Cinema, see page 25) we present the entertaining and insightful documentary, FURTHER OFF THE STRAIGHT AND NARROW, followed by a discussion with some of the creative minds behind the latest and greatest in queer television. Lively, engaging, and packed with a range of revealing TV clips from shows as varied as Queer As Folk, George Lopez, and Survivor, FURTHER OFF THE STRAIGHT AND NARROW shows just how much the LGBT presence has evolved on the small screen in the last decade.
With the political and social issues affecting the queer community as a backdrop, this comprehensive documentary asks: is the increasing queer presence on TV a result of societal acceptance and a commitment to social justice by big media? Or, as advertisers have begun directly targeting queer consumers, is it all about the money, honey? Turn on, tune in, and find out!
Post screening panelists will include: Michele Paradise (writer and star of Exes & Ohs), Joe Wlodarz (GAY TV DINNER curator), Glenn Gaylord (writer-director of Lez Be Friends), Deondray Gossett and Quincy Le Near (directors of The DL Chronicles) and representatives from the LOGO and here! television networks.
These small screen series get the big screen treatment:
LEZ BE FRIENDS
The day after the Stonewall Riots in 1969 New York, a butch lesbian, Ricka Pike, and her straight-laced gay best friend, Jamie, move in with hunky bartender Blake, who’s in need of roommates. Everything is great except that Ricka must pretend to be a straight woman so as not to arouse the suspicions of Blake’s lesbian fearing landlord. Outrageously funny, LEZ BE FRIENDS is set up like a twisted Three’s Company, complete with real television ads from the ‘70s.
THE DL CHRONICLES
Two new episodes of the smart, funny and provocative television series introduce a pair of gorgeous men living secret sexual lives. Boo has steamy encounters with various sexual partners despite having a girlfriend—until he finally suffers some sobering consequences of his actions. In the newest episode, Mark faces the absurd reality of living on the down low in his own home when he asks his boyfriend to pretend to be his roommate when his cousin comes to stay.
EXES AND OHS
EXES AND OHS, a new dramedy about lesbians made exclusively for cable, is a breakthrough half hour series that’s been described as Sex and the City meets Ally McBeal... and it’s set in Seattle! Featuring a stellar cast of actresses, including series co-creator and writer Michelle Paradise, Marnie Alton, Megan Cavanagh, Angela Featherstone, and Heather Matarazzo, this show will premiere soon on LOGO but you can be some of the first to see episodes one and two!