Marcus Scribner: Junior on "Black-ish" plays gay-ish characters, shows his stuff in some n*de photos

  

Link to the n*de photos

Black-ish (2014-22) starred Anthony Anderson as Dre Johnson, the head of an upper-middle-class Black family.  They are black-ish because they have to figure out how to maintain their Black identity while living in a ritzy all-white neighborhood.

Son Andre (Marcus Scribner) announces that he's converting to Judaism so he can have a Bar Mitzvah like his friends.

He starts dating a Republican girl, to the consternation of his liberal parents.

The kids hate Dre's favorite restaurant back in the hood.

They go on their annual Martin Luther King Day ski trip.

There were no gay characters other than Dre's lesbian sister (played by Raven Simone of Raven's Home), who visited once or twice per season. Junior was queer-coded in spite of his occasional girlfriends.  He was an outsider, with quirky tastes, interests, and mannerisms that his family variously ridicules, ignores, and worries about.   He had gay-subtext buddy-bonds with several guys, notably Zach (Nick Carson, who has a lot of muscular men but no women on his Instagram).

Marcus Scribner continued to play Junior on the spin-off Grown-ish (2019-24), which sends the kids to college.  Although he has a "will they or won't they" romance with a girl named Annika, Junior also has a gay-subtext buddy bond with Doug (Diggy Simmons).  Oddly, Doug is involved with his own "will they or won't they" romance. 

Fans continue to speculate that Marcus is gay in real life, so I checked his non-Black-ish work for gay characters.

Marcus has 27 acting credits listed on the IMDB, including episodes of Castle, New Girl, and American Dad, and most recently, rookie cop Jonah Silver on Boston Blue (2025).

  TV Insider says that he "became close friends" with Sean Reagan (Mike Amonson) after they were both injured in a fire, and now he is a regular guest at the Silvers' shabbat dinners.  Sean has a female "love interest," so he's straight.  Jonah doesn't have any hetero-romances listed in the plot synopses, so maybe he is gay-ish.

Marcus has also done a lot of voice work:

Bell Zettifar in 5 episodes of Young Jedi Adventures: Nothing specified.

D'Angelo Baker in 38 episodes of Dragons: The Nine Realms:Gay according to the fan wiki, but straight according to Reddit.

Bow in 57 episodes of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: has a female "love interest," but according to an interview in Queerty, he's "s*xually fluid."  So gay-ish, but they couldn't say anything.

So, Question #1, any gay roles?  Just some subtexts and closets.

More after the break

Tony Dow Beefcake, Part 2: The "Leave it to Beaver" big brother flexes, swims, sculpts, and struts with his boyfriend.

Tony Dow, who played big brother Wally to the Beaver (Jerry Mathers) on the iconic nuclear family sitcom Leave It to Beaver (1957-63),  was one of the few teen idols of the period to regularly be photographed shirtless. 

 He was already an athlete, a Junior Olympics diver, when he was cast, and during the five years of Beaver, he just kept bulking up.  He never appeared shirtless on the show itself, but he gladly obliged the teen magazines.

Afterwards he continued to act and direct, appearing on episodes of Quincy ME, Knight Rider, Love Boat, Charles in Charge, and Diagnosis Murder, but mostly in the various Beaver reboots, rehashes, sequels, and parodies. 

Later in life Tony pursued his passion for art, becoming an accomplished sculptor.  He specializes in both cityscapes and the human form.  Here's The Diver in bronze.

Gay men who saw Beaver during its original run are well past retirement age now, but generation after generation are introduced to the series through constant reruns -- you can watch it today on Roku and Peacock.  And others haven't seen the show, but they enjoy the hunkiness. 

Here Tony is wearing the same swim trunks as in the top photo, but in an exterior by the pool.

More after the break

The Mighty Nein: Animated D&D game with a ragtag fellowship, a n*ked Orc, a lot of gay/bi guys, and Riker from "Star Trek"

Link to the n*de dudes and Orcs

I saw The Mighty Men on Amazon Prime, and figured that it was about "the mighty men of old" mentioned in Genesis 6:4 -- a verse that always gave me a little stirring when I was a kid sitting in Sunday school or the morning church service.  

Mighty Men -- like Hercules on Saturday morning cartoons: 

Softness in his eyes, iron in his thighs,
Virtue in his heart, fire in every part
Of the Mighty Hercules.

Could we go back to the iron in his thighs again?  

By the time I figured out that it was The Mighty Nein,  I was already invested.  

Scene 1: Some veiled beings with cow-ears gather around a giant pulsating gem, and an Orc (Graham McTavish) holding his dying wife. There's always a dead wife. 

 They kiss; she swears that they'll be together again; he grabs the ceremonial knife and kills her.

Priestess: "As the body dies, the soul lives on for eternity with the Luxon."  

The gem absorbs her soul.  Husband: "I can't wait to see who you will become."  Is she getting reincarnated or moving on to the afterlife?  Make up your mind.

Scene 2:  Priestess yells that they've been breached -- "protect the beacon (gem)!"  A cultist grabs it and runs to a vault with a statue of another husband and wife.  The beacon/gem cleverly hides the husband's crotch.  

 He hides it and closes the vault -- just in time to be eviscerated by three warriors, Astrid, Dain (Matthew Mercer), and Eadwulf (Redchild).   They grab the beacon/gem, eviscerate some more guards, conjure a shadow-being to subdue the rest, evaporate doors, jump over tall buildings, and vanish another dimension.

Scene 3: Next stop, a wooden fort in the forest.  But their horses are supposed to be ready.  What's gone wrong?   Eadwulf and Astrid investigate.  Dain stays behind with the gem/beacon.  But he makes the mistake of looking at it (haven't you read any heroic fantasy?  It will possess you!).  

Meanwhile, Eadwulf and Astrid notice that everyone in the fort is dead.  "The Kyrin are here!  It's a trap!  Run!"  Too late -- the whole dimension explodes!

Some viewers may recognize the thieves from their many, many appearances in tv series, webseries, podcasts, video games, and online Dungeons & Dragons games, but I didn't, and it's not really necessary to understand this installment of their adventures.

Opening: Cut to the opening sequence, five-minutes long (which is standard for Japanese anime):  a fort on fire; a wounded guy sinking into the water; everyone smiling; a muscle guy; the Tarot card Death; a goblin jumping over its opponents; a redhead fighting; an Elf crying; a muscular tightrope-walker; a pink bunny pulling on a female being's antlers; an old guy, probably their Gandalf (I mean Dumbledore); a group shot.  

We only get the stories of three in the first episode.  All interspliced, but I'll separate them out.

Caleb and the Goblin

Caleb (Liam O'Brien), the redhead, is being bullied by two teenagers (Yuri Lowenthal, left, Rowan Atkins Downs).  He uses his magical powers to scare them off, then tries to pick the lock of the Mystic Banshee shop.  

Uh-oh, a Goblin picks his pocket.  Caleb chases it down, but it claims that it was just trying to help: the lock is booby-trapped, and would have killed him.  "Refill my flask, and I'll show you how to break into the magic shop."

The Goblin, Nott the Brave, is actually a halfling rogue/wizard under a curse.   Presumably there will be a big reveal at some point.

 It is voiced by Sam Riegel, who looks like a lady with a beard, but is apparently a cisgender man. 

Caleb and the Goblin wait for the owner of the magic shop to lock up and go home, and break in to look for the unspecified thing that he wanted: something guarded by a scary bat-being.  Hey, Caleb uses German words.  Shouldn't they all be speaking Westron or Elvish or something?

Uh-oh, the Goblin sees a poster: Caleb is wanted for murder, with the reward 100,000 gold pieces.  Should they turn him in?  Too late -- the shop owner returns and chases them out. 

They bond, and Caleb tells his back story: he and his friends Astrid and Eadwulf (remember them?) were students at the Magic Academy (and also in a three-way bisexual romance, but that isn't mentioned here).  The evil headmaster Ikithon had indoctrinated them so severely that when he ordered them to murder their parents as a final test of loyalty, he did.  Then he felt guilty and stumbled out into the night.  

 

Beau

Beau, the guy in blue on the far right, examines the destroyed wooden fort  where the thieves who stole the gem/beacon were splattered.  His Dwarf supervisor argues that it was "the damn Kriks," a racist term for the Kyrin (the cow-eared elves who kill their partners so their souls can be absorbed).

Beau uses his psychic powers to see the three thieves being splattered.  One of them, Astrid, survived the blast, and is watching.  Plus he finds two green gems that are used to intensify magic.  "This wasn't a Kyrin attack," he exclaims.  "It was someone from the Magic Academy!"

Dwarf Supervisor thinks that this theory is ridiculous.  "The Magic Academy is in our country!  Why would you attack your own people?"

A n*de phot of Omidi Abtahi, who plays the bartender in one episode, on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends.  I was looking for n*de photos of the actor who plays Beau, but it turns out that she is a female character, played by a woman. She has appeared in many D&D games, podcasts, and so on, so regular fans already know, but for new viewers it will be a Big Reveal later on.  

In some of the stories, Beau gets a girlfriend, but there's no mention of lesbian interest here.

More after the break

Gemstones Episode 2.7: Holding hands among the yurts, and eating pizza for desserts. With a n*de Jonathan Bennett bonus

 This is the G-rated version of the Episode 2.7 review

Go to the n*de version

In the last episode, Kelvin and Keefe were ejected from the God Squad and kicked out of their house, and Eli was shot several times and crashed his car. Gulp, he's dead!

When you get tired of discussing you know what: Whew, Eli's not dead after all, but he's in a coma. Jesse/Amber and Judy/BJ hug and cry at his bedside.  Kelvin is noticeably absent.  Then the siblings go out into the parking lot and throw up multiple times. followed by the partners.   Is this a common response to grief, or did they all have bad sushi for dinner?

Ok, we're not tired of discussing you kow yet:  We cut to Keefe trapped in the God Squad's tiger cage.  There are several openings to look through, but he prefers the glory h*le, as if awaiting his next customer.  This time, Sky pushes through, hitting him in the eye!  

Sky didn't really want you-know-what, he wanted to tease Keefe, demonstrating what he couldn't have.  The God Squad guys laugh and high-five each other.  In gay communities, and actually among heterosexuals also, the person who performs is often denigrated, considered physically and socially inferior. Keefe's activity with Kelvin apparently brands him as "a bottom." 

Keefe collapses, screaming in pain, and starts to cry.  He has died and gone to hell, being punished for Kelvin's sins -- a veritable Christ figure.  Note that Keefe undergoes a symbolic death and resurrection in every season.

When the God Squad guys leave, Kelvin appears with food and toiletries.  Interestingly, Keefe calls him by the formal "Brother Kelvin."  He isn't sure that he wants a romantic relationship with this guy who lets him suffer in a tiger cage instead of saying "Game's over! Let Keefe out!" and calling security if the God Squad resists.  But Christ-Keefe doesn't even suggest release; instead, he advises Kelvin that he's as powerful as Eli, just as Jesus was as powerful as his Father.  

Beauty and the Beast:  In church, Jesse announces that Eli was gunned down while driving on Long Point Road. Trivia note: This is a real road in a suburb of Charleston.  It leads past the Seacoast Church, a megachurch that closely resembles the Salvation Center. 

Afterwards, the family is at their post-church dinner at Jason's Steakhouse, when Kelvin arrives, wearing a dark purple robe, carefully holding his glass of orange drink. 

They yell at him for not being around late;y, but he isn't ready to show himself in public yet. "I am a beast!"  Jesse quips that the robe makes him look like the beauty from Beauty and the Beast.

Next they argue over who will fill the power vacuum left by Eli's absence, until Martin has had enough: "Can't you just be kind to each other? Self-absorbed, loud, arrogant fucking a*holes."  That's about the size of it.

Kelvin agrees:"Y'all are a bunch of a-holes."  Jesse points out that he was talking about "you, too, d*ck-lips."  The term refers to lips that would be especially nice to have s*x with: a call-back to the scene earlier, and yet another reference to Kelvin being gay.  

The Return of Baby Billy: After scenes where Judy promises to become a better person and Gideon announces that he's leaving to take a stunt job, BJ and Tiffany track Baby Billy's movements from his credit card statement.  He's in Winston-Salem, spending money at Sbarro, Bojangles, Tommy Hilfinger, Aeropostale, and the Fossil Watch Store.  Trivia alert: the dates were all in mid October, 2022. This episode aired on February 13, 2022.  

Tiffany can sound out most of the words; apparently BJ has been teaching her to read.  He has become a father figure. 

In Winston-Salem, Baby Billy is recording a commercial for his new scam, a coconut-flavored health elixir that will cure every disease, even COVID.  Dude, that's false advertising, a criminal offense. On his way out of the studio, BJ, Judy, and Tiffany accost him.  First he tries to hide; then he claims that he was trying to make money to support Tiffany and their son; then he assaults BJ and runs away. 

Jesse's Plan:  After discussing the possibility of blowing up Junior's house and having a heart-to-heart with Martin, Jesse reveals to the siblings his new plan: he'll tell the congregation and the news media that Eli is recovering, and give them his hospital and room number, so the listening Cycle Ninjas will know to where to strike again.  Except Eli won't be there: Jesse will clear the hospital and lay in wait, ready to gun them down. Can you really clear an entire hospital? The siblings think that it's a crazy idea, but he talks them into it: "Let's lie to the church like a fucking family." 

Cut to the ambulances and army jeeps moving Eli to the safe house. Which happens to be his own mansion; is that wise?  Judy, Amber, and the kids join him.

More after the break