Fall 1985: Watching Brothers in the Hollywood Hills

When I first moved to West Hollywood in 1985, every Wednesday night my friend Mark, who introduced me to Michael J. Fox,  drove me up to a house in the Hollywood Hills, where there were about twenty gay men, most involved in the film industry, drinking wine, eating fancy hors d'oeuvres, and waiting until 10:00.

To watch tv.

What was all the fuss about?

Brothers (1984-89), a sitcom on the premium cable network Showtime, about three grown-up brothers who run a bar.

1. Macho ex-football player Joe (Robert Walden, left, formerly the roving reporter on Lou Grant).

2. Macho construction worker Lou (Brandon Maggart, left).

3. Cliff (Paul Regina, right), who, in the first episode, dumps his fiance on his wedding day and tells his brothers that he is...gay!

A gay character on tv!

In 1984, gay characters appeared on network tv very rarely, usually in "old high school buddy comes out" episodes of sitcoms. There were no gay characters in starring roles.  There were no tv series about gay people.

Brothers was revolutionary.

Cliff knows nothing about the gay world, so he and his brothers work together to explore cruising, dating and romance, gay organizations, gay rights, AIDS, and homophobia of various types.  Their tour guide is Donald (Philip Charles Mackenzie), a stereotypic swishy queen who is loud and proud.

Both are actually shown dating men, getting involved in relationships, and even kissing guest stars like Charles Van Eman, Jay Louden, Matthias Hues, and John Furey (right, the one with the basket).

Other gay characters in the 1980s were portrayed as completely sexless, announcing that they are gay but never doing anything about it.  Revolutionary again!

As the show progressed, episodes increasingly focused on non-gay topics, like machinations at the bar, Joe's dating and eventual marriage, or Lou's wife and kids, including a seminary student (John Putch) and a teenage prodigy (Yeardley Smith, later the voice of Lisa on The Simpsons).  

In the fall of 1986, I enrolled in a Wednesday night class at USC, and couldn't go up to the Hollywood Hills anymore. Brothers aired until 1989.

You can watch episodes on youtube, but I don't think I will.  I prefer to keep it part of my memories of those first months in West Hollywood, when everything was exciting and fresh and new.

"VIctor and Valentino": Gay Half-Brothers Fight Mayan Monsters

14% of the U.S. population is Hispanic. 48 million people speak Spanish as their first language.  So we need lots more animated tv shows based on Latin American folklore.  Legend Quest: Masters of Myth stars paranormal investigators from Mexico and Spain, but they travel all around the world  Victor and Valentino stays firmly entrenched in Mesoamerica, with forays into Aztec and Mayan mythology (including Xbalanque and Hunapu, the hero twins of the Popul Vuh).

Vic and Val are preteen half-brothers living in the town of Monte Macabre, where half the population has mystical powers and ancient gods and monsters are lurking everywhere.   Vic is young, dumb, fiery, and mischievous, the one who  says "Let's borrow Abuela's magic gourd to summon a spirit to do our chores!" while Val, older, portly, intellectual, complains "But we promised not to!"

Other than the ubiquitous paranormal, most plotlines are pedestrian and rather moralistic:  some minor bit of mischief, disobedience, or shortcut-taking unleashes a monster.  There is no plot arc from episode to episode, no building toward a final confrontation with ultimate evil.  Instead, the boys learn a series of Valuable Lessons.

The supporting characters are somewhat more interesting.

1. Grandma Chata, who may be a supernatural being, and knows more than she is telling.
2. The boys' nemesis, Charlene, who has mystical powers, and her big, lumbering but soft-hearted sidekick Pineapple.
3.  Guillermo, an autistic boy who refers to himself in the third person and can see things other people can't.
4. Dreamy Andres, a teenager who Vic and Val are in love with.
5. Xochi, the boys' babysitter, who is canonically lesbian.

But the real reason I keep watching: Vic and Val are always competing over cute boys.  

1. Val tries to win a soccer game by inviting Juan, the ghost of a famous soccer player, to possess him.

2. The boys are desperate to go to Andres' pool party, but Grandma's fifth quinceañera (75th birthday) is scheduled at the same time, so they use a magic flute to travel between the two parties.

3. The boys find a hidden skate park occupied by adult-less Lord of the Flies children.  Jauvier, their leader, bonds with Vic but leaves Val behind.

4. Val tries to impress Baker, the snooty head of the photography club, by getting a photo of the legendary chupacabra.

Plus neither Val, Victor, or any of the boys they like express any heterosexual interest, except in two episodes:

1. Val falls for a girl who turns out to be a malazihua, an evil succubus who seduces and eats her victims, so that hardly counts.

2. Victor disparages the Dia de Amor, until Charlene tricks him into going on a date with her. Then he admits that dating might not be so bad -- it's like hanging out with a friend.

Rather a gay way of framing boy-girl dates, isn't it?