I lived in the heart of the Gay World, West Hollywood, San Francisco, and the East Village, from 1985 to 2001. There wasn't much time for television, with our part time jobs, classes, AIDS volunteer activities, church activities, and endless nights of cruising, but a few shows were not to be missed. They had strong gay subtexts, actual gay characters, or lots of muscular men.
1. The Golden Girls. Everybody watched the Girls before heading out to the bars on Saturday night, but you had to be careful. Usually they were relatively gay-friendly, but suddenly, without warning, Blanche would reject her gay brother, or Rose would be horrified to discover that lesbians exist.
2. Mama's Family. Another pre-bar show, with Vickie Lawrence as the elderly, crotchety Mama, Ken Berry as her dimwitted son, and Allan Kayser as her grandson, cast for obvious reasons.
4. Dynasty. Squabbling rich ladies with drag queen hair, some beefcake, and a "confused" guy who veers between gay and straight.
5. Murder, She Wrote. My friend Alan forced me to watch Jessica Fletcher solve murders every Sunday night. One episode had a gay-light character: a fellow mystery writer whose whodunits are filled with "Greek boys mincing about."
6. Pee-Wee's Playhouse. Man-child Pee-Wee has hunky and drag queen friends, plus a genie who lives in a jewelry box. "Swish? Did somebody say swish?"
7. Saved by the Bell. Saturday morning teencom with Mario Lopez taking his shirt off. 'Nuff said.
8. Married...with Children. A raunchy send-up of the heterosexual nuclear family, with occasional only-slightly-homophobic references. Ed O'Neill would go on to play the patriarch of Modern Family, and David Faustino would bulk up and become a gay ally.
9. Eerie, Indiana. I dig shows about quirky small towns, and Omri Katz, who would go on to star in gay films, had a gay-subtext buddy-bond with fellow paranormal investigator Justin Shenkarow.
10. Mystery Science Theater 3000: Joel and the Bots riffed on cheesy movies every Saturday morning, and all day on Thanksgiving.
11. Ir's Gary Shandling's Show. I remember it a standard late-80s show featuring the life of a stand-up comic, like Seinfeld and Roseanne, with gay-subtext buddy-bonds and an obviously gay kid.
12. Just Shoot Me. Maya wants to do serious journalism, but is forced to write fluff pieces for an...ugh....fashion magazine. With Nina Van Horne: "Sorry I'm late, I was interviewing a Bulgarian pole vaulter, and his pole kept getting in the way."
14. Throb. Same premise as #9 and #10, with incredibly cute Short Guy Jonathan Prince as the boss.
15. My Secret Identity: High schooler Jerry O'Connell is zapped with a science ray that gives him chaotic superpowers. We all had secret identities in West Hollywood, as a matter of survival, plus there were buddy-bonds, and we could watch Jerry bulking up.
16. The Nanny. The "flashy girl from Flushing" becomes the nanny to a rich theater producer's kids. Every Broadway actor you ever heard of dropped by.
17. Red Dwarf. "It's cold outside, with no kind of atmosphere," and four flamboyant guys are zapping around the galaxy.
18. Who's the Boss? Tony Danza becomes the male housekeeper (that's the joke) for the "will they or won't they?" Angela. Of course they will, but on the way, Tony takes his clothes off a lot, and Angela's son (Danny Pintauro) is obviously gay.
19. Roseanne; A working-class family in small-town Lanford, Illinois. Roseanne gets a gay sister, mom, and boss before the show crashed and burned. Husband Dan headed the family in the 2010s reboot, plus became Eli Gemstone.
20. Seinfeld. Of course we're going to watch the "show about nothing." Each episode multiple times, usually while on the treadmill at the gym. The buddy-bonding was minimal, there was very little beefcake, and the portrayal of LGBT people was problematic: Kramer turns a lesbian straight, and Elaine tries unsuccessfully with a gay man. And there were some cringy episodes; I'm still mad about that execrable series finale. But it was Seinfeld.
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