Jul 11, 2026

Dad throws away my Book of Cute Boys


Link to the photos of n*de dudes with books

I love books.  I love browsing through used bookstores, driving home from the mall with a Barnes and Noble bag beside me, checking my recommendations on Amazon.


And reading every night before turning out the light, unless I'm on a date.





Well, sometimes the guy I'm dating has a well-stocked bookcase that distracts me from the bedroom stuff.





I've been buying at least two books per week since college.  That adds up to nearly 5,000,  but actually I have only about 2,000.  Every time I move, I pare down my collection.

Where did this bibliomania start?  Maybe with my parents, who disapproved of books.  They were at best a waste of time, and more likely sinful.  The only way I could get away with reading was to claim that it was a school assignment (evidently my teachers assigned a lot of science fiction and fantasy novels).

Or maybe it's all due to a traumatic incident that happened when I was about four years old, when we were still living on Randolph Street in Garrett,  Indiana.

 I had a Little Golden Book  I couldn't read most of the words yet, but the front cover showed two boys hugging and waving.  So I called it my Book of Cute Boys.












I think it was a retelling of the Disney movie The Swiss Family Robinson (1960), starring James MacArthur (left) and Tommy Kirk. I would not see the movie or read the original novel for many years, but I could tell that it was about a family living in the jungle.

One day we were driving somewhere on a scary country road, and I was reading in the back seat (this was before car seats, or even seatbelts).  Dad yelled back, "Don't read in the car!"  

He was afraid that I would get carsick and throw up.  It happened once, but I was never allowed to read in the car again.
More after the break

Jul 10, 2026

Hudson Yang: From "Fresh Off the Boat" to Harvard, cooking, dudes, and the best gay comedy of the year. With Hudson and Xu bedroom stuff


Link to the n*de photos



Fresh Off the Boat (2015-20) was a nostalgia series based on the memoirs of celebrity chef Eddie Huang.  Hudson Yang (left) plays the 12-17 year old Eddie, growing up in the 1990s in a Taiwanese-American family "fresh off the boat."  









Dad (Randall Park), who runs a cowboy-themed restaurant in Orlando, pushes him to embrace the best (and worst) of American culture, while Mom pushes him to embrace his Taiwanese heritage, resulting in conflict and plot complications.





Eddie has two younger brothers (Ian Chen, Forrest Wheeler, right) and a surprising number of gay friends and acquaintance: 

Officer Bryson (Alex Quijano), a regular at the family restaurant.

Oscar Chow,  Mom's college boyfriend, whom she helped come out (Rex Lee, playing about the same character as on Suburgatory).  He brings his dull-as-dirt boyfriend to Thanksgiving dinner.


Randy and Andy, who buy a house from Realtor Mom.

Next door neighbor Nicole, whom Eddie helps come out (after dating her)

A good beginning for a gay-inclusive career.  Let's check on Hudson's other roles.

While on the Boat, Hudson appeared in a 2016 episode of the Disney Channel's Liv and Maddie, either as a basketball player or an art student.

The short Hum (2017), about a preteen boy-girl romance.

A 2018 episode of Sofia the First, about a girl who becomes the Princess of Enchancia when her Mom marries the King.  Hudson's episode is about mermaids

Seven 2019 episodes of The Lion Guard, featuring Kion, son of Simba from The Lion King (voiced by Matthew Broderick, left in 1994, Rob Lowe here).  

After the Boat, Hudson appeared in Run & Gun (2022), with Ben Milliken as a criminal-on-the-run trying to live a quiet life with the heterosexist trajectory of job, house (well, trailer), girlfriend, and kid.   You know that won't work out well.  Hudson plays a college student interning at Ben's insurance company.

Next he played the Honor Student (2023), who loses his brother in a mass shooting, and gets revenge by holding a teacher hostage.  No indication that he's gay.

So, only one show with gay representation. That's  not....

Wait, I forgot to research Extremely Unique Dynamic (2024).

The premise: best friends (Harrison Xu, left, Ivan Leung) spend the weekend making a movie about making a movie.  Extremely Unique made the rounds of 17 film festivals and won five awards, plus a nomination from the Queerties. Reviews calls it "A new standard in LGBTQ and Asian-American representation" and "the dumbest, dopest gay meta comedy of the year."


More after the break

Bugs and Porky meet a Drag King: Warner Brothers Comics



When I was a kid, my favorite comic titles were Harvey (gay-vague Casper the Friendly Ghost), Disney (Donald Duck as macho adventurer), and the Gold Key jungle adventures.  If I had allowance money leftover, Little Lulu and Archie comics were ok.

Comics featuring Warner Brothers cartoon characters Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, and Bugs Bunny were low on my list.  Not as low as Charleton Comics, but low.


The art was amateurish, with minimal backgrounds, or just blank space.  This is one of the best covers,depicting Bugs opening a door leading to another planet, where a cowboy-rabbit is racing across the desert on a camel.

And instead of the anarchic outsiders of the cartoons, the characters were stable, stolid suburbanites, with houses and jobs and girlfriends. Porky was a single dad, raising his nephew, Cicero, like a Donald Duck knockoff.

But sometimes Bugs teamed up with Porky Pig or Yosemite Sam for adventure stories.  Maybe they stumbled upon a haunted inn.  Or they answered a job ad for "undersea explorers"  Or a telegram arrived about "trouble at the ranch."  Buddy-bonding, captures, and nick-of-time rescues followed.


















A continuing series had Bugs and Porky working as Indiana Jones-style adventurer-archaeologists, investigating the myth of Pegasus or discovering a lost civilization hidden under the ice of Antartica.  With no girlfriends in sight, and no damsels in distress to be won.

Unfortunately, you couldn't find the adventure stories by looking at the covers -- almost all of them displayed one-shot gags.  Who could guess that this cover art, featuring Cicero using a pogo stick to steal a lick of Porky's ice cream, hid a story about the guys finding a mysterious artifact that leads them to lost Atlantis?  

And the clerks at the drug store frowned on looking inside.  You had to just buy the issue and take your chances.



More after the break

Jul 9, 2026

The "Rockford Files" episode where James Garner goes to bed with a college boy



WhenI have had  this conversation more times than I can count.

Guy I'm Trying to Pick Up:  Where are you from?
Me:     Rock Island, Illinois.
Guy I'm Trying to Pick Up:  Rockford!  You must have loved The Rockford Files.
Me:    I said Rock Island, not Rockford, and I've never seen The Rockford Files.
Guy I'm Not Trying to Pick Up Anymore: I knew you'd be a fan!  Who wouldn't want to watch a show set in his home town?
Me:  I'm from Rock Island, not Rockford,  and the show was set in California. Rockford was the name of the main character.
Guy I'm Walking Away From:  So when you were living in Rockford, did you ever  watch them filming?



The Rockford Files (1974-80) aired on Friday nights, when teenagers were out (or supposed to be), so the programs were all aimed at little kids (Donny & Marie) or oldsters (Barnaby Jones).  I saw a few of the opening sequences as I was headed out the door: an answering machine takes a crazy message:

"Hey Jim, this is Louie down at the fish market. You going to pick up these halibut or what?"

"Mr. Rockford? This is the Thomas Crown School of Dance and Contemporary Etiquette. We aren't going to call again. Now, you want these free lessons, or what?"

"This is Shirley at the bank. The answers are: no, no, and yes. No, we won't loan you money. No, we won't accept any co-signers; and yes, your account's overdrawn. I get off at 4:30."

"Jim? Nadine Arcala at the Zodiac Restaurant. You don't pay that dinner tab, we're gonna repo your birthday."

Of course, in the 1970s you knew about most programs, even if you hadn't seen them.  I knew that it starred James Garner, after Move Over, Darling but before Victor/Victoria, as the pushing-50 antiheroic anti-private dick Jim Rockford, who had spent five years in prison (for a crime he didn't commit, of course), and now lived in a dilapidated trailer in Malibu and took cases for $200 per day plus expenses ($1000 in the 2020s).

Jim's scoobies included:

1.His con-artist dad Rocky (Noah Beery, Jr),

2. Sneaky, underhanded informant from prison Angel (Stewart Margolin, who was a fixture in 1970s sitcoms).

3. Hot cop Becker (Joe Santos, left), known for his famous Becker bulge.  The guy was packing.  Sorry, I couldn't find a photo that displays it well.









4. His lawyer/girlfriend Beth (Gretchen Corbett).

There were a lot of famous guest stars, including Tom Selleck (star of Magnum), Louis Gossett Jr., and Rita Moreno (The grandma on the One Day at a Time reboot), Bo Hopkins (left), and Gene Davis (top photo).













And I did, somehow, see the episode "The House on Willis Avenue", which aired on February 24, 1978: When a fellow p.i. is killed while investigating computer files, Jim teams up with a 22-year old wannabe named Richie Brockelman (Dennis Dugan) to catch the culprit, 1930s teen star Jackie Cooper (below)  He is plotting to start a national computer network with everybody's personal information available to anyone who wants it.  Wait, isn't that the internet?  


More after the break



Jul 8, 2026

Rage Boy Mitch: Probably gay gamer from Brisbane shows his muscles early in his training. With Mitch d*ck and a Jakarta chunk

 

Link to the n*de photos


Most amateur bodybuilders don't start posting until they have a ripped physique, but not Rage Boy Mitch: he wants us to see his development from Day #1.  He has 35 posts on Instagram, all from May-June 2026.  

He looks scared.  I imagine that it takes a lot of courage to post at this stage of your training.  Most comments tell Mitch that he's ripped or hot, or encourage him to keep going, but there are a few haters.












Come on, you can't look like this when you're just starting out.  Or ever. (N*de on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends).









At least no one was hating the video where his pajama bottoms slide off during a pose. 

I'm not sure of Mitchell's age, so you don't get to see the result, but the backside on  RG Beefcake and Boyfriends will give you an idea.
  











Mitch also reviews food, like Gym Bod Ice Cream.

Dude, staging counts.  Don't review a product in your pajamas, with an unmade bed in the background.

More after the break

"Complete Savages": In 2004, a sitcom about a dad and his five macho sons fails dramatically. With Ryan Pinkston, Jake's junk, and two n*de Carradines

 

Link to the n*de photos


In September 2004, ABC added Complete Savages, about a single dad raising five "savage" sons, to its "TGIF" Friday night schedule, expecting a hit.  Star Keith Carradine belonged to a famous showbiz dynasty, Erik von Detten was a well-known teen idol, and there were many famous guest stars, including Betty White, Shelley Long, and even President George W. Bush.  Yet the ratings were awful, and it was yanked after 15 episodes, with the remaining four burned off during the summer.





Maybe Savages  didn't do well because its lead-in was the third season of Eight Simple Rules, a nuclear family sitcom left in a precarious position after the death of John Ritter, who played the Dad.  Episode 3.1 got some buzz when son Rory (Martin Spanjers) showered with guest star Sam Horrigan, but after that viewers abandoned Rules for Joan of Arcadia on CBS, and it  ended up with a dismal rank of #90


Or maybe it was because of its similarity to Quintuplets, over on Fox: Andy Richter starred as the father of five kids, including dreamy short guy Ryan Pinkston (left) and Jake McDorman (right, n*de on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends).

Maybe it was because Savages was produced and directed by Mel Gibson, whose homophobic, racist, and anti-semitic mania was just starting to limit his box office appeal.  

On RG Beefcake and Boyfriends: A n*de Mel Gibson in 1985, when he was presenting as a leatherman and the source of gay rumors.



In 2004, I was at the age where you sometimes wanted to stay home on Friday nights, but felt guilty about it, so I may have dropped in an episode or two while "not feeling well" or "having a lot of work to do."  I think that Savages failed due to its astonishingly retro premise, an assertion that hegemonic masculinity is a biological imperative, so "all" boys are naturally violent, aggressive and posturing, into sports, cars, mechanical stuff, and especially girls.  

The savages cannily personified each of the characteristics of hegemonic masculinity.

Dad Nick (Keith Carradine, left): Big Wheel, be powerful, in charge, a leader.  He worked a firefighter, along with his younger brother Jimmy (Vincent Ventrescu, top photo).



 Jack (Shaun Sipos),
an aspiring musician: His plotlines involve juggling  multiple girlfriends, so Playboy, be obsessed with women, willing and able to do things several times a day, and so good at it that you are rarely rejected.   Shaun went on star in Melrose Place, The Vampire Diaries, Krypton (where he played the bi Adam Strange), Reacher, and Outer Banks..

More after the break

Jul 7, 2026

Sweet Magnolias: Southern ladies stick together, with hunky husbands, a gay couple, Aidan Merwarth, and drama club d*cks

  


Link to the n*de photos


Aidan Merwarth played Spencer, who had a disastrous first date with Finn (Faly Rakotahavana), in a 2024 episode of Unprisoned.  I've been following him since, looking for more gay or gay-light roles, and I just discovered that he has an ongoing character arc in Season 5 of Sweet Magnolias.  Shows set in the South don't usually have gay characters, but this season the high schoolers are staging a play, The Taming of the Shrew.  Where there's a drama club, there are gay teens.  Let's hope that Aidan is one of them.

I'm reviewing Episode 5.6, "Smoke and Mirrors," figuring that by this point they will be having dress rehearsals.




For reference, you should know that the Sweet Magnolias are three friends who support each other like the Steel Magnolias that they are named after.  From left to right, Dana Sue, who owns the restaurant Sullivan's, Maddie, a writer; and Helen, a lawyer.  They co-own a spa/gym. 

Scene 1: Night.  Everyone is crying and bringing toys and teddy bears out of a smoldering building.  Dana Sue and her husband learn that the fire started in the garage due to the "usual suspects": faulty wiring, greasy rags, and so on.  They divvy up who is going to stay with who.  Hey, there are no kids in the house, just Dana Sue, her husband, and their teenage daughter.  Surely regular viewers would know that, and be immune to the tearjerking of throwing out singed teddy bears.

There are different plot arcs involving each character, all interspliced, but I'll cover them separately.



Dana Sue's Story

Dana Sue and her husband (Brandon Quinn, n*de on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends) are staying with Maddie the Writer and her husband.  They drink tea and cry.  Later, unable to sleep, they discuss the fire, and how "we can possibly get through this."  Don't y'all have insurance?

Husband feels guilty because the fire is his fault; as the man, he should have been taking care of whatever household item caused the fire.  Right, God forbid dainty little ladies know anything about home improvement projects.

In the morning, Dana Sue inspects the fire-damaged house.  Her Husband gets angry at her for just throwing things into boxes;  they have to check what can be salvaged and what can't be.  "I'm choosing what's important to me!" she exclaims.  "Like this old, singed cooking pot that belonged to my mother!"  Or you could look for photos.

He stomps off.

Cut to Dana Sue and her friends going to Flawed But Still Worthy, where they have an appointment with Wally himself.  To buy used clothes?  Wally (Geoffrey D. Williams), a flamboyant middle-aged black man in a pink suit, is a fan favorite for his "powerful and uplifting scenes."  He has chosen some outfits to give Dana Sue "a little joy to get through the hard times.  It's what makes the darkness bearable."  And, by the way, they are on the house.


Cut to Dana Sue going through her new stuff, and complaining that her hair still smells like smoke.  Then she goes to her restaurant and makes quesadillas for her friends. I'm fast forwarding through the "friends stick together" tearjerking. 

In the morning, Dana Sue and her Husband are discussing things, when Fireman Leif shows up (Ben VanderMey, left).   The Fire Department has donateed some food for the 4th of July Barbecue.



Isaac's Story

The morning after the fire,  Isaac (Chris Medlin, left) gets a vistor, Michael (Kyle Findley, below), who tries to hug him and is rejected.  He came a day early so he can help the people displaced by the fire.  Hey, they start kissing.  They're boyfriends!  I guess Isaac rejected the hug because they were still standing in the doorway, and neighbors might see them.

They head to the bedroom.

That night,  there's a knock on the door.  It's a blond woman, maybe Noreen, and her young child, with teddy bear.  She's surprised to see Boyfriend Michael.  He explains that he arrived early, but don't worry, they can babysit together. 

Noreen watches until Boyfriend Michael leaves with the girl, and then asks for the dirt.  Isaac is hiding it, but extremely upset that Boyfriend came early: "I work so hard to be methodical and organized, and this is how he repays me?  By being impulse and unpredictable?"  The scoundrel!  Dump him for not following the schedule!    

Plus he's trying to prepare a surprise anniversary dinner, and how can it be a surprise with Boyfriend Michael by his side every second?  I thought he was out helping the displaced family.

"No problem.  I'll help you."  Don't you have somewhere to be, which is why you needed a babysitter?

The next day, Isaac invites Michael to the coffee shop to explain where they source their beans and how he creates the staff schedules.  If I wanted to hear about that, I'd get a job.  Let's get back to the kissing. He gives him a drink called The Michael: Cold-brew, tonic, and cherry juice.  Yuck. 

That night, Isaac and Noreen set up for the surprise anniversary dinner on the high school stage, having transformed it into an Italian restaurant. Boyfriend Michael arrived; as they get their antipasto, Isaac tells him that he needs to share how he feels: "I love you."  They dance.  That's it?  I thought you were going to propose.

More after the break

Jimmy Olsen's Secret Life, Part 1: Jimmy discovers that the Gemstones Do It Big

 

Link to the n*de dudes


Jimmy was prepared for a mansion rivaling Bruce Wayne’s – after all, the Gemstone motto was “Do It Big!”  But he still wasn’t prepared for the Gemstone Lake House, on Lake Murray, South Carolina’s biggest reservoir.  Tudor-style, with three round towers, four decks, eight bedrooms, two swimming pools, two boat launches, and a gazebo decorated with statues of the Greek gods Aphrodite and Apollo. 






Jesse Gemstone himself met him at the door, casually dressed in a checkered shirt and white pants. He shook Jimmy's hand and said “Praise be to He,” as if it was a standard greeting.   Jimmy had interviewed presidents and superheroes, but he was still in awe.  Rev. Gemstone was not only one of the three heads of the most successful Evangelical organization in the world, he was constantly in the news for everything from a mismanaged Prayer Pod debacle to numerous attempts on his life.

“Thank you for agreeing to the interviews,” Jimmy said. 

“It’s a visit,” he corrected.  “You’re our guest for the weekend.  Think of yourself as family – a long lost cousin.  You want anything, just ask.”  Then he flashed The Look – everybody did, Jimmy should have expected it, but he was still taken aback.  This was Jesse Gemstone!

Since he was about 15 years old, everybody who saw Jimmy Olsen, except for kids and the very old, fell in love with him.  Man, woman, gay, straight, single, married – it made no difference.  Usually they weren’t really aware of what was happening, they just knew that they liked Jimmy and wanted to do things for him – he got a free dessert almost every time he ate in a restaurant, he was bumped to first class almost every time he flew, and he had never been turned down for a date or a hookup, except by Clark Kent – but sometimes they knew exactly what they wanted, and got a little aggressive.  God, he hoped that Jesse Gemstone wouldn’t get aggressive.

But all Rev. Gemstone did was caress Jimmy's arm a bit and lead him into the foyer and…the library, where the Gemstone siblings crawled after they were shot by Corey Milsap, and prayed for him as he died -- they prayed for their murderer!  

“I’m surprised that you want to spend time at this place, when you and your brother and sister were shot and almost died here.”

He chuckled.  “So, if I stayed away from every place where someone tried to kill me, I’d never go anywhere.”  Then he hesitated.  “This isn’t going to be one of those smear pieces, is it?   Frankly, I agreed to the visit because  I like some of your articles in the Daily Planet.  You’ve got heart -- not like that Lois Lane and her muckraking interviews with Superman”

“It's going to be about the Gemstone Miracle, how you survive and thrive after adversity.  I get you – I grew up in the South. In an Evangelical family.”

“But you’re not Evangelical anymore?”  Uh-oh, Jimmy felt soul-winning coming on.

“I’m a gay ally – my sister is trans.  And I just couldn't stand the homophobia in my home church."


“Believe me, that’s not a problem here.”  Next they moved into parlor where they held talent contests, and Corey Milsap did a Michael Jackson routine – before trying to murder his friends.  “Is there going to be a talent show this weekend?”

“Why, do you have a piece in mind?”

As Rev. Gemstone showed him the dining room, kitchen, sun room, and game room, Jimmy wrote his introduction in his head:

A cross between Elvis Presley and Conway Twitty, with the Van Buren sideburns and rings on every finger, Jesse Gemstone lives the Gemstone motto of “Do it big!”  He has been kidnapped by his uncle, assaulted by a close friend, and shot by another close friend, yet he doesn’t hesitate to open his home and his heart to a complete stranger.  

“My brother and sister and their spouses will be coming up for dinner, and my oldest, Gideon, will be arriving tomorrow.  Right now it’s just my wife and I, our other two kids, and their boyfriends.”

Wait – boyfriends?  Didn’t Jesse and Amber Gemstone have three sons?  Jimmy would have to check his notes.

Mrs. Amber Gemstone: The Preacher’s Wife

Mrs. Gemstone was in the kitchen, elegantly dressed, all in white as she brought a pastry – peach cobbler? – from the oven.   She wiped her hands on a towel to shake Jimmy’s hand.

“You must think I’m an old fashioned Evangelical housewife, subservient to her husband,” she said, pausing as she gave him The Look.

“No, I don’t think that at….”

She caressed his arm.  “But we don’t have full time staff at the lake house.  The service goes home after making lunch, so we have to either eat out or cook dinner ourselves.  But coming all the way from Metropolis, I thought you’d appreciate some real Southern cooking rather than the Root Cellar or Thai Thai.”

Jimmy pulled away.  “I’d appreciate that, Ma’am.”

“Open!”  She popped a spoonful of cobbler into his mouth – a big spoonful, and still steaming hot!  He cried out in pain.

“Oh, I’m so sorry!  Jesse, get a glass of milk for our guest!”

Amber Gemstone, resplendent in white, the picture of the elegant Southern woman, is expertly hiding some insecurity.  She longs to be a traditional Evangelical housewife, following St. Paul’s admonition to “be submissive to your husband,” but the three-time sharpshooting champion of Charleston doesn’t take kindly to being submissive.



Abraham: The Loud Son

 “Pontius and Stacy are  out on a pontoon boat,” Jesse told him.  “You can meet them later. Next up is my youngest, Abraham.  He just turned eighteen.” 

Stacy?  Ok, Jimmy must have misheard.  Jesse’s middle son had a girlfriend, not a boyfriend.

He led Jimmy out to the bigger of the pools – the one behind the lake house – where two teenage boys were playing a noisy sword fight game with pool tubes. They were high school aged, athletic.   When they saw Jesse and Jimmy, they jumped out of the pool and ran forward.

“Boys, this is Jimmy Olsen, the reporter who will be staying with us this weekend.  My son Abraham –”  he gestured at the shorter boy, who had a muscular physique and a shock of unruly brown hair.  “And this is his friend Ash” – tall and thin, with brown skin and curly black hair.

“Don’t be so retro, Dad,” Abraham said, flashing the Look as he took Jimmy’s hand.  “Ash is my boyfriend.  I’m gay.”

“Yeah, with a boyfriend, I figured.”  He dislodged himself from Abraham and shook hands with Ash, who of course flashed the Look.  

"I'll leave you alone to get acquainted."  Rev. Gemstone vanished into the house.

“Go ahead and publish it in The Daily Planet,” Abraham continued. 

“If there’s room in my article.”

“I figured it out when I was like six, but I was afraid to come out to Dad after what happened to my brother Gideon…”

What happened to Gideon?  Jimmy smelled a Gemstone story that he hadn’t read in a bio or seen on CNN.

“We’re big fans of Superman,” Ash interrupted.  “Have you met him?”

“No, but I’ve met Beast Boy, and I dated...I mean, used to be friends with the Green Lantern."

 Jimmy kicked himself.  He was in a family famous for being gay positive, talking to two loud-and-proud teenagers, and he was closeting his gay relationships.   

“Hey, want to go water-skiing before dinner?” Abraham asked.  “If you brought your swimsuit.”


“You don’t need a swimsuit,” Ash added, glancing down at Jimmy.  “The Gemstone Lake House is clothing optional.”

Living in the shadow of three generations of famous Gemstones, 18-year old Abraham has found his own way to be noticed: by being loud, by talking about what everyone else is afraid to mention: secrets, bodily functions, identities.  The first thing he says to you, after “Hello,” is “I’m gay.

The full story, with n*de photos and s*xual situations, is on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends

See also: Jimmy Olsen's Secret Life, Part 2: Keefe singing, Jimmy twerking, and Gideon in his underwear

A World of Jimmy Olsens

Jimmy Olsen: Superman's Boy Pal

"Superman" (2025): You'll believe a man can queerbait


Jul 6, 2026

The 20 TV shows that we watched in West Hollywood: a gay brother, some "confused" guys, squabbling drag queens, Seinfeld, and Mario Lopez (sigh)


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.


3. Brothers.  We had to go to a friend's house to watch this Showtime sitcom about three grown-up brothers, two macho, grunting types, and one gay.

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.




















More after the break

Mr. Bigstuff: Short guy with big stuff isn't into ladies, has a gay boss and a psycho brother. With six big reveals and lots of backsides

 

Link to the n*de dudes


I don't have a lot of  luck with Britcoms.  The references have me scurrying to the internet, the jokes a little too droll, and I can never tell if the actions are meant to be sitcom exaggerations or over-the-top bizarre.  But I'm checking out Mr. Bigstuff, which just dropped on Hulu, because it stars Ryan Sampson, gay in real life and 5'4". 

"Bigstuff" is one of those culturally specific references.  There's no definition online. Does it mean that the guy is important, a "big shot," or that he's a "big dog," gifted beneath the belt?


Episode 1, Scene 1
: Glen (Ryan Sampson) and his girlfriend parking in the car outside a horribly decrepit office building.  She consoles him for being unable to do stuff.  It's been a long time.  Maybe he's not into you, lady.  Or not into ladies at all.  But they're still getting married in 100 days.  

Scene 2:  Glen at his horrible, soul-destroying job as a carpet salesman.  He's pointing out some boring heterosexual stuff to a boy-girl couple, when the Manager comes by.  He asks for a promotion.  In response, the Manager pretends to shoot him.  He falls to the ground, "dead."  I guess that's a no?  

Left: The Manager is played by Adrian Scarborough (backside on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends), who I thought was in The Thursday Murder Club.  He's not, and I deleted my review due to low pageviews.

Meanwhile, a hand smokes cigarettes and drinks beer.  Eventually it turns into a burly bloke, who bursts into the carpet store and asks the receptionist if she's seen "this geezer," displaying a photo of a schoolboy. In the U.S. a "geezer" is old. She calls the Manager.  The situation escalates to Burly Guy choking him and demanding to know where the "geezer" is.



Glen hides behind some display cases, then runs out and drives home.  

Left: Burly Guy is played by Danny Dyer, who is straight but played a gay character in Borstal Boy (2000) and the father of a gay teen on East Enders.

Scene 3: At home, the Girlfriend from Scene 1 is lying in bed.  She explains that there was a gas leak at work, so everyone had to leave, and he explains that he just popped in to get his sandwiches.  I expect that there's a man hiding in the closet. 

Nope: "Get in here, you c*nt."  In the U.S., that term is extremely offensive, and it refers only to ladies, but I think here it's just a mild expletive, like "dope." 

Glenn backside is on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends..

They discuss boring heterosexual stuff as Glen undresses (no beefcake).  She tries to get him to do stuff, but he refuses.  You're in bed with your lady at 10:00 on a workday.  Why wouldn't you want to, unless you're not into ladies?

Next Glen drinks something from a water glass by the bedside, then starts to gag.  Girlfriend apologizes -- she didn't expect him to drink it (then why was it on his side of the bed?).  They're both very upset.  

We never learn what it was.  Maybe Metamucil, or a lady supplement?

She rushes downstairs to fetch him some tea -- and finds the Burly Guy sitting on the couch!


Scene 4:  
Glen throws the disgusting liquid at him, and Girlfriend runs for the pepper spray.  "You can't be here!  Get out of my house!"

"I just want to talk, Glen!" he exclaims.  

Girlfriend; "You know each other?"  Big Reveal #1

"No.  Not really...I mean, I used to."  This upsets Burly Guy, and he leaves.

Burly Guy's backside is on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends.

Scene 5: Back at work, everyone is gossiping about what happened earlier "with that geezer and the Manager."  Is that a common phrase in Britain for someone under age 80?   

A woman is upset that she wasn't around to see him "get shanked."  In the U.S., "shanked" means being stabbed.  

The Manager calls Glen, crying: "You need to get here immediately! I'm sorry -- I didn't know!  I can't do this!"  Burly Guy comes onto the phone and tells him: "Dagenham, by the water, where he passed away.  You know the spot."  Darn, I thought they were old boyfriends.



Scene 6
: The subtitles say Dagenheim, which sounds Norwegian, but it's actually Dagenham, a terrible industrial suburb of London, right on the Thames.  

Glen arrives and yells "Don't do this!  Don't kill the Manager!"

"Kill him?  I've just given him a cheese twist and a flapjack." Big Reveal #2.

More after the break

Jul 5, 2026

The 20 Gayest TV Programs of My Childhood

 


These are the tv shows that helped me figure it out in the silence of my childhood and teen years (roughly 1965 to 1978), through gay-vague characters, buddy-bonding subtexts, queer codes, or beefcake.


1. Gilligan's Island.  None of the male castaways displayed the slightest interest in girls, Gilligan and the Skipper were obviously boyfriends, and there was a lot of beefcake.

2. The Beverly Hillbillies Jethro Bodine (sigh) plus a lot of Hollywood heartthrobs who weren't particularly into girls, and the nearly-out lesbian Miss Jane.



3. Dark Shadows.  I ran across the schoolyard every day to catch the last 10-15 minutes of the Gothic soap opera, with Willie Loomis in love with the vampire Barnabas.










4. Run, Buddy, Run. 
Buddy is on the run from the mob after he overhears them discussing...um...in the steam room...um...sorry, I was distracted by Buddy's chest.

5. Bewitched.  Samantha gave up the witch world for suburban heteronormativity, but she couldn't suppress her queer desires forever.  Plus a gay-in-plain-sight Uncle Arthur.




 6. H.R. Pufnstuf.  The Dragon and the Witch fight for control of Jimmy's...um...flute.  But there's really no question: he likes dudes.

7. The Mighty Hercules.  "Softness in his eyes, iron in his thighs."  That's still the way I like my men.










8. Lost in Space.  Every other boy on the block wanted to be Will Robinson.  I wanted to date him.

9. Star Trek, the Original Series.  I swear, I remember Sulu (top photo) and Chekhov sharing a room.

10. Spin and MartyThe summer camp boyfriends aired during the 1950s, but I saw them in after-school reruns during the 1970s.



More after the break

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...