Andy Bian: Taiwanese actor, singer, and Good Boy stars in a gay tv series and an adult video

   

I've been having trouble recently finding n*de photos of people who are celebrities but not actors.  They're sports figures, musicians, models, or internet influences.  So this time I checked the IMDB, and Andy Bian has eight acting credits, so he's good to go.

He first appears on screen in 2013, at the age of 22, in the Taiwanese thriller Killing 7

Then came two episodes of the 2016 tv series Jin wan, ni xiang dian shen me?, which translates as Jin Wan, What Would You Like to Order?.  A bar owner listens to the stories of different customers every week. 

Four Heavenly Kings in Ta tiao ko, translated Hanky Panky (2017): a comedy in which the son of the owner of a martial arts dojo "has a hidden plan to draw ou this father's enemy." 

Falling in Love (2017).  Andy doesn't play one of the people in love.

The TV series Songs and the City.  

A starring role in the thriller Karma (2019).

Five episodes of Wan quan sheng qian lian ai shou ce (2024), translated as Safety Pre-Life Love Manual, apparently about students in love.

Wait -- are all of his acting roles going to be in Taiwanese projects that aren't available to stream in the U.S., or only with expensive memberships and paywalls?

I'm particularly interested in Andy's role on HIS-tory (2017-) a Taiwanese anthology series, with every season depicting two men in love.  Five seasons, 90-plus episodes.  In his season, "Trapped," a gay couple is trapped in a "deadly game of wits." Researching it is nearly impossible, since no matter what I do, "HIS-tory" is interpreted as just plain "History."  And why is this title in English, not Mandarin?

An article calls Andy and his costar Kenny Shin boyfriends, and says that they are discussing marriage, but I'm not sure if it is real or fanservice.

But a photo book of his character's adventures, called Good Boy, was published in Taiwan.

The drama wiki gives more details. Andy, Chinese name Bian Ching Hua,卞慶華; was born in 1991 in Keelung, Taiwan, on the northern coast about a 40 minute drive from Taipei.

Keelung is the home of Taiwan's first LGBT Cultural Center, founded in 2014.

He graduated from the National Taiwan Ocean University in Keelung.

The wiki lists several projects that the IMDB doesn't, such as the movie Mermaid Prince (2020) and  a lot of variety and game shows.  He appeared in Penghu on New Year's Eve 2019.

He also recorded the theme song to the tv series Mulan on the Run (2012) -- about a hostage crisis on a bus, no connection to the Disney movie.

And some commercials, like this one for Pizza Hut.

The full profile, with n*ude photos, is on  on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends

See also: Ryan Potter: N*de and adult pictures of the Supah Ninja, Beastboy, gamer, mystic, and bisexual

"Love is a Poison": High-power attorney and cute con artist stalker in contemporary Japan

Lee Doud: "I'm Fine," n*de dudes, and anti-Asian prejudice in the gay community

Wayland Flowers and Madame: TV's first drag queen puppet

During the 1980s, there wasn't much of gay interest on television.  An occasional "old friend comes out as gay or transgender" episode of The Jeffersons, One Day at a Time, Alice.

A "guy accused of being gay tries to commit suicide" episode of WKRP in Cincinnati.

Some "murderous, psychotic" drag queen episodes of cop dramas.

A few gay subtext shows, like The Powers of Matthew Star (with Peter Barton, left)

And Madame's Place (1982-83).

Gay actor and puppeteer Wayland Flowers (1939-1988) began voicing Madame in the 1970s.  She was a new twist on the drag queen persona, an elderly former movie star who had a potty mouth and told outrageous stories about her exploits with men.

Wayland was fully visible behind Madame, and openly saying her lines instead of keeping his mouth shut, like a ventriloquist.  But you didn't notice him.

Young adults, who thought of the older generation as skittish, easily-scandalized, and sexually repressed found Madame's bawdy humor mesmerizing, and soon she became the most famous puppet since Charlie McCarthy.

Wayland and Madame were everywhere in the 1970s and early 1980s, on  Andy Williams, Merv Griffith, The New Laugh-In, The Chuck Barris Rah-Rah Show, Playboy's Roller Disco and Pajama Party, and Solid Gold.  They hosted the 1982 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  They were regulars on the Hollywood Squares game show.

A tv series was inevitable, a throwback to the old "celebrity home life" sitcoms of the 1950s, with Madame as a talk show host asking inappropriate questions of real celebrities like William Shatner and Peewee Herman.  At home, she interacted with her butler (Johnny Haymer), uptight assistant (Susan Tolsky), dumb-blond niece (Judy Lander), and kid next door (Corey Feldman, left).

There were no references to gay people, but it was easy to imagine Madame as an aging drag queen.  In fact, it was expected.

  You can see clips on youtube.

Wayland never came out, for fear that a public statement would "cost him a million dollars a year."  When asked directly, he said he was "not into labels."   It was the 1980s -- who can blame him?  He died of AIDS in 1988.

More after the break

How Queer is "Carmen Sandiego"?

Millions of millennials grew up with Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego  (1991-1995), a game show based on a video game where contestants answered geography questions in order to track down the elusive super-thief (diversity alert: Carmen was middle-aged, female, and I assume Latina).

A powerful woman who thumbs her nose at the system and doesn't have any male admirers.  A lesbian girls' dream!

No other gay content in the show itself, but host Greg Lee is apparently gay.  Seen here with his date, actor Gregory Michael of Dante's Cove,, at the 2007 Outfest.  The top photo is Gregory in action.

Anyway, Carmen won lots of Peabody awards and spun off into Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego (1996-1998), hosted by Kevin Shinick.

And Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego? (1994-99), an animated series which pits the superthief (voiced by Broadway legend Rita Moreno) and her V.I.L.E. organization against 14-year old detective Zack (Scott Menville) and his older sister Ivy of the A.C.M.E. Agency.  It also starts to redeem Carmen, making her an anti-hero who uses her thieving skills to help  Zack fight cadres of real baddies.

Now Netflix has released Carmen Sandiego (2019), an animated series with Carmen completely rehabilitated, a "modern day Robin Hood."  Trained to be a V.I.L.E. agent, she decided to devote her life to something other than evil, and went rogue.  Now she works behind the scenes, pursued by both A.C.M.E. and V.I.L.E., to solve crimes and thwart thefts of Vermeer paintings in Amsterdam, the Magna Carta in Mumbai, smart fabric in Greece, and rare gems in Japan, with the ultimate goal of taking down the entire V.I.L.E. enterprise.

Her scoobies include:
1. Teenage computer hacker Player (Finn Wolfhard).

2. Redheaded doofus Zack (Michael Hawley)
3. His sister Ivy, who looks nonbinary.
4. Shadosan, the Japanese sensei who adopted and taught Carmen.

Their main antagonists are A.C.M.E. agent Chase Devineaux (Rafael Petardi) and V.I.L.E. agent Graham (Michael Goldsmith), whom Carmen dates briefly.  Otherwise I don't see any hetero-romance plotlines, which is remarkable.  Not a lot of gay subtext, either, but with children's tv, I'll take what I can get.

Gay Hints on "Let's Make a Deal"

Monty Hall, who died last year at age 92, was not exactly a gay icon, like Tarzan or James West, but he offered a few gay hints during my childhood.  He was the host of Let's Make a Deal, the game show that aired at noon or in the early evening from 1963 to 1986.

I never watched an episode all the way through -- game shows, gross!  -- but I saw snippets here and there, as I was walking through the living room on the way to do something else, or waiting for it to end so I could watch something else.










Glimpses of Monty Hall, a very well-dressed man with a beautiful smile, asking contestants to choose between Door #1, Door #2, or Door #3.  If they got a good prize, like a bedroom set or a car, "the lovely Carol Merrill" would run her hands over it while announcer Jay Stewart extolled its benefits in an obvious advertising ploy.

I never saw men in business in everyday life, except in church on Sunday, so watching Monty Hall walk up and down the aisles brought a frisson of erotic interest.  Nothing as intense as Tarzan or James West, but a frisson.

The end credits said "A Mark Goodson/Bill Todman Production."  I didn't know who Mark Goodson and Bill Todman were, but -- two guys together?  Come on, I thought, they must be boyfriends, sharing a house and a life.

Born Monte Halparin in Winnipeg in 1921, wearing a business suit even as a student at the University of Manitoba in 1944, Hall worked in radio before hosting the Canadian game show Who Am I? on television (1952-59).  He moved to New York in 1955 and hosted children's shows, sports programs, and of course game shows before developing Let's Make a Deal.

Over the years he appeared on many other talk shows and game shows, and played himself, or a parody of himself, on That Girl, Laugh-In,  Love, American Style, Love Boat, Providence, The Nanny, and That 70s Show.

Sometimes you don't need to flex anything.  A beautiful smile and a business suit are enough.

By the way, Mark Goodson, Bill Todman, Jay Stewart, Carol Merrill, and Monty Hall were probably all heterosexual.

Wally Cox: Was Mr. Peepers Gay?

On February 9, 1970, Here's Lucy starred Alan Hale Jr. as Moose Manley (yes, that's his name), who worries that his son Wally (Wally Cox) is not manly enough -- he's "shy around girls."

I had never heard of Wally Cox before, but I knew all about the adults trying to push you into liking girls.

First Dad sets up Wally on a date with Lucy.  That doesn't work, so Dad gets Wally a job as a night watchman, and has Lucy pretend to be a burglar.  A real burglar shows up, Wally rises to the occasion, and Dad is satisfied.  Without "discovering girls."

Born in 1924, Wally Cox had a small frame and nasal voice that made him ideal for milquetoast roles, prissy, ineffectual, and not particularly interested in girls (although they often liked him).  Another example of the 1950s penchant for gay-vague characters.

He played junior high science teacher Mr. Peepers (1952-54), with Patricia Benoit as the woman trying to snare him and gay-positive Tony Randall as his ladies-man best friend.

Newspaper proofreader turned globetrotting adventurer Hiram Holliday (1956-57).

Bird-watcher P. Caspar Biddle on three episodes of  The Beverly Hillbillies (1966), who draws the attention of Ellie Mae.

Officious bureaucrats and other party-dampeners in several Disney movies.

He also provided the voice of superhero parody Underdog, and was a fixture on the game show Hollywood Squares for 11 years (his last appearance was on February 26, 1973, a few days after his death).

Although small, Wally was athletic and very muscular. He often bemoaned his milquetoast typecasting, which prohibited him from taking his shirt off and displaying his physique.

Many years later I discovered that Wally grew up with the bisexual Marlon Brando, and roomed with him when he first moved to Los Angeles. He married women three times, but he and Brando continued to be close, and when they died, their ashes were combined and scattered together.

If you need more evidence that Wally Cox was gay: he was also friends with Sal Mineo, Nick Adams, and the whole 1950s Hollywood gay and gay-positive crowd.

The Gong Show

During the late 1970s, every commentator who wanted an illustration of the end of civilization and the rise of barbarism used The Gong Show (1976-80).

Actually, similar contests were performed as early as Vaudeville, where performers tried to avoid getting "the hook" and being dragged offstage.

Here performers tried to win the approval of the three celebrity judges and avoid getting "gonged" (told to leave).  The performer with the most points at the end of the episode won a trophy and a prize.













Some performers who later became famous include Paul Reubens (Pee Wee Herman), Danny Elfman, and Andrea McCartle.  Stanley Williams, founder of the Crips gang, who was later executed for murdering four people, did a bodybuilding act.

But the fun was in watching the bad acts, in the same way that today, we prefer watching the horrifyingly bad performances to good performances on American Idol. 

Remember, this was the late 1970s, an era of recreational sex, casual drug use, disco dancing, and silly jokes, an era of fun and frivolity.  What was the harm in laughing at bad performances?






There were also recurring features, such as appearances by the Unknown Comedian, aka Murray Langston, who appeared with a bag over his head (in the top photo, he also has a bag over his penis).

The Gong Show Movie (1980) purports to be a week in the life of the Gong Show, with Chuck Barris playing himself, negotiating with outrageous contestants, censored acts, and miscellaneous craziness.













Many recognizable faces of the 1970s appeared, including Ed Marinaro, Rosie Grier, Tony Randall, and Danny DeVito.   There was female nudity, of course, but also ample beefcake.

Bert Convy Spends the 1970s Nude

I suppose you're wondering who this Bert Convy was, who took his clothes off on both Love Boat (6 times) and Fantasy Island (4 times)?

I'm not sure.  He seemed to just appear in the 1970s,.  He was over 40 years old, with a 20-year career as a Broadway star and pop singer, and before that as a pro baseball player, but I didn't notice until he started strutting around with a Tom Jones Afro and a leisure suit unbuttoned halfway down his smooth, muscular chest. playing slightly befuddled New Sensitive Men in sitcoms and soaps: Mary Tyler Moore, The Partridge Family, Love American Style, Charlie's Angels, Murder She Wrote, and Hotel.  

Google Images said this was him, but it might be wrong. The photo seems too recent -- Bert Convy would have been that age in the early 1960s. (It may be Steve Bond).

But not to worry, the real Bert Convy displayed his physique many during his tenure as the host of about a thousand game shows, including Password (1972), Match Game (1973-74), Tattletales (1974-77, 1982), Win Lose or Draw (1987), and Super Password (1984-89), 

In the spring of 1976, he starred in a short-lived comedy-variety series, The Late Summer Early Fall Bert Convy Show.

He appeared in lots of movies, mostly sex comedies, like Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders (1979), about...you know; Racquet (1979), about a tennis pro who beds women; and Help Wanted: Male (1982), about a career woman who wants a baby but not a husband.  More beefcake shots....

He and Burt Reynolds were best buds (imagine the confusion: "Bert came to my party, but Burt didn't.")  They starred together in the gay-subtext-heavy Semi-Tough (1977) and The Cannonball Run (1981), and produced two tv series together: Weekend Warriors and Win, Lose, or Draw.  

There were some gay rumors, but not a lot. During the 1970s, men drew gay rumors only if they were on the feminine side.  You could hang out with male buds all you wanted, and never make a dent in people's heteronormative expectations.

Besides, Bert was married throughout his career, to Anne Anderson (1959-1990), and, while he was terminally ill, to Catherine Hall (1991).

He died from a brain tumor on July 15, 1991, and was interred at Forest Lawn, among other Hollywood celebrities.

Burt Reynolds came to the funeral.

See also: Love Boat;  Burt Reynolds Naked on a Bearskin Rug

Uncle Tom Award #2: So You Think You Can Dance

So You Think You Can Dance (2005-) is a dance-competition series that is too heterosexist for words: men and women paired together to replicate the myth of universal heterosexual desire and the erasure of gay people from the world, over and over, week after week.  Sometimes gay men, like Travis Wall, or men who look gay, participate in the brainwashing, whereupon homophobic host Nigel Lithgoe tries his best to turn them straight, saying things like "Isn't that a hot woman you're dancing with?  Aren't you lucky to be dancing with such a beautiful woman?"


Once they had two men, Mitchell Kiber and Misha Belfer performing -- for the shock value, introduced by the song "It's a Man's World":
It's a man's world,
But you're nothing -- nothing at all -- without a woman.

When the male couple performed, Mr. Homophobe told them point blank that they shouldn't be dancing together, that they should "dance" with women: "Who knows, you might like it!"

Very easy to see what he really meant: "Don't be gay, try sex with women.  Who knows, you might like it!"

Utterly disgusting.  And it's not only still on the air, it's popular!

In 2008, Nico Archambault won in the Canadian version, and became the resident choreographer in 2009-2010.  He has also performed in The American Music Awards, Starmania, and several music videos, and starred in two movies: Nureyev (2009), about the life of gay Russian dancer Rudolph Nureyev, and Sur le rythme (2011), about a female aspiring dancer who falls in love (he plays the romantic lead).

Nico is heterosexual, but growing up, he was often "accused" of being gay due to his interest in dance, so he suffered severe trauma.

How traumatic to be accused of something so horrible!

He has designed an anti-bullying t-shirt line called "Stand Up, Rise Above."

Rise above the taunts of the bullies who "accuse" you of being gay?

Hey, Nico, did you know there are kids in the world who are actually gay?

See also: It's a Man's World.