The Rainbow Age of Television

June 24, 2024
Journalist Warner debuts with an astute account of how depictions of LGBTQ characters on TV have evolved since the 1970s. Early queer characters were often threadbare stereotypes, Warner contends, noting that the “first openly gay recurring character on American TV” was an ascot-wearing, “flamboyant... Broadway set designer” who appeared on the short-lived 1970s sitcom The Corner Bar. Nineties comedies Ellen and Will & Grace were notable for putting sympathetic gay characters in leading roles, but Warner suggests the shows were still “written for straight people in majority straight series.” The author posits that more recent shows include more nuanced representation, commending Better Things for giving a teenage character whose gender remains fluid throughout the series room “to evolve without having to fully define who they are to the audience.” The history makes clear how advances in representation were often halting and double-edged (Warner celebrates Transparent for its psychologically complex trans characters but laments that a cis actor played its trans lead), and interviews with queer television creators offer behind-the-scenes insights, as when Lilly Wachowski recounts how transitioning while making her show Sense8 informed how she wrote the trans character Nomi. The result is a sharply observed chronicle of the small screen. Agent: Robert E. Guinsler, Sterling Lord Literistic.