Saturday, January 02, 2010

Know Your LGBT History - Barney Miller

I never liked Barney Miller, the ensemble sitcom about a police precinct. I always felt it was stilted and claustrophobic.

But despite my objections, it was a very successful show, running for seven years and winning a bunch of awards, including an Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series.

And it was one of the first shows to feature semi-regular gay character.

Actor Jack DeLeon portrayed Marty Morrison, a gay purse snatcher who was seen on several episodes.

I don't know how to feel about Marty. It's not that I had a problem with how DeLeon portrayed him as a stereotypically flighty "queen."

I just had a problem with DeLeon.

I am not familiar with the actor but on two other occasions, he portrayed a gay man and both times I found his characterization to be crude and one-dimensional.

One portrayal was featured in a past posting of Know Your LGBT History (The Choirboys). In it, DeLeon is playing a gay man walking a poodle.And he has the "fortune" to encounter a naked man in the park.

The other portrayal (which I have not talked about yet) was on the Rated X episode of Sanford and Son. DeLeon portrayed the director of a pornographic film. It's bad enough that his sexual orientation was featured as a joke, but then the script called for him to make a crude advance to actor Redd Foxx.
I'm sorry but even if I were the most homophobic homophobe, I would never buy the fact that any gay man would ever make a play for Redd Foxx or his character Fred Sanford.

But I digress.

Believe it or not though, this episode of Barney Miller featuring DeLeon is actually a good one. It's called Discovery and in it, he and Miller are helping a friend who has been harassed and extorted by a policeman. Between you and me, I found the portrayal of Marty's friend (the victim of the shakedown) to more enjoyable:



Past Know your lgbt history posts:

Know your lgbt history - The Jerry Springer Show

Know your lgbt history - Martin Lawrence and that 'gay guy' on his show

Know your lgbt history - The Ricki Lake Show

Know your lgbt history - Which Way Is Up

Know your lgbt history - Gays in Primetime Soaps

Know your lgbt history - Boys Beware

Know your lgbt history - The Boondocks

Know your lgbt history - Mannequin

Know your lgbt history - The Warriors

Know Your LGBT History - New York Undercover

Know Your LGBT History - Low Down Dirty Shame

Know Your LGBT History - Fortune and Men's Eyes

Know your lgbt history - California Suite

Know your lgbt history - Taxi (Elaine's Strange Triangle)

Know your lgbt history - Come Back Charleston Blue

Know your lgbt history - James Bond goes gay

Know your lgbt history - Windows

Know your lgbt history - To Wong Foo and Priscilla

Know your lgbt history - Blazing Saddles

Know your lgbt history - Sanford and Son

Know your lgbt history - In Living Color

Know your lgbt history - Cleopatra Jones and her lesbian drug lords

Know your lgbt history - Norman, Is That You?

Know your lgbt history - The 'Exotic' Adrian Street

Know your lgbt history - The Choirboys

Know your lgbt history - Eddie Murphy

Know your lgbt history - The Killing of Sister George

Know your lgbt history - Hanna-Barbera cartoons pushes the 'gay agenda

'Know your lgbt history - Cruising

Know your lgbt history - Foxy Brown and Cleopatra Jones

Know your lgbt history - I Got Da Hook Up

Know your lgbt history - Fright Night

Know your lgbt history - Flowers of Evil

The Jeffersons and the transgender community  
 

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