At a time when you begin to look forward to a new season of primetime television, we're reminded of the many shows that were canceled this past season, and it makes you wonder about the future of gay television. Unlike the days when television series were given an opportunity to grow into themselves and find their audience, series today can be pulled off the air after just a few episodes. I am someone who enjoys a wide variety of television genres, and seeing additional gay characters introduced into these story lines has certainly been a good sign of things to come for the future of the gay character.
Perhaps there's a future where a series with a good premise based around a gay couple can exist without groups feeling the need to protest their existence simply because they are "too gay." With the amount of internal presence and overall support the film and television industries have from the LGBT community, we can all hope that "gay" is not considered a bad word in the near future. While I remain a big supporter of the gay television networks, it's also nice to see gay characters being more accepted in everyday and real-life situations on these primetime series.
One of the most "out" series to be canceled was The New Normal , which certainly had some ups and downs, but Andrew Rannells and Justin Bartha were always entertaining. With a colorful cast of characters and a storyline focused around a professional gay couple excited about having a child, I hated to see this one end. The only silver lining would be if Andrew Rannells went back to The Book of Mormon on Broadway to resume his role as Elder Price, allowing others to see just how amazingly talented he can be in this character.
I will be the first to admit that the demographics are somewhat limited for a show based around Broadway, but many of us are still mourning the loss of Smash . Perhaps too dramatic at points, it was still providing a dose of Broadway every week with an interesting look behind the scenes into the inner workings of both a Broadway show and the actors themselves. I thought the amazing all-around talent and "smash" performances by Katharine McPhee balanced the mediocre acting by Debra Messing, and the high points were far too many to accept that it's been canceled. The many fans, closeted Smash watchers, and I will all hate to see this not return next season.
So what else will we not be watching when the new season arrives in several weeks? After a fairly good run, Happy Endings has officially ended, and we must say goodbye to the Max Blum character. Among the other casualties of television war, 1600 Penn , Don't Trust the B___ in Apartment 23 , 90210 , Partners and Southland will not be back this season.
With the very sad passing of Cory Monteith recently, combined with the questionable story lines, we're not sure about the future of Glee . While the musical portion of the series is fantastic, it's still trying to find its feet after the graduation of the original class, leaving us questioning the future of this iconic show.
It will be interesting to see what new shows the networks have for us this season. Fortunately, we still have two of the best-dressed and all-around-great gay guys playing the parts of womanizing straight men with Matt Bomer's character on White Collar and Neil Patrick Harris' character on How I Met Your Mother . We can watch the struggles of being gay many years ago in shows like Downton Abbey and Game of Thrones while also keeping up with a few others shows that are still around, such as The Carrie Diaries and Modern Family . Here's to a great new upcoming season, and we can only hope that the producers are busily working to develop additional gay characters to be introduced during the next few seasons.
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