According
to our sources, Regina's lesbianism is woven easily and fairly
matter-of-factly into the family dynamics introduced in the
pilot (like in one scene where Regina teases her brother that
she's slept with more women than he has). Regina herself is
a very refreshing character: smart, funny, and past the whole
coming-out angst. And the focus on her career and family will
be a welcome reprieve from the the endless parade of motherhood-focused
storylines most TV lesbians are saddled with these days.
Regina
will be also be one of the few lesbian characters ever to be
a series regular on an American sitcom. Prominent lesbian characters
on network television have tended to be confined primarily to
dramas, like Dark Angel,
Once and Again, Buffy
the Vampire Slayer, and ER.
When sitcoms feature queer characters, they're usually gay men
or bisexual women, the latter cropping up occasionally in the
last few years, on sitcoms like That 80's Show, Coupling,
and Two and a Half Men.
There
have been a few recurring or supporting lesbian sitcom characters,
like the lesbian couple on Friends,
or Roseanne's mother on Roseanne. But
Ellen DeGeneres's openly gay characters on the ABC sitcom Ellen,
and then the short-lived CBS sitcom The Ellen Show,
have been the only leading lesbian sitcom characters ever on
TV--until now.
And
since the other two pilots in
development with leading or supporting lesbian characters did
not get picked up, Regina is also shaping up to be one of the
only lesbian characters on network TV next season, period.
Regina
will face the same limitations all sitcom characters
do: she's one character among five on a thirty-minute show (twenty
without commercials) in which the principal objective is to
make the audience laugh. So even if it's given maximum attention
by the writers, Regina's character development across the sitcom's
entire first season is likely to be amount to less than what
you'd get from a single episode of The L Word.
She's
also single (like the rest of the family), and maintains in
the pilot that she wants to remain that way, which means her
storyline may stay focused primarily on her family interactions
and her career, rather than her love life.
Nonetheless,
another funny lesbian character in America's living room every
week is long overdue--and to both break down stereotypes of
lesbians, and give lesbian viewers a sitcom character to identify
with, it may be just what the doctor ordered.
Out
of Practice debuts on Monday, September
19th on CBS;
visit the official
site for more information
