What
David Kelley lacked in timing and tact, Portia
de Rossi owns—tenfold. The woman’s got talent,
beauty, brains and class.
De
Rossi’s Nelle Porter, along with the entire cast of
Ally McBeal, is gone from the small screen, and
we will never know what titillating things would have happened
if de Rossi accepted David Kelley’s proposal. But
one thing we do know is that the ripple effect of Kelley’s
willingness to explore and, yes, exploit lesbian sexuality
on network television remains, and it is more akin to that
of a storm surge than a puddle dance.
From
1997-2002 David Kelley broke barriers on Fox. Yes, Fox.
Beginning with the now-famous kiss
between Ally (Calista Flockhart) and Ling (Lucy Liu) in
November of 1999, he opened the door through which other
producers, other networks, tripped over one another to enter.
As Sarah Warn wrote
on AfterEllen.com in 2004, “In 2003, there were a
total of 12 shows on American TV that featured lesbian kisses.
Ten months into 2004, we have already seen 14 shows with
lesbian kisses, and there are still two months and a sweeps
period to go.”
Sure,
Kelley was probably more interested in improving ratings
than improving lesbian or bisexual visibility, but, whatever
his motive, he succeeded in doing both. And, for the most
part, the lesbian and bi communities forgave him for using
us because we, too, benefited.
In
fact, many lesbians, including yours truly, thought, Go
for it, brother! There’s no turning back now!
But
we were wrong.
A
study released last week by the Gay and Lesbian
Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD)—an organization
“dedicated to promoting and ensuring fair, accurate
and inclusive representation of people and events in the
media”—shows that there are only 16 gay, lesbian,
bisexual or transgender characters on scripted prime-time
television programs this coming season. Sure, if you’re
counting, that number is up from 11, but it’s only
2 percent of the 710 total characters that appear on said
programs. That’s not even close to representing our
numbers in the real world.
And,
of more interest to AfterEllen.com readers might be this
little fact: only 3 of the 16 LGBT characters on TV next
season are women. That’s a reflection of what happens
when a few dykes show up a week late for a gay pride party,
not of real life.
