Author: ALTERNATE CHANNELS: QUEER IMAGES ON 20TH-CENTURY TV. The lead historical consultant for VISIBLE: OUT ON TELEVISION on Apple TV+.
Speaker: Video-illustrated talks about LGBTQ images on U.S. TV in the 1950s-2020s. In my day job, I'm a translator. NYC.
| YouTube Channel | https://www.youtube.com/@stevencapsuto873/videos |
This week's project:
I'm digitizing audio interviews I did in the early 1990s with people who'd been involved in gay rights activism in the 1950s to mid 1970s, and with TV producers and scriptwriters who were behind early American TV depictions of queer people.
For tapes where I have permission, I plan to post the recordings online so historians and the public will have access to them. 😊
TODAY IN QUEER TV HISTORY - 2/24/1993
On the GRAMMY AWARDS telecast on CBS, k.d. lang and Melissa Etheridge won Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female (lang) and Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female (Etheridge). Both had recently come out publicly as gay, at a time when out-of-the-closet celebrities were exceedingly rare. Photo: K.d. lang performing at the 1993 Grammy Awards.
TODAY IN QUEER TV HISTORY - 2/23/1981
DYNASTY: In an early episode of the original 1980s version of this drama series, a coworker decides to "fix" Steven's attraction to men by taking him to a brothel so he can see what sex with a woman is like. (And oh, that 80s hair!)
TODAY IN QUEER TV HISTORY - 1/31/1980
On the sitcom SOAP, Jodie (Billy Crystal), a gay man who'd had a one-night fling with a woman friend, learns that Carol plans to fight him for custody of their daughter, launching an unprecedented months-long story line about a queer parent fighting to keep custody of their child.
Ultimately, the judge would award custody to Jodie, finding him the more fit parent, despite the homophobic arguments used by Carol's lawyer.
#LGBTQ #queer #gay #sitcom #LGBTQparents #QueerParents #GayParents
TODAY IN QUEER TV HISTORY - 1/31/1977
Jonathan Ned Katz appeared on the national talk show DONAHUE to discuss his groundbreaking 1976 book GAY AMERICAN HISTORY: LESBIANS AND GAY MEN IN THE U.S.A., back when all kinds of queer history were mostly hidden, unmentioned, and taboo.
(The airdate varied slightly by city.) #gay #queer #LGBTQ #TalkShow