26

GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

JUNE 9, 1995

ON THE AIR OFF THE PRESS

There won't be a new Life on ABC this fall

by John Graves

My So-Called Life, the excellent series about teenagers which featured Ricki, a gay character played by openly gay actor Wilson Cruz, will not return to ABC next season. The show was put on hiatus by ABC just as Ricki was coming out of the closet in January. After an intense effort by fans of the critically acclaimed series to save the show, MTV aired all 19 existing episodes, one a night, during April. Fans had hoped that if the show did well on MTV, which targets a younger audience with which the show was most popular, ABC would resurrect the show with new episodes in the fall.

However, ABC has decided not to resurrect My So-Called Life. MTV will continue airing the show through the summer, and it may be picked up for syndication on broadcast TV.

Fans of the show still have hopes that some network will produce new shows. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that the main support group for Life, “Operation Life Support," has mounted a sophisticated effort to save the show and has published a book about the show and their campaign. If you would like to help Operation Life Support, write to them at P. O. Box 641200, San Francisco, Califormia 94164-1200 or call them at 415-292-5809.

Also on MTV, check out Jill Sobule's song and video with an openly lesbian theme, "I Kissed a Girl," which has been getting a lot of play.

The story of how women, through history, have asserted their power and questioned the all-male hierarchy of the Catholic Church is told in the two-part Arts and Entertainment Channel special, Behind the Veil: Nuns. Not many people know of the great ecclesiastical power of the great abbesses of the early Church, or the story of the woman who became pope. Behind the Veil: Nuns also tells the story of how women in the Church were driven into cloistered silence and allconcealing habits due to some of the most outrageous ignorance and bigotry of some of the Church's most revered saints. The history of women in the Church is very similar to the recently revealed history of lesbians and gays in the Church. This story of the systematic, institutional disempowerment of women is told through historical records and the personal accounts of present day nuns. A&E has Nuns in reruns through the sum-

mer.

TV Guide reports that openly gay Kids in the Hall costar Scott Thompson is joining the cast of HBO's Larry Sanders Show as Hank's gay assistant. TV Guide applauds the use of a gay actor in a gay role but asks, "What's with this trend of gay 'help'?"

In a TV Guide interview for the celebrity "What I Watch" column, lesbian rock star and two-time Grammy winner Melissa Etheridge applauds the lesbian subplot on Friends, saying that "It's treated well, and it's funny. They're not stereotypical charac-

ters." Etheridge also said that her favorite show was Ellen, starring her very close friend Ellen DeGeneres. Her lover Julie Cypher's favorite show is America's Funniest Home Videos.

In an extensive interview in Rolling Stone, Etheridge said that she and Cypher are planning to get married. In the interview Etheridge says, "I think it will be barefoot. And we'll both wear dresses. But it won't be traditional."

"Been there, done that," quipped Cypher, referring to her previous marriage to actor Lou Diamond Phillips. The two women, who have been together five years, went on to indicate that they would like to have a baby sometime in the future.

Also quoted in TV Guide, Full House costar Bob Saget quipped, "I still don't know what the premise of the show is. Three guys living together in San Francisco? Draw your own conclusion. I think there was a whole back story to the series that nobody knew about."

Quoted in a report in the Star tabloid, openly lesbian actress Amanda Bearse, costar of Married With Children, indicated she would like to become the lesbian Mary Tyler Moore.

"If I had one more sitcom in me, I would like to play a gay character," Bearse said. "And who didn't love Mary Tyler Moore? To do something in that vein, a working girl-who just happens to be gay-would be fulfilling and gratifying."

Bearse went on to say that her coming out had "been a very positive, reaffirming experience" and that most of her fans and all of her co-stars have been supportive.

"People, both gay and straight, thank me and validate me by saying, 'I think that's really great what you did." " Bearse said. The article went on to report that Bearse has been talking to other lesbian and gay actors who are closeted and thinking of coming out. Bearse also discusses her experience as a lesbian mother in "Our Kids," the cover story of the May 30 edition of the Advocate.

Don't know how I missed this one, but it seems that Charles Perez is the first openly gay person to host a nationally syndicated talk show! According to a June '95 Out magazine report, Perez had been bisexual roommate Norman Korpi's love interest in the first season of MTV's Real World series. Perez also had selected Out magazine reporter Michael Goff As his date on Montel Williams' special 1993 Valentine's Day "Dating Game" show. But, all along, didn't you just know he had to be one of us?

Bob Smith, head writer of Comedy Central's Out There all-gay comedy specials, has been featured in performance on the HBO program, Comedy Half-Hour.

In the final episode of Muscle, Robert attended a wedding in drag to try and woo lesbian TV news anchorwoman Bronwyn. Unfortunately, Muscle got very low ratings this season and the series was canceled. Both of network TV's two major medical

series had episodes that dealt very sensitively with patients living with AIDS this season. On CBS' Chicago Hope Dr. Hancock performed an appendectomy on a patient living with AIDS so the man could "enjoy one more sunrise," while Dr. Benton of NBC's ER treated a patient with AIDS played by actor Jeff Seifert, who is himself living with AIDS.

Lesbian tennis legend Martina Navratilova has been signed by HBO to anchor coverage of this year's broadcast of Wimbeldon beginning June 26.

GLAAD, the Gay And Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, is protesting actor/director Mel Gibson's new swashbuckler movie, Braveheart. GLAAD's complaint is that the audience is primed by the film to laugh when a gay character, Edward II, is thrown to his death out of a castle window. Gibson has a long history of homophobic comments in the media. Neither he nor Paramount Pictures had any comment on GLAAD's charges. GLAAD protest demonstrations were scheduled for the film's openings in New York; Los Angeles; San Francisco; Atlanta; Detroit; Chicago; Minneapolis; Seattle and Portland, Oregon.

ShadowHawk, the HIV-positive superhero whose adventures were told in 17 monthly issues from Image Comics, died from AIDS complications in installment No. 18. Unlike Superman, who died and was later resurrected, ShadowHawk will stay dead. Image Comics spokesperson Randy Chalenor said, "The AIDS thing is very serious, and he (artist Jim Valentino) didn't want it to be shaken off. When you get AIDS you die."

Also lost to AIDS complications: former HBO senior vice president Donald March

and Broadway choreographer and dancer Christopher Chadman. March received two Emmy nominations for his work on the NBC mini-series Billionaires Boys Club and the ABC movie David. Chadman's most notable success was for his choreography for the Broadway revival of Guys and Dolls for which he was nominated for Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critic's Circle awards and for which he won the Fred Astaire Award.

The Gay '90s, Buck Harris's live, gay call-in show on WHK-1420 AM in Cleveland has returned to its original 2-hour format on Sundays from 9 to 11 PM. By the way, if you have been listening to the syndicated gay radio show This Way Out on Cleveland State University's WCSB 89.3 FM Thursdays at 5:30 pm lately, you know that the future of the show is in doubt. For information on how you can help keep this national lesbian, gay and bisexual radio program on the air, write to the show's producers at P.O. Box 38327, Los Angeles, CA 90038.

Cleveland Plain Dealer columnist Mary Strassmeyer reported that CSU associate professor and Cleveland AIDS educator Stephen Sroka appeared on Oprah May 29. Sroka also appeared the same night in the classroom on the Disney Channel special Salute to American Teachers. Watch for reruns of the Disney Channel special featuring Sroka. The Plain Dealer also ran an extended article on Ruth Spencer, lesbian and women's activist and board president of the Women's Community Foundation, by reporter Rebecca Freligh.

Don't forget, June is Pride month. Listen, read and watch with pride. React and respond to how we are treated in the media and help keep positive lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered programming on the air.

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