SCREEN-L Archives

March 1998, Week 1

SCREEN-L@LISTSERV.UA.EDU

Options: Use Monospaced Font
Show Text Part by Default
Show All Mail Headers

Message: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Topic: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Author: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]

Print Reply
Subject:
From:
"Shari L. Rosenblum" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 5 Mar 1998 01:49:31 EST
Content-Type:
text/plain
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (54 lines)
On Wed, 4 Mar 1998 10:50:31 -0500 Kathleen Fitzpatrick said:
>The joke is carried a bit further on "Veronica's Closet," where everyone is
>actually convinced that Veronica's assistant is gay, but that he just
>doesn't know it yet. This is far deeper than a "vibe," apparently, as the
>joke usually revolves around the character being a gourmet cook, or being
>somehow "sensitive," or not ogling the lingerie models.
 
Actually, the show goes somewhat further. There was the episode in
which he (Josh?) was ostensibly dating a woman whose brother and Veronica
were also dating. He kept inviting the brother along -- intervening
in any moments that Veronica and the brother might have alone together.
This was far more than stereotype. This was portrayal of actual and
manifested homosexual attraction.
 
There was another episode in which Veronica's ex befriends him, playing
on the homoerotic. The point is to show the ex to be an equal-opportunity
slime, but it takes its source in the actual homosexual tendencies of
the character.
 
Nor is it a situation of gay and doesn't know it. It seems far more
like gay and closeted and wishing to remain so. I think it's the
substantive quality of the homoerotic tendencies that make it all
that much more risque.
 
I can't remember if it was one of those episodes or yet another
in which a dateless Veronica, having claimed she had a hot date,
was suddenly in a situation in which she and Kathy Najimy's
character were claiming to be lesbian lovers. The show has
a definite interest in the subject.
 
On another note (and considering Don's remarks on the homoerotic
bondings of Ken Wahl's Vinny on Wise Guy with Ray Sharkey's Sonny,
Veronica's Closet also had two of the very hetero characters
stripping all the way down to do a body painting for Veronica for
Christmas. The two of them, jumping naked together into paint and
against the canvas, was certainly a bit more than sitcoms used to
go for.
 
>Oh -- and the lesbian wedding was on "Friends."
 
If this is in response to my query about the gay wedding, I was referring
to a marriage of gay men, not lesbians. It was on an episode of a
short-lived program about a hippie lawyer and a macho partner and maybe
the hippie lawyer's wife. I may be conflating short-lived sitcoms
about lawyers and hippies, but I do recall that the wedding involved
one straight man bringing or accompanying another man, as if on a date.
I think it was the wife's idea, but it's all rather vague.
 
Shari L. Rosenblum
 
----
Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite
http://www.tcf.ua.edu/screensite

ATOM RSS1 RSS2