JEFFREY STRASBURG <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
 
> There was also a gay couple in the later episodes of NOTHERN EXPOSURE --
> one episode, if I remember right, focused on their wedding.
 
And in a flashback to the founding of the town, the woman after which
it was named was shown to be half of a lesbian couple, if I recall
correctly.
 
There was a lesbian in one episode of 'Lou Grant', but she committed
suicide at the end of the episode.
 
Also another lesbian - a surgeon visiting from another hospital, who was
in about four episodes - in St. Elswhere.
 
From the UK, I seem to recall at least one LGB character in a sitcom
titled 'Agony' in the late 70s, which centred around a magazine agony
aunt.  Before that, and being repeated now, there was the
stereotypically camp and assumed to be gay character in the sitcom 'Are
You Being Served', which also had a movie spin-off.
 
Then there were the historically accurate characters in the drama
series 'Oranges are not the only Fruit' and 'Portrait of a Marriage'
- two lesbians in each.  There was a gay male drama series entitled
something like 'The Lost Language of Cranes', but I did not see it.
 
Lost in the sands of time there were a host of LGB characters in
2 early 80s "sitcoms", one set in a south London coffee bar, and
another in an housing project high-rise.  I can recall the titles
of neither.
 
We have had two gay male couples, other gay characters, a lesbian couple
and a lesbian mother in the BBC's main soap, 'EastEnders', which I
believe is also shown in some US markets and elswhere.  This is credited
with the first gay kiss.  One of the actors involved is now a leading
LGB rights campaigner - Michael Cashman.  Channel Four's main soap,
'Brookside' had a gay male character and then a teenage lesbian, who
proceeded through three partners in a very high profile thread which
included the first UK TV lesbian kiss in prime time.
 
Diane
Journal Productions, UK
 
Who once convered media for Gay News, the UK's first L&G newspaper.
 
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