Just love this snarky take on the new TV season from Lisa deMoraes of The Washington Post…
What Do Aliens, Talking Fish and LGBT Characters Share?
By Lisa de Moraes
Tuesday, September 25, 2007; Page C07Your chances of seeing a lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender character on the broadcast networks in prime time this new TV season are about the same as your chances of seeing a talking fish or caveman.
The number of lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) characters on broadcast TV is plunging in prime time, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation states in its most recent “Where We Are on TV” report.
Seven regular LGBT characters, out of 650 regular lead or supporting characters, are featured in just five scripted programs, the group reports.
That’s down from nine characters on eight scripted series in the ’06-’07 season; and two seasons back, GLAAD clocked 10 LGBT roles on nine scripted shows.
In fact, this season’s only new non-heterosexual regular character is Bonnie Somerville’s bisexual character on ABC’s chick ensemble series, “Cashmere Mafia.”
On the new prime-time schedules, LGBT characters represent just 1.1 percent of those 650 characters. In real life, based on U.S. Census projections, LGBT marketing companies estimate 15.3 million adults identify themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, which would be about 6.8 percent of the population.
In contrast, non-human-race (NHR) regular characters are enjoying something of a renaissance on broadcast TV.
Six have prominent roles in prime time, including a talking fish, a talking dog and an alien of the outer-space sort, all on Fox, and three cavemen on ABC. All told, they represent 1 percent of those 650 characters (compared with LGBT characters’ 1.1 percent). In real life, based on Census projections, talking fish, talking dogs, aliens and cavemen make up 0 percent of the population. It appears they are the only group besides white men who are overrepresented on broadcast prime-time TV.
We think this might be the highest count of NHR characters on the broadcast landscape since the Golden Age of Non-Human-Race TV, when shows such as “Lassie,” “Mr. Ed,” “My Favorite Martian” and “Bewitched” graced the airwaves.
“The reality is, we are your neighbors, your co-workers, your family and your friends, yet you’re just as likely to find a novelty character like a talking fish as you are to find a gay character on network TV,” GLAAD rep Damon Romine told The TV Column in an e-mail yesterday.
This, of course, screamed for a response from the Alien, Talking Animal & Cavemen Alliance Against Caricature (ATACAAC), but, sadly, that group exists only in our head.
