Looking back at some failed attempted gay-themed sitcoms!

Queerty is hard left, no?

Am I the only one who didn't think Some of My Best Friends was that bad?

I liked Some of My Best Friends too.

Some Of My Best Friends Are didn't have handsome built guys, a prerequisite for gay shows. At the very least, you want a shirtless hunk or two, because this isn't Chekhov. It's trivia, not art, so give us Barabbas.

Instead, SOMBF gave us Justin Bateman, who is like some hetero that a woman would marry. The Guido, Danny Nucci, was not even meh. And there was a neighbor who was almost repellent.

The movie at least had a hot guy as the roommate. Unfortunately, he was in real life a resentful, envious character, which is why he then went on to a short stay on a soap and then fitful work in obscure events ever since. Impossible to be around.

“Where’s My Gerbil” was the worst by far.

I liked Some of My Friends, too.

I've had a crush on Danny Nucci since forever.

r7 me too my friend, me too. the previous poster who called him "meh" is a fool.

Tony Randall in "Love, Sidney".

R4 Shut up, blowhard. We know it's not Chekhov. Congratulations on hating the average looking queeny asian gay, and dissing on Danny Nucci, who was sexy at that age.

All these shows seemed to have some minor charms and not be so bad. Sitcom series aimed for a broad appeal are ALL pretty damned chintzy, broad, and corny. Its not easy to find the perfect of elements that will catch on.

Danny Nucci was the “hunk” but I thought Jason was the cute one.

I want more episodes of that one. Its so simple and funny.

Gee, I thought I had blocked all the enraged pussies.

You freaks become hysterics whenever you hear an opinion you don't agree with.

Oh honey, every 4th word you type is a silent hissssssssssss.

Danny's first attempt at gay comedy was better.

I would totally have watched Some Of My Best Friends every week. I wonder if it premiered the month 911 happened?

I always thought Bateman would have made a good Will on W&G, if they hadn't found Eric McCormack.

[quote]Queerty is hard left, no?

Queerty is hard right.

Mid-season replacement, Spring '01.

WHET Danny Nucci anyway?

Love, Sidney

I watched one episode of Partners. Just unwatchable. The director must have told Michael Urie to be even more hyper and frantic than usual.

The best that can said is that Michael Urie was age appropriate.

I don't think I've heard of Some of My Best Friends before.

I'm going to check it out one of these days. It's on YouTube.

Thanks for the tip.

Ok Now I'm Watching Some of My Best Friends. It is REALLY dated and corny and quite pleasant to watch. The actors playing parents are way too old for the roles.

I watched Normal, Ohio.

Ay Papi!

^ I don't know him.

Some of My Best Friends had potential. I remembered seeing a bit of the first episode when I was a teenager so I recently rewatched the whole series. It's silly, and probably borderline offensive to some today, but it's much better than most of the crap on network tv nowadays. Plus, Jason Bateman was super adorable in it, and Danny Nucci was hot.

Some of My Best Friends major flaw is that every episode is too much about the interaction between gay and straight. Even for 2001 this concept is dated, as if such relations were so odd and strange. That is coupled with the Italians-Americans being stock characters 20 years past their validity. But the actors are all charming and it has good gags in every episode.

"as if such relations were so odd and strange."

We don't all live in WeHo or SoHo.

Love, Sidney's pilot was a TV movie and he was clearly gay. But by the time the series was made, NBC had decided it would be too controversial and he was just a lonely old guy who lived by himself and the subject wasn't addressed. In the final episode, the camera panned around his apartment and went past a framed photo of him with a male friend.

Love, Sidney theme song:

It took place in NYC in 2001. Everyone knew everything they needed to know about gay men because they knew plenty of gay men. All way down to the central casting "working class borough Italians" depicted.

Those trannies in the Golden Girls were some ugly-ass bitches. Especially that tall one. She was as about as female looking as Bryan Singer’s newest “assistant”.

God that hurts my ears, r32. Even in the 70s with only 3 channels to choose from people must have immediately changed the channel when that caterwauling started. Did Kaleena Kiff grow up to spawn the adowable bwanket kid?

"Work It" wasn't so much hilariously bad as kill-everyone-involved-so-they-can-never-do-this-again bad. I refuse to believe that it ever elicited a single laugh from any human being.

Work It ep 2 has some laughs. OK its a terrible show but I guess I like broad comedy (pun intended)

There was a very brief series called Straight Plan for the Gay Man. The aim was to butch up gay men so they could pass for straight in certain work environments, eg a meat-packing plant. I'd love to find it again.

Two from the 2010s: Ryan Murphy’s “The New Normal” and the Ellen DeGeneres-produced “One Big Happy”.

I gave up on TNN because it just wasn’t funny. And Nene fucking Leakes?? No thanks Ryan. Justin Bartha was adorable though.

I gave OBH a shot for hot Nick Zano but it was extremely lame and unfunny. Even Nick taking off his shirt didn’t help.

I remember watching a sitcom about a gay couple and a straight couple who's children marry. Harriet Harris (Bebe Glazer) was in it. It was called something like Relatively Normal, or Abnormally Related, or Straight Up Married.

Remember the one about the really handsome and masculine black corporate attorney, Harvard grad, from a "black aristocracy" family, who is partnered with a nelly white trash Broadway chorus boy?

Wasn't that a spin-off of the The Nanny, R41?

Normal, Ohio with John Goodman? Sounds...interesting.

I've not heard of any of them.

I actually liked The New Normal. That cunty/glamorous grandma was awesome!

R40 It's All Relative

20-something bartender at the family's Irish pub (Reid Scott) gets kicked out of the family home after announcing his engagement to a nice Harvard student (Maggie Lawson) because she has two dads. Stereotypes (and some good one-liners) ensue for 22 episodes.

Thanks R45!

R45 Reid Scott was adorable at that age.

It isn't a sitcom, but it IS hilarious.

Ryan Murphy’s “The New Normal”...I gave up on TNN because it just wasn’t funny. And Nene fucking Leakes?? No thanks Ryan. Justin Bartha was adorable though.

I forgave The New Normal a lot just to stare at Bartha every week. Ellen Barkin was hilarious but apparently a huge pain in the ass. Here's an old thread about her supposedly getting fired though the show ended up getting canceled before it could be confirmed.

Hey, r12, all 8 episodes are available on YouTube commercial free. Here's episode 2.

Thanks R50

I would've watched "Some Of My Best Friends" if Jason Bateman and Danny Nucci has sucked and fucked each other. They were both so hot at the time.

[quote]You freaks become hysterics whenever you hear an opinion you don't agree with.

Because they're faggots!

I tried to watch The New Normal but I just wanted to punch Andrew Rannells in his face.

Of Love, Sidney:

[quote] In the final episode, the camera panned around his apartment and went past a framed photo of him with a male friend.

The photo showed Sidney with his boyfriend from the pilot TV movie, when the character had been portrayed as openly gay, before NBC forced him deep into the closet.

Was it Jack Klugman?

R54, I have that reaction to Rannells every time I see him in something.

Why are there never any Asians in these series? It’s so white in here. What about a series called “With Sex You Get Egg Roll” starring one of five actors featured whenever there is a role for a male Asian actor in a series or film?

R58, Alec Mapa was in Some of My Best Friends as Jack to Jason Bateman's Will.

"One Dame at a Time": Bonnie Franklin played a Lesbian tap dancer looking for love in all the wrong places, while struggling to make a living teaching tap to disabled seniors in Reno. Featuring Diana Canova as her tough-as-nails showgirl pal and Kaye Ballard as her sarcastic mother. Cancelled after the pilot episode ("Shall We Scissor?") didn't play in Peoria.

It's All Relative 20 years ago on some gay cable channel but never connected the son to the guy on Veep. It was that unmemorable.

*I saw...

R40 & R45 It's All Relative actually was funny and I think was the first show to ever feature two openly gay actors playing gay roles. I watched it mainly because of Christopher Sieber who I had developed a huge gayling crush on when he played the father in the Olsen twin sitcom Two of a Kind...had had an ass for miles.

Oh yes! I forgot he was on that show, R63. I've seen him on stage a few times and he's always great.