Damon Evans = The openly gay Lionel #2 Interview

He always seemed like a gay Lionel anyhow.

Even as a kid I could tell that Lionel #2 was gay.

He just wasn’t Mike Evans. Damon wouldn’t have been as believable or charming going up against Archie Bunker.

Mike Evans was so damn sexy - the change in casting just flat out didn’t work. as with Fake Jan on the BB Variety Hour, you were constantly aware that this wasn’t Lionel. Nice interview though.

R3 He didn't need to go up against Archie Bunker since he never did the Jeffersons show.

As for being believable or charming, people do change you know.

Wasn't it Sherman Hemsley who got him fired from the show ? I had heard he had gotten together with Mike Evans a few years after he left the show and told him the cast didn't like working with Damon and they all wanted him back. Then Hemsley set up a meeting with Lear and the three of them worked out a deal with hiring Mike Evans back, and gave Damon his walking papers. They pretended he was going to Italy to take a role in an opera (or maybe he actually did do that).

Did he ever hook up with Sherman?

Lionel and Jenny took so long to get married after their engagement party that Lionel changed completely.

I knew Jenny didn't like Lionel #2 & tried to get the first 1 back but I had no idea others felt the same way.

Has Damon's cast issues ever come up in any interviews?

R7 Sherman only dated white and Hispanic men, or so I was told…