I guess this thread is the opposite to this thread. But what movies, tv shows, literature, etc. have had gay content taken out of them? Some examples:
film: These Three - the first movie adaptation of Lillian Hellman’s play “the Children’s Hour”, made in the heyday (pardon the pun) of the Hays code. The rumor of lesbianism between two schoolteachers is changed to become a rumor of an illicit affair between one of the teachers and a male character not present in the stage play.
Spartacus - the ‘bathing’ scene in which Laurence Olivier and Tony Curtis discuss a hypothetical man’s ‘preference for snails over oysters.’ Cut out of the theatrical run because of the obvious subtext (although restored for the video release in '91.)
Goldfinger - Honor Blackman’s character Pussy Galore and all of her Flying Circus pilots were lesbians in the novel. The film removes any and all reference to Pussy’s sexuality.
television: Soap - Billy Crystal’s character Jodie starts the series wanting to have a sex-change operation. By the time the show ended, his closeted pro-football boyfriend was long gone, Jodie had had three romantic relationships with women (including one with a lesbian!), had fathered a baby, and underwent hypnosis therapy to make him straight (the end result of that was he channelled a past-life and got stuck in the personae of a 90 year old jewish man). It’s worth noting that Jodie’s homosexuality was the only aspect of the show that was toned down as it progressed - the heterosexual Campbells & Tates were bed-hopping to the bitter end.
Dynasty and Thirtysomething - I didn’t watch either of these shows so I don’t know the specifics, but both were known for introducing gay characters and quickly rewriting them so that they were straight, or just getting rid of them.
Dishonorable mention: the Incredible Hulk - In the comic book, the Hulk’s alter-ego is Dr. Bruce Banner. When the series was being developed, producers insisted his name be changed because ‘Bruce’ was “a swishy fag name.”
Dynasty had a reunion movie and Steven was finally unequivocally established as gay. So he was de-gayed but then re-gayed.
Mindless technicality: in the comics his name is Robert Bruce Banner, done as a retcon because of a Fantastic Four story in which he was referred to as “Bob Banner.”
Love, Sidney was an series that featured an early gay character (played by he-man Tony Randall). In the preceding TV movie he was very clearly and openly gay but by the time the series debuted his sexuality had been reduced to approximately a photo of his dead lover seen on a side table.
What about the 1950s film adaptations of Tennesse Williams’s plays: the dark and terrible secret at the heart of the story, that somebody or other is gay, is usually removed or subdued. For example, when Blanche DuBois talks about her young husband’s suicide in the film “Streetcar Name Desire,” all reference to his sexuality is taken out. And in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” not only are the reasons for Skipper’s suicide muted, but all mention of the elderly gentlemen couple who used to own the plantation are removed.
In addition to which they even had him seduced by an attractive young woman as if to lift the curse once and for all. Tony Randall (who grew up in the art world [his father was a dealer] and became an actor and was surrounded his entire life by gays was furious over the chickening out (but he was also under contract).
Several soap operas have done this. A few years ago Days of Our Lives brought back one of Marlena’s mysteriously twins (they aged in the soap opera fashiong of birth to 18 in five years) named Eric and played by Jensen Ackles who was, as written, to have been gay. The early episodes showed him constantly on the phone to a “mystery boy” in the state where he’d arrived from and telling him how much he missed him and wanted to be with him. When the handsome young actor proved hugely popular with the girls the secret he was keeping was that he was involved in a gambling ring (or somesuch nonsense) with his friend back home (not sure why he missed being with him so) and he got out of it. Later on they were going to make the character of Brady gay- his father was seen on his knees praying for guidance because his son was so different and going through so much obvious internal pain about something he wouldn’t talk about- same story, handsome actor-major young female fan base-suddenly straightened out-some lame dodge added. I don’t believe they’ve ever had a gay major character on the show. (Source: a Soap Opera Channel show about DooL.)
Paul Lynde made a career of playing gay characters on TV guest appearances who were never actually said to be gay and would even have a [one appearance only] female love interest. They included Uncle Arthur on Bewitched, Gidget’s uncle on the TV series Gidget, etc.- the “fuss budget bachelor”.
On a documentary about All in the Family Norman Lear said he considered giving Archie gay neighbors as recurring characters (ala the Jeffersons or Frank & Irene Lorenzo) but decided it just wasn’t the right time. There was an episode in which Mike had an effeminate friend (played by Luke Geary in the least effeminate acting of his career) who Archie calls a fruit and a fag, then learns that his own butch ex-football player buddy is gay when Mike outs him.
Of the many movies that made the main characters suddenly and totally hetero include Alexander the Great with Richard Burton, Night and Day (the Cole Porter story) with Cary Grant and The Agony and the Ecstacy with Charlton Heston as Michelangelo.
Fried Green Tomatoes really makes me angry. The book is a really charming lesbian love story. The movie is quite good, but removes the love story entirely, making the main characters motivated by friendship. When I read the book, I muttered, “Well, that story sure makes more sense now.”
Gentlemen’s Agreement, a film about antisemitism, was based on a novel about discrimination against homosexuals (according to my old film professor; I never read the book).
Are you saying the male character was not present in the stage play? Dr. Joe Cardin was Karen’s fiancé in the original Hellman play, the 1936 movie, and the 1961 movie.
The novel Gentlemen’s Agreement by Laura Z. Hobson was also about anti-semitism. You may be thinking about the movie Crossfire (1947), about an anti-semitic murder, which was from a novel by Richard Brooks about an anti-gay murder.
For what it’s worth, as a straight male who’s never read the book, I totally got that there was something lesbionic going on there. I thought they did a good job of subtly implying it, considering it was 1991.
In the show Dead Like Me, the main character’s father began the series gay; he was a college professor having an affair with one of his male graduate students.
Later on in the series … nary a mention of it. He has a girlfriend. He was cured, apparently.
I remember 1991, and there wasn’t anything particularly shocking about lesbians.
I also remember Thirtysomething. Which character was supposed to be gay? Was it the English Professor? He always seemed a little light on his feet, and on TV that is a tell.
I never watched the show, but I remember a TV guide article on the show that had a photo from the set of two guys lying in bed together, not touching, with the sheets pulled up to their neck. And a stagehand just off camera, holding a boommike over their heads while covering his eyes with his free hand. :rolleyes:
Tea and Sympathy. In the play, the lead is troubled by being “sensitive” and not manly, and an older woman comes along and helps him out to heterosexuality (this was in the time when it was believed by some that homosexuality could be “cured” by the love of a good woman). The movie toned down the subject immensely.
