We just got digital cable, and among the new channels is Noggin, which, much to my delight and rampant nostalgia, shows the Electric Company in late night.
Watching it again, it struck me that the two boys (the ones in Short Circus (in the season they’re currently showing anyway)) seem to be rather…erm…attached to each other. They’re constantly looking toward each other during skits, and they always seem to be standing or sitting near each other.
Now, I never noticed this as a kid, for obvious reasons. But damn, if this wasn’t a serious mutual pre-teen crush, I’m married with fourteen kids!
So, is this just my gutter mind working overtime, or does anyone else remember (or currently notice) this little dynamic?
Well, they could be just good friends. At that age they probably lacked the emotional maturity to keep a level of distance that grown, heterosexual men would consider acceptable.
Or, it’s quite possible that they are perfectly normal heterosexual boys who have a crush on one another. ISTR reading somewhere that heterosexual boys tend to develop brief crushes on other boys or on men as they go through puberty. Crushes that soon pass as their hormones sort themselves out.
Or maybe the director of the show wanted the cast members to show a lot of enthusiasm toward one another, just to make a point, and you’re just seeing that enthusiasm.
Or maybe they’re gay and neither they nor the director nor CTW nor Noggin have made any attempt to hide it.
Oh, I completely agree that it could be any of the four reasons you cited. It just struck me so forcefully because I remember being that age and being in situations like I’m sure the cast of the show was, where you’re spending huge amounts of time with a small group of people, and how easily and intensely crushes can fall right on top of you.
In a life that has had its share of “small-group” situations (county and district band and chorus festivals, boy scout summer camp, band camp, etc.) and more than its share of teenage crushes on other boys (um…basically in every one of the above situations), it just hit me in the stomach to recognize it on a 30-year-old kid’s educational tv show.
Yeah, but a “crush” isn’t just sexual or romantic. It could be like, you have a crush on a person of the same sex that you think is soooo kewl and you want to be exactly like that person, and you imitate them. C’mon, doesn’t anyone remember trying to dress just like a famous singer or actor in their pre-teen days? I remember trying to imitate Debbie Gibson when I was about 10. I would do my hair like her’s, and wear long jumpers and jean jackets with Keds and white socks and I would sing along with her tapes and put posters of her every where. I didn’t want to go out with her, so much as I wanted to BE HER.