America, get ready for the average
gays.
ABC has picked up a new half-hour
comedy that may herald the era of the ordinary gay.
Modern Family – formerly known
as My American Family – will premiere in the fall, according
to Variety. The single-lens, documentary style show revolves
around the lives of three families living in Chicago. Modern
Family features a traditional family, one that includes a
sixty-year-old man who becomes a stepfather after marrying a Latina
thirty years his junior, and the third is a gay male couple who have
just adopted a Vietnamese baby.
Hollywood has a long history of
portraying gays and lesbians as exceptional creatures of fabulous
talent, wealth, good taste and physical prowess. The lesbians who
pussyfoot about on Showtime's L Word and the pure fantasy of a
sizzling Pittsburgh gay scene of hunky men and easy sex depicted in
Queer As Folk are just the latest incarnations of this
archetype.
But Modern Family producers aim
to dispel such fanciful notions. Their gay couple includes average
Joe Jesse Tyler Ferguson (The Class) and teddy-bearish Eric
Stonestreet (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation).
Is America ready for mundane gay
heroes, ABC asks.
Gay Entertainment Reports is a feature
of On Top Magazine and can be reached at
ontopmag@ontopmag.com.