First Gay Interview On TV ?

[+ Gar1eth]

I think I've been told the interview was by Tom Snyder on the Tomorrow Show. Do any of y'all remember this. If this was it I think I was in my early teens when this interview was broadcast. I don't know if this was the episode, but I have a vague memory of Tom interviewing a guy wearing a caftan. I didn't really know what the interview was about. Anyone else remember anything about this?

 

Gman

[rguer]

I think I've been told the interview was by Tom Snyder on the Tomorrow Show. Do any of y'all remember this. If this was it I think I was in my early teens when this interview was broadcast. I don't know if this was the episode, but I have a vague memory of Tom interviewing a guy wearing a caftan. I didn't really know what the interview was about. Anyone else remember anything about this?

 

Gman

I do not, but the show aired 1973 to 1982.

 

The TV adaptation of the musical Applause had positive portrayals of openly gay characters in minor roles, and that was in 1973. When was the first openly gay appearance of any kind on TV?

[+ quoththeraven]

I do not, but the show aired 1973 to 1982.

 

The TV adaptation of the musical Applause had positive portrayals of openly gay characters in minor roles, and that was in 1973. When was the first openly gay appearance of any kind on TV?

 

It might be the Louds on PBS' American Family. Son Lance Loud unexpectedly came out to his parents.

[+ Gar1eth]

It might be the Louds on PBS' American Family. Son Lance Loud unexpectedly came out to his parents.

 

I don't think that was it. That was PBS. I'm going to try a web search. If I find out any info, I'll post it.

 

Gman

[+ WilliamM]

It should have been "The Tonight Show" with Jack Paar because he interviewed almost everyone, including Fidel Castro. But, in later years, Paar came off as homophobic.

 

So my second guess would be "The David Susskind Show" aka "Open End" (1958-1967). I do not have a specific show or guest in mind though. Susskind was the only person to interview Khrushchev during his controversial visit to the U.S. during the Eisenhower Administration. Thus the name "Open End" because Susskind let Khrushchev talked for hours and hours.

[+ RyanDean]

I believe the first major network television documentary depiction came in 1967 with Mike Wallace's controversial hourlong documentary The Homosexuals. Though most of the interviewees appeared in shadows. The full, astonishing thing can be seen on youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2UNcDHa5ao

 

American Family appeared on PBS in early 1973. That summer, Tom Snyder did interview Donald Embinder (the publisher of Blueboy) on the Tomorrow show.

[+ sam.fitzpatrick]

Would it have aired before Billy Crystal was in Soap which first aired in 1977?

[+ FreshFluff]

Thanks, Ryan. I was just going to post the Homosexuals. The most heartbreaking part, IMO, is the interview with the 19-year-old man who had been arrested after being caught having sex in the men's room at the beach.

[+ quoththeraven]

I don't think that was it. That was PBS. I'm going to try a web search. If I find out any info, I'll post it.

 

Gman

 

I was responding to rguer's question, not yours.

 

It's interesting that The Homosexuals predated Stonewall.

[+ RyanDean]

QTR - and the first really big mainstream media splash came 5 years (and two days) before Stonewall when LIFE magazine published their expose "Homosexuality in America" on June 26, 1964.

[Tonyko]

I believe the first major network television documentary depiction came in 1967 with Mike Wallace's controversial hourlong documentary The Homosexuals. Though most of the interviewees appeared in shadows. The full, astonishing thing can be seen on youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2UNcDHa5ao

 

American Family appeared on PBS in early 1973. That summer, Tom Snyder did interview Donald Embinder (the publisher of Blueboy) on the Tomorrow show.

 

THAT Mike Wallace interview I SO remember being a kid and watching secretly from the hall behind my parents while they watched it. THANKS for finding! I remember the guy talking while hidden in the dark and I remember being afraid that that's what I would have to do even though I didn't even understand WHY I was the same as him I just felt I was.

[+ Gar1eth]

Y'all are right. I vaguely knew about the Mike Wallace Program maybe from the book Flagrant Conduct (the story of how the Texas sodomy law was brought before SCOTUS), but I never actually saw it. I wouldn't be surprised if my home in Texas (or Shreveport where we lived in early 1967 right before moving back to Texas) preempted it. I wonder if the Tomorrow episode I'm thinking of is the one with the Blueboy publisher.

 

Gman