TV: Gimme More Gay in My Game Shows!
"It blanks from my blank..."
A few years ago there were murmurs that the “game show” format was on its way out. Reality TV seemed well-poised to dispatch scripted, formulaic, non-tarantuala-eating programs. In recent years, despite the continued success of brainless gladiatorial programming, it seems that the prime time game show is reclaiming some space. The chatty Marriage Ref and grand Minute To Win It both prove there’s life in this old genre yet. Therefore I propose that we go old school, and bring some gay back to the game show world.
Classic game shows like Hollywood Squares and Match Game had their glass closet homosexual champions (audience favs Paul Lynde and Charles Nelson Reilly, respectively). They may not have waved rainbow flags on air, but they helped a generation of viewers feel a little more comfortable with “gayness” through their warmth, charm, and wit.
These days the closest thing to a little gay flavor on modern game shows is Alex Trebek’s increasingly bitchy passive-aggressive attitude toward his guests. Well, that and a minor cadre of shows whose entire internal tension revolved around the ever-mystifying “is he gay, or isn’t he?”
And then there’s this missed opportunity (could be funny and full of social commentary, but just comes off more like frat guys on campus tv):
It seems to me that America could stand to have a little more gay in its game shows. So what should we pitching to our executive producer friends over canapés the next time we’re hobnobbing with the programming set?
A real sharp gay comic could have saved the limp Marriage Ref. The troublingly skeletal Vanna White could be replaced by the sparkling Pandora Boxx. The Price is Right could ask contestants to bid on items that are more in keeping with the modern lifestyle (personal lubricant, time shares in Provincetown).
What are other ways we can add a little non-hetero spice to the currently all-too-hetero roster of game shows?
(Tweet #MoreGaymeShows to @TopherBurns)
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