PALEY CENTER FOR MEDIA, THE: 2014 LOS ANGELES GALA: CELEBRATING TELEVISION'S IMPACT ON LGBT EQUALITY {LONG VERSION}
Summary
This annual gala event, held at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, celebrates the history of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender visibility and achievements on television. The evening opens as producer Norman Lear, renowned for his groundbreaking approach to controversial social matters in his programs, takes the stage after a series of clips from his shows and briefly comments on his mother's influence on his worldviews and his career, his memories of being inducted to the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1984, and his views of the Paley Center, of which he has been a trustee since its founding in 1976, as a "second home."
Maureen Reidy (president and CEO, The Paley Center for Media) then takes the stage and comments on the memorable fifth episode of "All in the Family," which dealt with Archie Bunker's views of gays and on which President Richard Nixon was heard to disparagingly comment in the infamous Watergate tapes. Reidy then discusses the Paley Center's new initiative to "expand and preserve" the museum's collection of LGBT programming, then acknowledging the various sponsors, board members, and trustees present in the audience.
Next, Reidy comments on the recent Nabisco Honey Maid graham cracker television commercial featuring gay and interracial families in promoting its "wholesome" product, which prompted a negative response from some consumers. The company hired artists to transform the hate mail into a positive image of "love," however, and Reidy acknowledges one of the families from the ad – Tim Hartley, Jason Lyon, and their son Noah Lyon-Hartley – in the audience.
Actress Portia de Rossi and her mother-in-law Betty DeGeneres then take the stage and offer brief comments to introduce a series of clips featuring noteworthy LGBT content in dramatic programs, including "Espionage" (1963), which featured the first use of the term "homosexual" on network television; "N.Y.P.D." (1967), "Marcus Welby, M.D." (1973), "Family" (1977), "Lou Grant" (1979), "Thirtysomething" (1989), "One Life to Live" (1992), "ER" (2001), "My So-Called Life" (1995), "Dawson's Creek" (2000), "Queer As Folk" (2001), "Nip/Tuck" (2007), "Six Feet Under" (2003), "The L Word" (2004), "Grey's Anatomy" (2011), "The Wire" (2003), "Dirty Sexy Money" (2007), "Mad Men" (2009), "Game of Thrones" (2014), "Teen Wolf" (2014), "House of Lies" (2012), "Masters of Sex" (2014), "The Fosters" (2013) and "Scandal" (2013).
Next, basketball star Jason Collins speaks about the evolution of openly gay athletes' presence in mainstream sports and introduces a series of clips featuring famous sports figures who chose to come out publicly, either after or during their careers, including David Kopay (1975), Martina Navratilova (1981), Justin Fashanu (1990), Billie Jean King (1998), John Amaechi (2007), Robbie Rogers (2013), Jason Collins (2013), Chris Kluwe, a heterosexual hockey player who openly voiced his support of gay marriage (2014), and Michael Sam (2014).
"Modern Family" co-stars and onscreen husbands Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Eric Stonestreet then comment on Ellen DeGeneres' unprecedented coming-out, both in-character and as herself, in "The Puppy Episode" (1997) of her sitcom "Ellen," which prompted other comedy shows with LGBT leads in subsequent years, including "Will and Grace." Stonestreet also shares a funny anecdote about a memorable encounter with a fan whose views on gays had been positively influenced by Mitch and Cam on "Family," after which several clips from comedy programs are shown, including "All in the Family" (1971), "Sirota's Court" (1976), "Maude" (1977), "Soap" (1977), "The Golden Girls" (1986), "Seinfeld" (1993), "Roseanne" (1994), "Friends" (1996), "The Simpsons" (1997), "Ellen" (1997), "Will & Grace" (1998), "Nurse Jackie" (2009), "Modern Family" (2010), "Glee" (2011), "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" (2013), "Orange is the New Black" (2013), "Faking It" (2014), "Transparent" (2014), and "Key and Peele" (2014).
Writer, director, and creator Ryan Murphy introduces the television movies and miniseries category, commenting briefly on the 1972 ABC movie "That Certain Summer," starring Hal Halbrook as a closeted father, the first TV movie to deal with homosexuality in a non-pejorative light. Clips shown include "Summer"; "Consenting Adult" (1985), "An Early Frost" (1985), "Andre's Mother" (1990), "Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story" (1995), "And the Band Played On" (1993), "Soldier's Girl" (2003), "Execution of Justice" (1999), "Holiday Heart" (2000), "The Normal Heart" (2014) and "Angels in America" (2003).
Finally, "The Fosters" star Teri Polo and "Transparent" star Amy Landecker take the stage to present the news/documentary/reality category, commenting on Mike Wallace's 1967 special "The Homosexuals," groundbreaking despite its misinformation and perpetuation of stereotypes, the impact of teenager Lance Loud and his decision to come out on "An American Family," considered the first "reality show," and the news coverage of the Stonewall riots and its aftermath. Clips shown include "Before Stonewall" (1984), comments from Secretary of State Dean Rusk (1965), "CBS Reports: The Homosexuals" (1967), "After Stonewall" (1999), "Donahue" (1972), "An American Family" (1973), "How to Survive a Plague" (2012), "The Real World" (1994), "The Strange History of Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (2011), "Transgeneration" (2005), "The T Word" (2014), "The Case Against 8" (2014), and "The Daily Show" (2014).
Reidy then closes the program and bids the audience good night.
Details
- NETWORK: N/A
- DATE: November 30, 1999 6:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:05:58
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 117042
- GENRE: Paley Gala/Prize
- SUBJECT HEADING: LGBT Collection
- SERIES RUN: N/A
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Maureen Reidy … Host
- Norman Lear … Guest
- Tim Hartley … Guest
- Jason Lyon … Guest
- Noah Lyon-Hartley … Guest
- Portia De Rossi … Presenter
- Betty DeGeneres … Presenter
- Jason Collins … Presenter
- Jesse Tyler Ferguson … Presenter
- Eric Stonestreet … Presenter
- Ryan Murphy … Presenter
- Teri Polo … Presenter
- Amy Landecker … Presenter
- John Amaechi
- Ellen DeGeneres
- Justin Fashanu
- Billie Jean King
- Chris Kluwe
- David Kopay
- Lance Loud
- Martina Navratilova
- Richard Nixon
- Robbie Rogers
- Dean Rusk
- Michael Sam
- Mike Wallace