I thought these would be topical "Flashback" articles. Soaps have been introducing gay characters for decades. So why is it in 2008 the soap world and network television have not come farther in their portroyals of realistic gay relationships?
HER LESBIAN ROLE IS A FIRST FOR THE SOAPS
Gail Shister, Inquirer Staff Writer
November 3, 1983
When ABC's "All My Children" approached Donna Pescow about playing daytime television's first admitted lesbian, her immediate reaction was ''Bravo!"
"I thought, 'Isn't that wonderful?' " says Pescow, nervously picking at her cheese omelet at a fashionable midtown restaurant. "I was surprised that it hadn't been done before, since 'All My Children' covers so many controversial subjects. It's always fun to create a role, and it's even nicer to be a 'first.'"
Pescow, 29, a Brooklyn native, plays child psychologist Lynn Carson on the popular ABC soap (weekdays at 1 p.m. on Channel 6). In her eight-week role - her last on-air appearance is scheduled for late December - Carson will become platonic roommates with Devon McFadden (played by Tricia Pursley).
"Lynn comes to Pine Valley to start fresh after a long relationship with a woman," says Pescow of her character. "She's well-adjusted, successful, a very real person. I'm making sure she is, and so are the writers. She's just as colorful as anyone else.
"The fact that she's gay makes her more defined in her personality,
because she's content and happy with that. She doesn't hide her sexuality, nor does she broadcast it, unless necessary. We'll tackle other characters' reactions to her being gay, as well as questions of their own feelings."
Pescow, a tiny (5-foot, 1-inch) powderkeg, began her career at ABC in 1976 with a bit part in "One Life to Live." A year later, she achieved fame as John Travolta's humiliated and abused dance partner in Saturday Night Fever. She returned to ABC in 1979 to co-star in "Angie," a short-lived series about a South Philly woman with a Rittenhouse Square husband.
Originally, Pescow wanted to do a guest shot on the New York-based "All My Children" for the chance to work with her boyfriend of two years, Jason Kincaid, who plays handyman Sam Brady on the show. (Though based in Sherman Oaks, Calif., Pescow lives with Kincaid "when we're in the same state." That's usually the two months a year when she returns to New York. Otherwise, she says, "we live on American Airlines.")
In May, however, "All My Children" producer Jackie Babbin called Pescow and told her that if she was still interested in a role, it would require a lot more time. Babbin wanted a commitment of at least three months; Pescow could only promise eight weeks. By January, she hopes to begin work in one of two network sitcoms currently in development.
Has Pescow had any second thoughts about taking on such a controversial part?
"I've established who I am as an actress," she says. "I pray I would never get categorized for one role. When Billy Crystal played a sympathetic homosexual character on 'Soap,' he had to undo a stereotype of him and his work. If anything, this role may open doors for me.
"My chief concern is that my character is portrayed in a way that is real and not cartoon-like and stereotyped. I think it will educate people. The real purpose of this story line is to say that homosexuality exists. It can't be brushed under the carpet or be taboo anymore. The public is ready. They're more aware now than 10 years ago that Main Street, U.S.A., doesn't exist. Being gay is not as unhip as maybe it's been perceived to be."
Philadelphian Agnes Nixon, creator of "All My Children" and a half-dozen other soaps, decided to introduce an openly gay character because "we thought it was time. When I say time, I don't just mean 1983. It also works within the story and the characters."
Nixon's soaps, particularly "All My Children," have a reputation for tackling previously untouchable social issues such as venereal disease, interracial dating, drug abuse, teenage prostitution and child abuse. Nixon labels the introduction of Lynn Carson as "a calculated risk," denying that it's a ploy to boost the soap's already strong ratings.
"Part of a soap opera's function, besides entertainment, is as a public service to stir controversy and make people think," she says. "If you think you have to please everybody, then stay out of the kitchen. If some viewers hate us for this story, maybe they'll like us for another."
Pescow hopes they like her. Though she has recent guest appearances on ''Love Boat" and "Hotel" on her resume, she has her sights set on a steady diet of more substantive Hollywood stuff: mini-series, telemovies and theatrical films. (Her two scenes in Staying Alive, the recent sequel to Saturday Night Fever, were left on the cutting room floor.)
Not that Pescow - a singer in the lounge of Brooklyn bowling alley during her leaner days - has gone Hollywood. Living in a rented two-bedroom townhouse and driving a 1978 Honda Civic, her only concession to Southern California's life in the fast lane are her thrice-weekly house calls from Jake ("Body by Jake") Steinfeld, fitness trainer to the stars. Steinfeld's workouts help her control her chronic sweet tooth, says Pescow, who concedes that her carbohydrate fantasy is "to be locked in a bakery overnight."
"I'm not into Hollywood," she says, lighting another cigarette. (She swears she'll quit next year. Meanwhile, she refuses to be photographed with a cigarette.) "I'm into making sure I know it is a scene. Part of me doesn't quite believe I'm a star. I love the title, but I don't know what it means. It's the work I want. As long as I focus on that, I won't go crazy."
TV NOTES
Andrew L. Yarrow, New York Times
Published: August 25, 1988
Daytime soap opera has hardly been a bastion of prudery, but until last Thursday one sexual taboo remained inviolable. Although seemingly every sort of sexual and psychological exotica has made its way onto these popular serials, male homosexuality has been off-limits for leading characters, according to Douglas Marland, the head writer for the 32-year-old CBS series ''As the World Turns.'' On Thursday's show, that barrier fell, as the mysterious Hank Eliot informed his erstwhile girlfriend that he was gay.
Although lesbian relationships and women with AIDS have surfaced on soaps before, Mr. Marland said, ''there has been a strong belief that there would be resistance to male homosexuality from an audience that is primarily female.'' The show's producer, sponsor, network and audience, though, have supported the new plot twist, he added.
''I like to believe that 'As the World Turns' is representative of everything in our lives,'' Mr. Marland said. ''In the mix of 32 contract characters, I felt it was lacking that there wasn't one gay man.'' The relationship will remain off-camera, however, and -at least, for the immediate future -AIDS will not enter the story.
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