The Prime Time Closet: A History of Gays and Lesbians on TV by Stephen Tropiano Read Free Book Online Page A

according to the penal code, rape is defined as a male assaulting a female. “I call it an outrage,” Buchanan declares, “and that’s why I’m here.”
    While Ted is recovering from surgery, Swanson is arrested on Venice Beach for attempting to molest a child. When Ted wakes up after surgery, he finally admits Swanson molested him and agrees to speak to a psychiatrist. Dr. Welby informs him the police already have his teacher in custody and he has been sent, by his own request, to a mental hospital. Everyone is relieved and, in a final moment, George affirms his son’s masculinity: “Ted, you’re a heck of a guy. You went through a nightmare, but you thought for yourself. You acted like a man.”
    Before the program even aired, gay advocacy groups were the ones outraged by how the episode reinforced the stereotype of the homosexual male teacher as a child molester. In spite of statements made to the contrary, it is difficult not to think of what happened to Ted as anything but an act of violence committed by a gay man. When Ronald Gold, media director of the newly formed National Gay Task Force, received a copy of the script in July of 1974, he informed Richard Gitter, ABC’s east coast director of broadcast standards and practices, of the script’s unacceptability. Two weeks later, Gold discovered the episode had started shooting, so he spread the word to other activists around the country. He contacted Loretta Lotman, an experienced media advocate and the head of Gay Media Action, the nation’s first local gay media advocacy group, to spearhead a grass roots campaign, involving everything from letter writing to demonstrations at ABC affiliates. 45
    Once again, the network refused to cancel the episode, but would consider script changes. According to The Advocate, the first set of changes included the deletion of the scene in which a character attempts to convince Ted he is still a man despite the attack. Another scene, in which Mr. Swanson tries to molest another boy and George’s reference to the attacker as a “pervert,” were also eliminated; the latter scene does appear, however, in the syndicated version.
    In an article on the controversy dated September 11, 1974 (a month before the program’s airing), The Advocate published the following excerpt from an undated script in which Sergeant Buchanan talks to Dr. Welby and Ted’s parents:
    GEORGE: I thought this was — the kind of thing that might happen in prison, or one of those bars — but —
     
    BUCHANAN: Na — those “wierd [sic] bars” have got enough problems as it is — our garden variety homosexual, this isn’t his game — let me tell you something.
    Even as George winces at the dreaded word; the door opens and Marian, followed by Dr. Welby, enters.
    GEORGE: Here they are. Marian — this is Sergeant Arthur Buchanan, Los Angeles Police. Sergeant, my ex-wife, Marian.
    BUCHANAN: How d’y’do.
     
    MARIAN: What were you going to tell him? Do I really want to hear?
     
    GEORGE: Probably not.
     
    BUCHANAN : (used to this kind of strife) We were talking about how this kind of assault takes place — and who commits it. This isn’t something that happens because the assailant is homosexual — that’s not the issue. This is a guy with severe mental and emotional problems — he’s often married, middle-aged, with a crummy marriage and a crummier sex life or both. 46
    A copy of the revised script (dated June 27, 1974) in the International Gay and Lesbian Archives begins the same scene with Sergeant Buchanan offering George the following explanation:
    BUCHANAN: — no, no, Mister Blakely, put your mind at rest. There is nothing “homosexual” about this, no homosexual involvement on your son’s part. This is a case of violent child molestation, which is a lot more than bad enough — let me tell you — 47
    In the syndicated version, Buchanan offers George an even briefer explanation: “No, no, Mr. Blakely, there’s nothing homosexual