True. It did add to the anti-military message in it, and we didn't watch it much in my house (a military family) but I did watch it a few years later in re-runs.
It was largely a sitcom, so this guy who seemed perfectly normal wearing a dress and acting like a guy in every way, while everyone else around him mostly stopped noticing, was mildly funny to me. All in all, I saw the actual movie twice, and less than ten episodes.
I always find it interesting when decry open homosexuality in movies and television, and LGBTQ people look a and say "Why are you upset about homosexuality in movies? Flip Wilson, Benny Hill, or even Mrs. Doubtfire have all been on the screen..." to which I reply "Everyone knew they were a movie prop, meant to get a laugh, not to promote homosexuality...and none of them were homosexual."
Or Paul Lynde on Hollywood Squares, I mean, everybody knew.
I remember a series that had a gay character “Hot L Baltimore” that many station refused to play in prime time. They later aired it after the 10 o’clock news here in Memphis.
A few years later “SOAP” suffered the same fate for a little while. Billy Crystal, in an early role, played a openly gay character.
Agreed.
While not a super macho front line trenches and jungles warrior type, Farr did serve in the military and later in the reserves. Which is more than some of the critics.
“He was drafted in 1957, and underwent basic training at Fort Ord in California[9][10] He was made a Broadcast Specialist and worked on training videos in various roles at Fort Knox, the Army Pictorial Service, and Fort Huachuca before shipping out to Korea. Abroad, he was part of the Special Services and worked on the Far East Network. When Red Skelton traveled to Japan and Korea to do a USO tour, he requested Farr’s service as his assistant.[10][9][20]
After two years of active duty,[1] Farr returned to the United States, where he spent an additional two years on reserve.