BILLY CRYSTAL, AT HIS SOLD-OUT ONE MAN SHOW -- 700 SUNDAYS
Posted on 01/20/2015 7:41:03 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Billy Crystal Has Had Enough of Gay Storylines
Billy Crystal, comedian and one of the first actors to portray a gay character on TV, has had enough of the gay storylines on television.
Speaking to an audience at the Television Critics Association press tour, Crystal said: “Sometimes I think, ‘Ah that’s too much for me.’”
The comedian played Jodie on Soap from 1977-1981. “It was very difficult at the time,” said Crystal. “Jodie was really the first recurring [gay] character on network television and it was a different time, it was 1977. So, yeah, it was awkward. It was tough.” He spoke about how his character was not always well-received. “I did it in front of a live audience and there were times when I would say to Bob [Seagren], ‘I love you,’ and the audience would laugh nervously. I wanted to stop the taping and go, ‘What is your problem?’”
But now, Crystal thinks things have gone too far. “Sometimes, it’s just pushing it a little too far for my taste and I’m not going to reveal to you which ones they are.”
Crystal’s new show The Comedians premieres April 9 on FX.
Did he think they would stop at all?
OFF TO RE-EDUCATION CAMP WITH YOU!
Gotham [not dudes but gals]
“700 Sundays” was a lovely book, and espoused American family Values in an off-beat, but loving way. He described a childhood that included New York Jewish Humor, American Jazz and Blues, The Catskills Borscht Belt Era, Love, Marriage, and family.
His introduction to TV was the first recurring homosexual character in SOAP, many years ago. I have a feeling he knows what his foray into the unknown has spawned, and may feel a little guilty about it. Unfortunately, it was he who pulled the cork out of the bottle, and it has spread exponentially, like Pandora’s box, or Eve eating from the tree.
When we play games with the forbidden, the results can be catastrophic.
See what happens to his career now. We live in a politcally correct world. He is pissing off the liberal Hollywood idiots who are pushing homosexuality. Not a good career move........
I love “Sword and Sorcery” Stuff that has good costumes and artistic production values, so I eagerly watched the first episode of “game of thrones”. I was so disgusted that I have not watched it since.
People tell me the books aren’t as explicit, but I don’t even want to try them after that episode. Grrr.
I think he has reached a point in his career when he can afford to say — I don’t care.
His place as the Oscar host has been replaced by two gays (consecutively).
Ellen Degeneres last year and Neil Patrick Harris this year.
Soap was also a “late night” program but today such plotlines are found in “the family hour”.*
Welcome to the new normal, Billy. What did you think was going to fill the void when you subverted the culture?
* - Soap was scheduled to air in the slot after Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley. A number of affiliates did not air the series and others rescheduled it to “11pm” (after the evening news).
It wasn’t just controversial because of the gay character subplot. It was raunchy decades before Two And A Half Men.
It was all progressive and edgy to the writers and viewers of Soap, when it was really just a vehicle for making gay jokes. Now that the reality of homosexual perversion is in his face, it ain’t so cute ‘n’ funny no more.
He’s probably old enough to see the effects of such hypersexualized programming (twerking, flaming homosexual subplots, etc) on his grandkids/nieces/nephews. Maybe he’s even observed some inappropriate activity between adults and minors on Hollywood soundstages.
Add Scandal, and I keep waiting for Holmes and Watson to start a relationship on the BBC production of Sherlock. LGBT wants Sharon Rader to become a gay character; her adopted son already has come out of the closet. Jeez.
It was edgy and fun while they didn’t have families of their own to raise.
Madonna criticized the hypersexual culture she tried to raise her daughter in as well.
The remake of The X-Files is sure to feature some gay themes, probably revolving around Gillian Anderson’s supposed bisexuality.
Billy Crystal may have been the first recurring homosexual character but homosexual activists were being pushed in a number of “heterosexual” roles dating back to the 1960s.
Some well known homosexuals were also being pushed as male romantic leads and male pin-up crooners (both were sold to unknowing women).
It still happens.
Someone’s having a big laugh about it all.
Oh yes. Hollywood was full of them.
A very interesting perspective is given in the movie “Advise and Consent” in which a single incident of perversion in a politician’s dim past comes back to haunt him as he is being considered for a presidential appointment.
It is a very compelling drama, and does not sugar coat the sleazy underworld of homosexuality.
I’m surprised they were even allowed to make that movie.
Jack Paar wrote about it half a century ago (ignore the idiotializing by the blogger)
http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2010/05/the-homophobia-of-jack-paar.html
...While reading Jack Paar’s second book, My Saber is Bent (1961, Pocket Books), my mouth froze during chapter fourteen. I assumed the page heading, Fairies and Communists, was a tongue-in-cheek title that one needn’t take seriously. This is, after all, a book written by a top television comedian. Instead, what it fed me was hitherto overlooked information about Jack Paar. Granted, this was the early sixties; an era when social mores allowed sexism, racism and homophobia to exist more or less unabated. That being said, there were several people that rejected such offensive conventions and the arts were often far more accepting. This is what makes the stance of Paar, by most accounts an erudite man, all the more difficult.
Paar was known for his many feuds. He sparred with columnist Dorothy Kilgallen, actor Mickey Rooney and fellow TV host Ed Sullivan. But perhaps Paar’s greatest feud was one that has been completely ignored - his vocal hatred of and decade-long fight with - the homosexual community. In the pages of My Saber is Bent, Paar writes without apology about his disdain for gays in show business. He obviously worked very hard to cull a series of quotes from other respected pop culture figures that at some point made a disparaging remark about gays. Ernie Kovacs, Oscar Levant, George Jean Nathan and Alex King are all dragged into Paar’s essay to further his cause. This is the bizarre chapter, Fairies and Communists, reproduced in its entirety. It is followed by a brief story on a confrontation that transpired between Jack and the gay community a few years later.
Fairies and Communists by Jack Paar...
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