The 1990s were an era of increasing recognition of homosexuality in broadcast media, so much so that scholar Ron Becker referred to the period as “the gay 1990s”, as programs increasingly began to depict gay characters both explicitly and implicitly. Since the emergence of such characters the representation of members of the LGBTQ+ community has increased and broadened, which is especially evident when comparing the “Men on Film” sketch from the pilot of FOX’s In Living Color in 1990, and ABCs How to Get Away with Murder (2014-present). The depictions of LGBTQ+ characters in these programs represent the evolution and synthesis of audience targeting in increasingly competitive industrial environments and in the increasingly tolerant sociopolitical
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This evolution, for the most part, has which has lessened the taboo, and subsequent protest, of representing the LGBTQ+ community on television, and representing them with greater diversity and in increasingly romantic and sexual situations that would have been prohibited in the 1990s, thus lifting restrictions of their representations from either middle to upper-class non-sexual successful white men or stereotypical overly sexually men who are never actually depicted in sexual situations, like the characters in “Men on Film”, to more realistic, nuanced, and diverse LGBTQ+ characters. For example, How to Get Away with Murder, though similar to slumpie targeted program, portrays a variety of LGBTQ+ characters, not just gay white men, and their relationships are consistently present throughout the series, not just a few skits like “Men of Film” in In Living Color. Furthermore, they are presented in more complex, nuanced, and respectful ways, rarely as the punch line, as opposed to the flat stereotypical characters of “Men on Film”. However, it is important to recognize that this programming environment was established in order to promote profitability through the attraction of quality audiences and was only aided by sociopolitical conditions due to the fact that the new liberal conditions decreased homophobic backlash that could negatively affect the program’s
This evolution, for the most part, has which has lessened the taboo, and subsequent protest, of representing the LGBTQ+ community on television, and representing them with greater diversity and in increasingly romantic and sexual situations that would have been prohibited in the 1990s, thus lifting restrictions of their representations from either middle to upper-class non-sexual successful white men or stereotypical overly sexually men who are never actually depicted in sexual situations, like the characters in “Men on Film”, to more realistic, nuanced, and diverse LGBTQ+ characters. For example, How to Get Away with Murder, though similar to slumpie targeted program, portrays a variety of LGBTQ+ characters, not just gay white men, and their relationships are consistently present throughout the series, not just a few skits like “Men of Film” in In Living Color. Furthermore, they are presented in more complex, nuanced, and respectful ways, rarely as the punch line, as opposed to the flat stereotypical characters of “Men on Film”. However, it is important to recognize that this programming environment was established in order to promote profitability through the attraction of quality audiences and was only aided by sociopolitical conditions due to the fact that the new liberal conditions decreased homophobic backlash that could negatively affect the program’s