Back when we were in high school, Thursdays were "gay" days. You were supposed to wear lavender (the color, not the scent) if you were. Some network execs must have had the same rule when they were kids, because Thursday looks like the gayest day of the week on the tube.
There is, of course, Fox's Glee, one of the prime-time centerpieces of Thursday nights. Even when Glee is off-the-rails, we still appreciate its out-there flaminess. We went to an all-girl high school, and even though it was rife with lesbians, it was never as gay as McKinley High. Here are the things we love right now in this fresh, we-can-get-back-on-track new season: We love Unique (Alex Newell), the only transgender regular on any network TV show. (Orange Is the New Black is a Netflix show, but also has a trans character, Sophia, played by the magnificent Laverne Cox.) Unique is, well, Unique. We love that Unique dresses gay male some days (rockin' those scarves), high-femme girly others, and has made everyone in the club understand what it is to be gender-variant. Lots of tears in some of those scenes, but lots of "Oh, now we get it!" as well.
We also love Demi Lovato, who debuted Oct. 3 as Dani. Lovato is fabulous. Sparks are going to fly between her and Santana (Naya Rivera). Lovato is excited about her new role and has been tweeting and talking about it. She never balked for an instant about playing gay, but rather was concerned about "getting it right." If we didn't love her before, we love her now.
Thursdays are also the purview of CBS' Two and a Half Men, which was previously possibly the least gay show on the tube. But veteran actress Amber Tamblyn, who at only 30 has been acting for more than half her life, joined the cast this season in a recurring role as Charlie's lesbian daughter, Jenny. Tamblyn was a long-time cast member of ABC's General Hospital in the pivotal role of Emily Quartermaine. She also starred in CBS' hit prime time show Joan of Arcadia, Fox's House, and several other series. Tamblyn was only supposed to have limited screen time on TAAHM, but on Oct. 2, after only a week of air-time, she was bumped up to full cast member because her ratings were so high. Jenny will be much like her dad: hard-drinking and womanizing. So CBS execs have said she will be "bringing the ladies home." We're not sure how this will play out, but we're looking forward to watching a lesbian completely out of the regular nice-girl mode of lesbians on TV. Because we've all missed Shane and Papi on The L Word.
The Big Bang Theory doesn't have a gay character, but it does have a gay lead actor. Jim Parsons just won yet another Emmy for Best Actor in a Comedy. Parsons is a comic genius, and his portrayal of Sheldon is so pitch-perfect, they might as well just hand him Emmys for the duration of the show's run. He helps round out that gay Thursday on CBS.
Also doing the queer Thursdays is NBC's Sean Saves the World, with Sean Hayes reprising Jack in Will & Grace if Jack were a gay dad. This show is pretty awful now, if very gay. But it could get better. So we'll keep checking in on it.
As the fifth season of NBC's acclaimed dramedy Parenthood debuted, the buzz was on that Drew, who has always had a super "sensitive" affect and who has seemed like he was almost ready to leap from the closet any day, will indeed come out. One more reason to watch this terrific series.
Over on the CW Thursdays is our guilty pleasure, The Vampire Diaries, which has the hottest cast (Ian Somerhalder is the sexiest vampire ever). It's finally adding a gay character, Josh, played by Stephen Krueger, the sexy-sweet-hottie from ABC Family's queerfest Pretty Little Liars . Josh will swing from TVD to its fabulous new spin-off, The Originals, which debuted Oct. 3. Josh apparently will wander into Marcel's (Charles Michael Davis) French Quarter bar and never come out – or rather will come out.
There is so much wonderful on The Originals, starting with a show that portrays New Orleans (our old hometown) in all its sensuous, seductive glory. Joseph Morgan's ultra-intense Klaus was too big for TVD. He overwhelmed Mystic Falls. But in New Orleans he takes control as only Klaus can. He's brought the other Mikaelson siblings, Elijah (Daniel Gillies) and Rebekah (the lovely and dangerous Claire Holt), with him. This trio are the world's original vampires, and they have so much work to do. Especially since Hayley (the amazing Phoebe Tonkin) is now pregnant with Klaus' baby, who could start a whole new breed since she is not what she seems. Klaus and his protege Marcel (we love seeing black vampires in New Orleans) are setting about re-vamping New Orleans. Think West Side Story with vampires, werewolves and hybrids. Yes!
Thursday was always queer on ABC. The two-hour prime-time line-up of Shonda Rhimes' top-rated dramas Grey's Anatomy and Scandal began queer, and as the new season has opened, queer is what we're getting. Scandal debuted Oct. 3, and we can see why President and Mrs. Obama are rapt fans of this Washington insider drama. Last season ended with Cyrus (Jeff Perry, where is your Emmy?), the White House's gay chief of staff, revealing the Prez's secret to Liv (Kerry Washington). Now the spin begins.
We're usually among the rabid Scandal tweeters, which include many Washington editors, reporters and insiders. ABC notes that Scandal gets more tweets per hour than any other scripted series, at 200,000 tweets. But then Rhimes is the only showrunner on all of TV who gets two hours back-to-back. She's that good and that powerful.
The season 3 opener was so full of drama we could barely keep up. How does the spin doctor Olivia spin her own crisis? With the help of Cyrus, of course, and a surprising push from President Fitz's long-suffering wife, Mellie (the amazing Bellamy Young), who throws another young woman under the bus as the alleged correspondent in the affair. Cyrus offers his husband, James (Dan Bucatinsky, who just won the Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series), the erstwhile Pulitzer-seeker, an inside story as he preps to fake a new mistress for Fitz, taking the heat off Liv. Meanwhile, Fitz and Cyrus try pleading with Sally Langston (the incomparable Kate Burton), Fitz's extremist Bible-thumping VP, to keep things quiet. At one point Sally turns to Cyrus and spews in her Southern drawl, "I've tried to ignore your godless homosexual lifestyle."
Oh my. Is your head spinning yet? Because ours sure was. The coup de grace occurred in the episode's final scene, as we learn the truth of who leaked the story about Fitz and Liv. Mellie guesses and confronts him. It's not Cyrus, as we all thought. It was Fitz himself. If you aren't watching this show, you aren't watching the best political drama on the tube and one of the most important gay roles in TV history in Cyrus. This is top-flight drama, and every time we think Rhimes can't take it up a notch, she does.
Anatomy lesson
Meanwhile, Grey's Anatomy just started its 10th season, and Rhimes is still top of her game. The story we all wanted an answer to was whether Callie (Sara Ramirez) and Arizona (Jessica Capshaw) would break up. The longest-running lesbian couple on TV really had to stay together. They had already survived Arizona going to Africa, Callie getting pregnant with Mark's baby while Arizona was away, Callie having a near-fatal car crash, the two getting married without Callie's homophobic mother in attendance, baby Sophia being born, Arizona nearly dying in a plane crash, and Callie amputating her leg.
A lot, right? So how much could a one-nighter with Lauren (Hilarie Burton) have meant in that panoply? Apparently, everything. Callie moved out, taking Sophia with her. Arizona ran after her. They've got visitations set up, but Arizona wants Callie back. But since George cheated on Callie when they were married, Callie doesn't forgive that. Even though theoretically she cheated on Arizona with Mark and had his baby. At the end of the Oct. 3 episode, Callie meets Arizona at the therapist's office, where they are supposed to have counseling. But she doesn't go in. She tells Arizona she should go, because there are issues. But it is (or so it looks) over. We hope it isn't really. Arizona got Callie back after the Africa debacle. And they managed to find their way back to each other despite Arizona hating Callie for amputating her leg. It's hard to know what happens next, but as the faces of lesbian coupledom on the tube, we really want them to work this out. Plus: their baby!
Thursday also has Fox's The X Factor, Lifetime's Project Runway and Showtime re-runs Masters of Sex and Homeland. So there is no gayer a night on the tube.
We wish Fox's new sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine were on Thursdays to add to the gay, but other nights need a touch of lavender as well. Tuesdays get this show, in the comedy line-up with the delightful sitcoms that debuted last season New Girl and The Mindy Project. BN-N is sort of like The Office in a police station. SNL alum Andy Samberg plays Jake Peralta, a skilled but jokester-y police detective. Andre Braugher (Homicide, House, Law & Order: SVU) is one of the best actors on the tube. We love Braugher, and we'll watch pretty much anything he's in, even if it only lasts a season. He plays the 99th precinct's new rules-rules-rules Commanding Officer, Captain Ray Holt. In the season opener, Peralta asks why Holt, who is legendary in the police force, is just getting his first command now. The implication is it's because Holt is black. But in the multi-cultural precinct that seems so unlikely. It is New York, after all. Holt looks at Peralta and says he's gay. It's a moment. Because we know why he's only now getting the CO position: homophobia. Like Lovato on Glee, Braugher has said he's honored to be playing gay on BN-N, which has gotten rave reviews. He was interviewed by Huffington Post on the new role, and said he wants to be sure that his character is a respectable non-stereotype of a gay man. "I think it's wonderful that it's part of a complex person, as opposed to the defining characteristic," he said, "because when it is the defining characteristic it's always gonna bump up, inevitably, against good taste, and wind up creating an offensive stereotype." We so love a sensitive ally.
Braugher's character is married, so his husband will be appearing eventually. Braugher said his character will have a spouse "like everyone else has a husband or a wife, but it's going to be entirely appropriate, and that's of overwhelming importance to me." But since he doesn't know who the lucky guy is yet, he joked, "I have no idea who my husband will be. It's very much like The Bachelor, only reversed."
Not since Spin City in 1996 has there been a black gay character in a leading role on the tube. (Michael Boatman played Carter Heywood on that sitcom.) But in the two-for-one minority sweepstakes on TV series, usually the one person of color is also gay and there's no one for them to be gay with. Holt will have not just a boyfriend, but a husband. Yes!
For years we have wanted Olivia Benson (Emmy-heavy Mariska Hargitay) to come out on Law & Order: SVU, where she has starred since the show debuted in 1999. She hasn't, but she still stands for the single, strong, vulnerable-on-the-inside female character we love. As SVU began its 15th season, Hargitay is doing the best acting of her career. Last season ended with her being kidnapped by a serial rapist/murderer, William Lewis, played with unbelievable Emmy-worthy creepiness by Pablo Schreiber. Hargitay's portrayal of an assault victim in the three-part story arc was extraordinary. Not since Farrah Fawcett in Extremities has there been such an amazing performance of a woman taken to the very edge of her humanity.
The trauma of Olivia's experience will play out over the course of the entire season. She's seeing a therapist and working out the issues that come from being victimized and tortured. The realization that she is damaged and it's impacting her job was in evidence in the Oct.2 episode of SVU starring veteran actress Cybill Shepherd as the victim of an attempted rape by a serial rapist. Shepherd plays Jolene Castille, a Georgian restaurateur and cooking star. A series of rapes occur, a black man in a hoodie follows Castille, she pulls her licensed gun from her purse, shoots him, and he dies on the operating table.
The young man turns out to not be the rapist, although a series of victims ID his photo. Castille is tried for manslaughter, and like George Zimmerman, is acquitted, although with this case it's all much clearer. It made for good drama, no question. But in this re-telling, Paula Deen kills Trayvon Martin. No. Yet for this kind of provocative TV and of course for gay Thursdays, you really must stay tuned.