Alternate Channels: The Uncensored Story of Gay and Lesbian Images on Radio and Television: 1930s to the Present

by Steven Capsuto

Book Overview

Alternate Channels explores the fight for lesbian and gay visibility on 20th-century American television, as gay activists faced off with powerful, often vicious "traditional values" crusaders, with... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0345412435
• ISBN13: 9780345412430
• Release Date: July 2000
• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Length: 495 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.5" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Tuning In

Capsuto, Steven. "Alternate Channels: The Uncensored Story of Gay and Lesbian Images on Radio and Television, 1930s to the Present", Ballantine Books, 2000. Tuning In Amos Lassen The growth of gay, lesbian and bisexual images on radio and television has been tremendous. This is a vibrant and fascinating history of how we got to where we are. We were faced early on with McCarthyism and witch hunts, then Stonewall and liberation, the 700 Club and the religious right, the AIDS epidemic, queer activism and the modern age with Ellen DeGeneres, "Will and Grace" and "Queer as Folk". Through all periods there were highs and lows from Billy Crystal as Jodie Dallas on "Soap" to the Monkees singing "Don We Now Our Gay Apparel" as they held their wrists limply to the famous female kiss on "L.A.Law" and two gay characters on "Will and Grace". There was stereotyping and there has been acceptance and through it all we have been here and we have been queer. Capsuto has done amazing research here and he gives us a fascinating book. For me it was a trip down memory lane as I waxed nostalgic on so much that I had forgotten. For younger readers the book is important to show how far we have come. More important, the book shows us the flaw in the system--the Hays Code that prohibits most expression of affection or sexual desire between members of the same sex on American network television. The book informs and entertains and is witty and insightful. It's a wonderful addition to our literature.

I Want My Gay TV!

Author Steven Capsuto chronicles the history (1930-2000) of gay and lesbian characters on Network TV and in doing so mirrors the history and struggles of the gay community to be shown as real, full human beings. Even as a reader familar with much of the material mentioned here I even discovered new things that I didn't know. While heterosexual television character continue to romp all over the screen in wanton abandon, even the smallest, simpliest signs of affection between two characters of the same sex is treated with scorn. Has the gay community actually progressed? Given the choices of lonely Will on "Will & Grace," the constant in your face gay sex on "Queer as Folk" and the little screen time of the now lesbian romance and soon child for Dr. Weaver on "E.R." I'm not sure. Media (especially televison) and gay and lesbian studies scholars should take note, there is such a wealth of a history and knowledge here that it can't be ignored. A rich, acurate and very well written text.

A Book I Was Waiting for Someone to Write

The first striking thing about this book is the amazing amount of research that would have been necessary to have written it. Just how does a person master this much material, run down particular episodes of "Medical Center" from the early 1970s or "Hill Street Blues" from the 1980s, and dozens of more obscure programs? I don't know, but Steven Capsuto has managed to do it.The result is a singularly fascinating book, and a worthy companion to Vito Russo's The Celluloid Closet. And since television plays a more important role than movies in shaping public perceptions of gay people (and in helping young gay people to understand their places in the world), Capsuto's project is arguably even more important.For gay readers over 40, this book is likely to produce some strong nostalgic feelings. Reading the author's accounts of such significant broadcasts as "That Certain Summer" (with Hal Holbrooke and Martin Sheen) or "A Question of Love" (with Gena Rowlands and Jane Alexander), one can't help but reflect on memories of a former self and how the world was then. For younger readers, this book will fill an important gap in their cultural knowledge--what happened many years before Ellen and Will & Grace, "lesbian chic" and heightened gay visibility. It also tells the story of lesbian and gay media activism, of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) and its forerunners. And Capsuto covers television and radio depictions of bisexual and transgendered people in his thorough account.Perhaps most important, the book also helps to illuminate a continuing flaw in television depictions of gay life: for all the progress of the past decade, there continues to exist a kind of unwritten Hays Code that bars most expressions of affection or sexual desire between persons of the same sex from American network television. Will & Grace continues to depict what may be the only attractive, witty, smart and successful gay man in Manhattan who has no sex life. In its own way, this show is as deficient today as was "The Andy Griffith Show" in depicting (during the height of the civil rights movement) the only town in North Carolina with no black people.Television provides a crucial window through which we see our lives and our society. Capsuto's book helps us to remember how skewed that vision has often been, and to realize the important changes that are still needed. This is an important work of cultural and social history.

Not your mother's history book

Witty, insightful, daring, complete, and as non-dry as you can get, this book goes where none have gone before, not only regaling us an authoritative on-screen compendium of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered images, but the "stories behind the stores" - lesbians invading NBC studios, gay activists interrupting Walter Cronkite on the air, from the tortured, pitiful images of the early "exposes" of "the gay lifestyle" to full, responsible news coverage of activism. Neatly divided into small chapters, it weaves the tale of the first whispers of the "love that dare not speak its name" through to the out and loud shouting of "Ellen" and "Will & Grace" (and the format, for better or for worse, makes for great bathroom reading). An absolute must-have for every queer library and TV fan.

outstanding

an informative and entertaining look at gay and lesbian images on radio and television through the decades. the author makes a number of interesting and relevant points in a non-judgmental yet authoritative style. should be on all public and university library shelves.