A look back at several moments from prime time soaps reflecting changes in portrayal of gay male characters on US network TV over the past 25 years. The clips include: * CELEBRITY (February 1984 NBC miniseries based upon Tommy Thompson's novel - Joseph Bottoms plays a married and closeted Hollywood star whose son (played by a young River Phoenix) accidentally witnesses his love-making session with a male lover) * DYNASTY (ABC's #1 program in America in the 1984/85 season - Jack Coleman reluctantly took over the role of the luxe soap's resident gay character Steven Carrington who got to profess his love for a young PR assistant played by William Campbell in January 1985) * I'LL TAKE MANHATTAN (CBS' March 1987 miniseries based upon Judith Krantz's novel - Adam Storke is powerful Amberville family's youngest child who ends up being manipulated by a male model hired by his evil uncle to set up drugs in his studio - the awkward hug the scene ends with reflects how gay intimacy was shown at the time) * MELROSE PLACE (Aaron Spelling's outrageously shameless soap opera - unlike his fellow bedhopping heterosexual Melrose complex tenants, the show's resident gay character played by Doug Savant finally got to kiss a man only in May 1994, more than 60 episodes into the show's run. Unfortunately, fearful of advertiser and affiliate backlash FOX censored the scene) * DAWSON'S CREEK (The WB's teen drama finally broke new ground in 2000 when Kerr Smith who played the show's gay character ...
Keywords: TV, Gay, Kiss, Celebrity, Dynasty, Manhattan, Melrose, Place, Dawson's, Creek, Desperate, Housewives, Brothers, Sisters
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