Bonus video! The Silliest Sissies of the Seventies

Always hated Jerry Lewis as a kid. Maybe his jokes were for older audiences, but I remember finding them ultra offensive as well as silly.

I have watched every episode of Are You Being Served? Yes the over campy act of Mr Humphries can be grating. I agree Alan Sues is over the top. But Mr Humphries was not as bad as some of the other characters portrayed (a la Kenneth Williams in the Carry On series; which can be great but also got sad). Also Mr Humphries you could say is more Bisexual or Pansexual. He’s up for almost anything and gets on with most everyone. They make lots of jokes of swinging back and forth. I suggest taking another look at AYBS? But also listening to Oh Stop Messing About the radio series from Britain.

This is my fave of yours ever. 😻

Are you going to talk about Three's Company at all? I loved it as a kid, but haven't watched an episode since. Queer misrepresentation?

My parents lived in New Haven for a few years when I was in school. I mostly remember it for pizza and a truly excellent video rental store that I’m sure doesn’t exist anymore. If you want a nice, short hike, I’d recommend East Rock. And the Peabody Museum has a surprisingly large dinosaur fossil collection for such a small museum.

Like other commenters, I also grew up on Are You Being Served? During COVID, I did a comfort rewatch of the full series--and in addition to some unfortunate things about Mr. Humphries, there are not one but TWO blackface episodes. Don't remember them airing THOSE on PBS. In later series, though, it became more and more the John Inman show. As others left the show, more and more episodes focused on Mr. Humphries. I'm not saying these were good television, just that he was far and away the favorite character. I remember that they would bring him over for the annual fundraiser at WGBH Boston in the nineties.

Okay, so a few things about Mr Humphreys: first, I don't entirely agree that the joke is on him. He's often the one to make jokes about his own sex-life, and he does so utterly unabashedly, clearly just expecting his co-workers to take it in stride that they're working alongside an actively, openly gay man. Which they... largely do, actually. Second, he and Mr Lucas are kind of the audience identification characters. Yes, they can both be made ridiculous themselves, but they are also the ones who most clearly see how ridiculous Grace Brothers itself is, and look at it with a mocking, outsider's eye. We are on their side far more than we are on anyone else's side. Third, the fact that Mr Humphreys has a sex-life to make jokes about at all is pretty interesting. Sissies tend to be sexless, but Mr Humphreys is clearly getting his end away on a regular basis. Fourth, he was just so, so loved. He was the most beloved character on the show, and it was such a popular show. Whole families would watch it together, mum dad and kids clustered around the box and roaring with laughter at a gay man talking, in the thinnest of veiled euphemisms, about exactly what he'd been up to last night. You can't tell me that didn't have any effect at all on people's attitudes. I suppose I feel about him the way you feel about Jack in Will and Grace: yeah, he's exaggeratedly camp, and yeah, he is sometimes the butt of the joke; but I still feel like there's more good there than bad.

Ironic about the title of the Hawaii Five-O episode, since Vashon Island is one of the gayest places I know. It's a big reason I live here!

I remember this episode of Family from the 70’s. The boy in the family has a difficult time finding out his childhood friend is gay. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEPFEnuW0NM

Laugh in was a cultural phenomenon back in the day. Really, though, it was a burlesque/vaudeville experience with 60’s colors, music, and fashion thrown in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGtR9t4_nS8 Also, it’s sad to see the episode of Police Woman took a jab at the gays. Especially since co-star, Earl Holliman was gay!

This whole, excellent video reminds me of the Key & Peele skit "Dad's Hollywood Secret". We may shake our heads at what representation meant in the bad ol' days, but I'm still glad there WAS representation.

I imagine the Jerry Lewis skit was an "homage" to Oscar Wilde's tour of the United States in 1882. I could be wrong, of course.

and then there's this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr_W0WhLPIU

here's a pretty pointed clip of Parr and Jonathan Winters; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHdiP2GDfro

Two things: * In the "Are Your Being. Served?" sequel "Grace & Favour" (called "Are You Being Served? Again!" in the US), Mr. Humphries is straight after sharing a room with the farmer's daughter and falling in love. In the sequel, Grace Brothers department store has closed and the staff is living on the farmt that Mr. Grace bought with their retirement fund. * Here's a Police Squad episode I saw the other week on Catchy Comedy with a surprisingly gay-positive sequence. It starts about 9 minutes 30 seconds in, with someone saying "You have no idea what it's like losing a husband after 14 years" and Leslie Nelson saying "Well no, but I did have a male roommate once..." https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7v092w

Matt, I assume you’ve found this blog post? https://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2010/05/the-homophobia-of-jack-paar.html

I wanted to just say that as a child of the 80's, Saturday nights on PBS was absolutely my jam... and you better believe Are You Being Served? was on my mandatory watch list. I LOVED this show growing up, and had an absolute blast watching every episode. And to add: Mr. Humphreys was my favorite character. Yes, he promulgated way to many tireless tropes about gay men, but god was his line delivery fabulous.

John Inman was in a civil partnership with a man called Ron Lynch. They were partners for 33 years