Funny Queer or Funny Ha Ha?

An examination of comedy in media science fiction demonstrates a surprising (if somewhat stereotyped) treatment of gay characters. If it's comedy, then gay or queer issues can sometimes (not always) surface and become visible in ways that are still denied in more "serious" SF. This is reflective of mainstream American television as a whole - most gay characters or references on TV have been introduced in comedy series such as Brothers; Roseanne; Ellen; Normal, Ohio or Will & Grace (although mainstream American TV is now starting to change and include an occasional gay/lesbian character). British SF comedy also has a mixed record in this regard.

Probably the earliest science fiction/fantasy television series to contain some elements of tongue-in-cheek comedy was the British series, The Avengers (1961 - 1969) starring Patrick Macnee as John Steed, Honor Blackman as Cathy Gale and Diana Rigg as Emma Peel. The plots often featured mad scientists and absurb schemes, women in tight black leather and a healthy smattering of whips and chains. Macnee perfected his portrayal of the foppish (fey?) English gentleman. The series was followed by The New Avengers (1976-1977) and included Joanna Lumley as Purdey. Lumley later became famous as the gay icon, Patsy, in Absolutely Fabulous (1992-2001).

The Jetsons (1962-1963; 1984-1985; 1987-1988) was a variation on the theme from The Flintstones (1960-1966): a contemporary American family translated into another time period. Both these cartoon programs were aimed at children so no sexual content was shown or implied. The Flintstones did, however, have a visitor in their last season, The Great Gazoo, an alien who might not have seemed too out of place at Mardi Gras.

My Favorite Martian (1963-1966) starred Ray Walston and Bill Bixby, both actors later starring in other SF series during their careers. In the show, an alien (the Martian, or "Uncle Martin") became stranded on Earth and needed assistance from a helpful human (journalist Tim O'Hara). This plot - the alien visitor being out of place - would be revisited a number of times in American SF film and TV series in subsequent years (for example, the films, ET, The Extra Terrestrial (1982) and Starman (1984) were both reworkings of this theme but they will not be examined here because they were not comedies).

My Favorite Martian was filmed at a time before the sexual revolution had happened for women, and its tone was an afterthought of the 1950s "boys own" adventures where women were virtually ignored - or else they were cast in the bimbo stereotype of Mrs. Brown. In MFM, the male characters were heterosexual by implication, although most of the storylines avoided the topic altogether, leaving viewers with a possibly ambiguous feeling about the characters, similar to that of the following two shows.

Both Batman (1966-1968) and Lost in Space (1965-1968) contained camp humour and storylines. Both series were really fantasies with some science fictional settings or stories. Villains and heroes alike shared degrees of sinister camp humour (and the relationship between Batman and Robin still attracts jokes, as does that of Dr Smith and Will Robinson on Lost in Space - the absence of heterosexual hijinks between these pairs automatically meant a total absence of sexual possibilities, according to the sexual politics of the day.)

The only SF comedy film to be included in this review is The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), a movie with comedic science fiction/fantasy overtones. This film is deserving of mention because of its relevance to the issues being examined. The main character in RHPS was Dr. Frank N. Furter, a transvestite mad scientist from the alien planet of Transsexual in the galaxy of Transylvania. Franky led a chorus of characters who were sexually strange or ambiguous, and together they assaulted the sensibilities of an American 1950s-type young couple. By the antepenultimate scene, virtually everyone was wearing fishnet stockings as a symbol of their conversion to strange ways. Rocky became a cult film as a symbol of rebellion and because of its appealing catch-cry: "Don't Dream It, Be It".

Some of these aforementioned programs used camp scripts (and characters?) to portray mystery: usually a sinister side to a villain or a hidden side to a hero. The transvestite Frank N. Furter from Rocky Horror was a particularly ruthless killer and criminal who seduced innocent young men (and women) - and therefore he "deserved" his punishment and death at the end of the film.

Mork and Mindy (1978-1972) was another example of American comedy which was set within a SF framework. Starring Robin Williams and Pam Dawber, it was a revisitation of My Favorite Martian with decidedly heterosexual overtones added between the two lead characters. Intended as suitable for children on the American TV market, it clearly steered away from anything like gay themes or characters.

More notable was Quark (1978), which was a short-lived American comedy SF series starring Richard Benjamin as the captain of a galactic garbage scow. This send-up of Star Trek included a crew featuring identical clones Betty and Betty, and a whining robot who was possibly a twin for Marvin the Paranoid Android from Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

A major character in Quark was a vegeton (sentient plant) named Ficus (played by actor Richard Kelton), an unemotional, logical being who was clearly intended as a send up of Spock from Star Trek. In a comic reworking of Spock's seven-year mating cycle, Ficus was seduced by Libido, the daughter of a character who was a gentle satire of Flash Gordon's Ming the Merciless. Libido was played by Joan Van Ark, and her character featured in what would have to be (almost) the queerest portrayal of sex ever shown on any SF program (beaten only by the childbirth scenes and gender roles from the SF drama series, Alien Nation (1989-1997). As part of their mating ritual (which Ficus refers to as "pollination"), he and Libido lie face-up on the floor, raise their arms and legs vertically to the sky, and call aloud in a rising tone of voice: "Beebeebeebeebeebeebee!" What do they do next? They wait for the bee! Tragically, Quark was cancelled after only eight episodes, and even more tragically, actor Richard Kelton died shortly afterwards.

The most memorable character from Quark, however, remains the transmute character, Gene/Jean, a person with the same number of male and female chromosomes and who was therefore half man and half woman. Played by Timothy Thomerson, Gene as a man was butch and aggressive - but when trouble appeared, the character transformed into stereotypically helpless female Jean. Played by a male actor, Gene/Jean was not presented as a serious examination of gender variation - but that was because no one in the series was portrayed seriously.

The Greatest American Hero (1981-1983) was a spoof of superhero shows. Happily heterosexual school teacher Ralph Hinkley (William Katt) received the gift of an alien caped costume which, when worn, gave him super powers. His only problem was that he dropped the instruction book! Assisted not-so-capably by Bill Maxwell (Robert Culp spoofing his own most famous series, I Spy) and Pamela Davidson (Connie Selecca), Ralph battled spies, aliens and teenagers. The show consciously avoided deliberate gay characters or stories, although it did raise an interesting sub-text about living a closeted existence as someone other than the person revealed by external appearances. The show's famous theme song, "Believe It Or Not", by Joey Scarbury, even encouraged listeners to feel confidence and pride by following their dreams - possibly analogous to "coming out".

Probably the most famous (and extensive in terms of adaptations) SF comedy series was the British, Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (HHGG). This story has appeared in various incarnations, including (but not limited to) the radio play (1977), TV series (1981), computer game (1984) and trilogy of five books (1979-1992). In some ways, it is still a work in progress, although the death of creator Douglas Adams in 2001 has left the future of this series in possible limbo. The stories and characters in HHGG did not focus on queer issues except perhaps in symbolic fashion: Zaphod Beeblebrox had a personality and sexuality which was split - or shared or doubled? - beween his two heads; Trillian accidentally gave birth to Arthur's child; and Arthur Dent himself - the protagonist in the story - whose world and frames of reference were destroyed or uprooted, found himself symbolically queer: an alien in an alien universe.

This reviewer must include a disclaimer here: his personal knowledge of HHGG is about as extensive as his knowledge of Vogon poetry. Perhaps someone with a better knowledge of HHGG will be able to expand upon this analysis so that some future critique of this program might be more fully detailed.

ALF (1986-1990) was another revisitation of the My Favorite Martian storyline, this time with a muppet as the main character. This Alien Life Form (or A.L.F., hence the name Alf) came from planet Melmac and landed in the sitcom home of an all-American family. ALF was clearly aimed at children, so avoided anything other than "wholesome" entertainment plotlines. The alien life forms known as gays and lesbians, bisexuals, transgendered and intersex people, were not to be found on this program.

The most famous British SF comedy program in recent years is Red Dwarf (1988-1999), which featured a motley crew aboard an otherwise empty space ship. Rimmer, Lister, Cat and Kryten were a strange bunch in a strange universe, where the laws of space and time were constantly changing, or were changed by their own doing. The ship's computer, Holly underwent a sex change, and Rimmer battled a series of events including giving birth (as a man) to babies, and meeting his female counterpart in an alternate universe. His long-dead girlfriend, Kochanski, returned from an alternate universe and, at one point, teased Rimmer with the suggestion that in her own Universe, Rimmer was gay.

Third Rock from the Sun (1996-2001) was a recent American comedy featuring four aliens visiting Earth. This series included a blend of satire and social comment rolled together. Security Officer Sally (played by Kristen Johnston) fought the daily sexism of America's gender roles for women; Harry (French Stewart) was a sensitive New-Age man; and Commander Dick (played by John Lithgow) was a gullible and naïve man who stumbled frequently over social morés while he explored the human condition and human sexuality. The series featured Lithgow and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, two actors who have made notable appearances in other productions playing gay or transgender roles.

Futurama (1999 - continuing) is an animated SF comedy featuring a pizza delivery boy named Fry, who accidentally freezes himself in a cryogenic lab and awakens, one thousand years later, on New Year's Day of the year 3000. He befriends Leela, an exotic one-eyed alien female; the lobster creature Dr. Zoidberg; and other futuristic characters, including the robot, Bender, who insists he is not a robo-sexual. In one episode, Professor Farnsworth retires at age 150 and clones himself. In another episode, the crew crashes on a planet of giant Amazon women who prefer life without men (this episode also starred the voice of Bea Arthur, gay icon from The Golden Girls). Things are strange in this future, and, although no open homosexuality is shown or depicted, the spirit of queerdom seems potentially alive.

The Chronicle (2001 - 2002) was America's most recent foray into SF comedy. A newspaper reporter named Tucker Burns (played by Chad Willet) tracked down monsters and other creepy crawlies in the finest tradition of Karl Kolchak from Kolchak: The Night Stalker(1972-1975). Although reportedly cancelled, The Chronicle remained a nicely hetero show in the episodes which have so far been telecast in Australia.

America's most iconic SF franchise, Star Trek, has had moments of comedy (some of them intentional!) and on rare occasion has used these opportunities to covertly touch upon gay themes. The original Star Trek (1966-1969) arguably contained camp overtones, such as Captain Kirk (William Shatner)'s stereotypical mannerisms as a woman in the show's final episode, Turnabout Intruder. Such overtones were present in the movie, Star Trek 5: The Final Frontier (1989) in a tribute to 'slash' fan fiction (unofficial stories which frequently featured Kirk and Spock in variations of gay relationships). In this movie, Spock implored Kirk not to hug him in public: "Please Captain, not in front of the Klingons."

The tenth Star Trek movie, Nemesis (2002) also featured a comedic one-line reference to queer issues in Data's wedding reception speech: "Ladies, gentlemen, and any transgendered species..."

Clearly, these lines from these two Star Trek movies were only included for their comedy potential, indicating once again that comedy can touch upon topics which would still be unacceptable in a more serious context. They also indicate perhaps how far media SF still has to come to catch up with the reality of homosexuality or queer themes.

The author acknowledges Michael Cassutt's article at http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue196/cassutt.html as being influential in suggesting My Favorite Martian as a template for many other TV series mentioned herein. A complete list of sites referred to in the course of producing this article may be found at http://spacedoutinc.org/DU-15/TVComedies-biblio.html

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