When we posted the photo spread titled “How Trevor Donovan Will Drive the 90210 Girls Crazy,” we meant to say “90210 Boys.” Because that’s just what the chiseled former A&F model is going to do when his character Teddy Montgomery goes gay this upcoming season. But producers didn’t just want to hand viewers a homo; they wanted to launch a whole coming out storyline.
Executive producer Rebecca Sinclair says that when Teddy was introduced, they didn’t know they’d turn him fey. And now that they are? They wanted “to play a coming out story that features a kid we already knew. Instead of his sexuality being the first and defining characteristic, we’ve already gotten a chance to know Teddy before he explores his sexuality. Teddy’s an athlete, he’s a famous guy’s son, he’s blonde and hunky and yes, he also has a sexual orientation and that’s a huge part of his life. In a lot of ways I think that’s more interesting than Teddy is a gay athlete, a gay famous guy’s son and a blonde and hunky gay gentleman.”
Is this the elusive “straight-acting, masculine teen jock” (Donovan is in his, ahem, 30s) television character we’ve been hoping for having had our fill of Kurts, Marshalls, and Justins? Sure! But same “struggling to come to terms with oneself” plot development, says Sinclair: “As a top-tier athlete and the son of a famous—and famously womanizing—actor, Teddy has always felt the need to keep up appearances. He’s had trouble reconciling the image that the world has of him with his own true sense of self. And he’s worked hard to repress whatever homosexual feelings he’s had. But early on in this season, something shakes up the structure of his life. With stability and routine out the window, he has trouble repressing who he really is. He acts impulsively and ends up hooking up with a guy. So it’s less of an epiphany than an impulsive act that sets things in motion.”
My only question: If the new 90210 series opened with a blowjob in car parked outside the high school (that’s what happened, right?), and the series has been free to show all the opposite-sex pairings take things into the bedroom, will The New Gay get the same treatment?
How about we take this to the next level?
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[EW]
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
Is this the elusive “straight-acting, masculine teen jock” (Donovan is in his, ahem, 30s)………Ya kinda sorta answered your own question there, he looks more like the Father of a “straight-acting, masculine teen jock” …….. Poor casting director, I understand its sooooo very hard to find teenage males who wish to act……… :p
Chris
Yeah…. the 30+ year old playing a teen is a bit odd…
jimmy
@PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS: the age gap between characters and actors is pretty common
D'oh, The Magnificent
According to broadcast TV, gay men are not into sex. We are nothing like our teenaged or early 20 something straight counter parts. The later of whom will sleep will sleep with any girl who lets him.
No, we are evolved!
We are only interested in meaningful, long term relationships once we come out. We are great at supporting everyone else. We don’t as a rule believe in PDA. Naked shower scenes. Blowjobs. Doing it in the back of our cars. None of that straight stuff applies because we are gay. We want long romantic walks in the park. Endless conversations about our sexual orientation. Etc.
We are nothing like our straight counter parts because we are not into screwing anyone attractive with whom we cross path. We are all Cams.
Indeed, we fall in love with the first gay guy we meet because there aren’t any other gays around, but that one gay guy introduced to be our significant other.
Expected A LOT of “BUt I can’t be gay angst.” Once he gets over that, expect his character to quickly find a man, and probably the first guy he’s with.
In other words, boring.
TheWeyrd1
So that frees up Silver to go after the recently departed/presumably heartbroken/we hardly knew ya Gia…right?
Hilarious
Ya’ll can get hung up on his age all day long. The guy who plays their teacher is like 24 in real life and looks older than me(I’m 27), so I really don’t care that the actor is 30.
He’s hot, that’s all that matters. No one on the show is in high school, they’re all mostly in their 20s. The guy who plays Navid looks 15 and is in his late 20s in real life.
The only reason you think he looks too old is because you know his real age. If you think he looks older than the guy playing the teacher then you need to get your eyes examined and as I’ve said he’s younger than some of his “students”.
Mr. Enemabag Jones
Is this the elusive “straight-acting, masculine teen jock”…television character we’ve been hoping for having had our fill of Kurts, Marshalls, and Justins?
You obviously don’t watch “Degrassi”. The character Riley Stavros has been playing that role for two years now.
And there’s nothing wrong with the Kurts, Marshalls, and Justins of gay TV land. I hope you were being facetious.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
@Mr. Enemabag Jones: 100% Co-sign. Thats the point, you can have actual teens playing teens! I can not understand why the casting people insist on hiring 30 yr olds to play teens. Chris Colfer and Mark Incelacio who are actual teens play Gay teens quite well.
It was great watching Marco on the original batch of Degrassi’s comming out and even more appealing when you realized after the actual actor Adamo Ruggiero came out, that he was experiencing the same thing in real life that his charachter was going through………
One of the bestest scenes on the TVs I ever saw was when Justin came out to his family on one of the last Ugly Betty episodes. At Hildas wedding he was with his BF sitting watching all the couples slow dancing you saw the moment on Justin’s face when he made his decision to go for it. He awkardly took his BFs hand and led him onto the dance floor, they embraced and started dancing, the cameras then cut to each of the rest of the cast dancing with their partners and saw the totally accepting reaction they had watching Justin and his BF dancing. It was such a heartfelt, touching, great moment to watch……..*sigh*
jimmy
@PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS: Hollywood vs Canadian television, the casting culture is just different; teen playing teens, non-white characters not portrayed has stereotypes, characters actually being relatable, etc.
adam
@Hilarious: lol, uh, really? I thought he looked way too old to pass as a teenager and had no idea whatsoever what his actual age was…
Mr. Enemabag Jones
@PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS:
The great thing about Degrassi is, some of the troubles that the actors were going through in real life, were brought onto the show, and suffered by the characters.
As Adam started to come out, so did Marco. And what we saw Marco go through–including friends turning on him like Spinner did, Adam went through in his own life.
That’s why this show has been so well received by kids since I was a kid in the early eighties. It’s real.
As a side note, Shannon Kook-Chun, the actor who plays Riley’s on again/off again BF, Zane, here’s an interview he did with After Elton:
http://www.afterelton.com/tv/gayslives/08-17-10-extra
jeff r
@Mr. EJ You’re right, there is nothing wrong with the Kurts, Marshalls and Justins of TVLand, but there is something wrong with a culture that limits the representation of gay men and teens to certain segments of our community that have too often been the subject of ridicule and made the stereotyped images of said community. Other than “DeGrassi,” a Canadian production, and other foreign programs, where are the brainiacs, the jocks, the band geeks, the invisible, the geeks, the nerds, the troublemakers, the druggies, the ethnics, the musicians, artists, mechanics and the multitude of other lgbt teens who are part and parcel of our community? Why aren’t they ever depicted realistically in the American media? Especially on “Glee?”
Although the gay characters on “Desperate Housewives” and “Brothers and Sisters” are alloted very limited screen time, they’re at least slightly more varied in terms of type, age, virtue and representative of other segments of our community. The gay trio on “OLTL” was a refreshing change to the stereotypes normally used to portray gay men on TV during their brief tenure. Is it possible that the powers that be are afraid to portray gay men as attractive, appealing characters? Characters that might possibliy conform more to the perceived image of the norm? Afraid to offend the sensibilities of the American public and challenge their prejudices by presenting appealing gay characters? I love Jesse Tyler Ferguson and think that he’s an incredibly gifted actor, and I find that he has his own distinctive appeal plysically, but wouldn’t it have been interesting to have his partner on “Modern Family” portrayed by a moderately attractive, non-stereotypical gay actor (David Burkta, Gavin Creel, Cheyenne Jackson, Matthew Montgomery, Nicholas Rodriguez, Scott Evans, Chad Allan, et al) rather than some overweight straight actor who portrays his partner as a drama queen with a serious weight problem? Couldn’t his character been influenced by Sean Penn’s portrayal of Harvey Milk? Nerdy? Wry sense of humor. Nebbishy? Ballsy? Think about it. I think that Scotty and Kevin are much more realistic, as was “OLTL’s” trio, and certainly more challenging to the prejudices of the American public. It’s my understanding that many adoption agencies will not permit overweight prospective parents to adopt because of the inherent health risks of being an overweight parent. Are NPH and David Burtka or Matthew Boomer and his partner overweight drama queens? Most of the gay parents that I know are not perfect physical specimens but they’re certainly not what’s depicted on “Modern Family” by the overweight straight actor. Have you noticed that with the exception of Ed O’Neill, who portraying the typical overweight,wealthy white guy with the trophy wife, all of the other adult characters are relatively physically appealing? Hmmmmm. Perhaps overweight, funny gay characters and effeminate, fey characters amuse the mainstream straight public and don’t threaten them but when that’s all that I see on comedies I find it both false and offensive.
I am not suggesting that all gay characters need to be gorgeous gods, just that our culture (albeit relatively obese) places a premium on physical attractiveness (not necessarily a good thing)and by portraying certain stereotypes (the funny overweight person, the funny/fey/sensitive gay guy) that are generally perceived in a potentially negative light they’re contributing to the stereotypes and prejudices that are routinely used to oppress the lgbt community in the media. Remember when Blacks were routinely cast as domestic help? The same goes for typecasting of Asians and Latinos, which still needs to be eradicated.
Of course the Kurts and Justins exist in our community, but where are the Jonathan Graffs?!? The evil Andrews? Have you noticed that on “Chelsea Lately” her gay panelists Ross and Guy conform to a certain stereotype? Has she ever had an attractive, funny out gay panelist to counteract Josh Wolfe? There’s an interesting article in “Next” magazine about the difficulties gay comics encounter professionally. Guy and Ross are funny, but they are not the only possible gay panelists. They may be the safest, least controversial and most stereotypical, but not necessarily the best. Not all gay men are overweight, fey, effeminate, bitchy, etc.
Those in the lgbt community that are fey and effeminate should continue to celebrate and embrace the same, there’s nothing to be ashamed of, but let’s give some equal media time to the others who do not fall within that niche. That would be a revolutionary idea.
Best,
JeffR
Pip
90210 is on the WB or something right? So who cares? When its on HBO, then I’ll want the gay high school sex.
Ash
I certainly hope they let him show some affection to his boyfriend! It’ll just be cringe inducing if they go through episode upon episode without kisses, hugs, ect.
It would be interesting (and NICE!) if they’d do a bedroom scene too, but I don’t know that 90210 will take it that far. They’ll probably stay on the safe side, like all the other shows. Sigh. :/
D'oh, The Magnificent
@Ash: i would prefer if he plays around a little first to show something akin to normally coming out for a lot of gay men rather than having he got straight (pardon the pun) to a relationship. There’s nothing wrong with relationships, but there is also nothing wrong with sexual exploration when one is starting off. It would be ground breaking for them to not put him a relationship as soon as he comes out.
Ash
@D’oh, The Magnificent: Oh, I totally agree! I just mean that once he does have a boyfriend I hope they actually let them be affectionate towards each other on camera. It makes me mad when they don’t let the gay and lesbian couples have the same amount(or any at all!) of physical affection. It’s always so obvious when they don’t let them do the normal couple-y stuff.
D'oh, The Magnificent
@Ash: Then we are in total agreement.
Sceth
Drama: love the artform; hate the genre.
Hilarious
@adam: They all do. None of them are teens.
The reason most shows don’t hire actual teens is they’re limited to how many hours they can work. That’s why seasons of Degrassi are so short.
It’s impractical.
No one you see on most shows and movies about teens are actually teens or even look like actual teens. They look like Hollywood’s versions of teens for the reason listed above.
Honestly it’s not even that he looks “old” it’s that his face is very muscular. If he looks old then I hope to look like that when I’m “old”, because as we all know 30 year olds look elderly.
Rick Brannon
You are all nothing more than hapless queers.
Get a life and get over yourselves, Jeez.
You make the Gay Race look bad.
alan brickman
he can hook up with Vincent Chester’s character..hawt damm…
strawman
@Hilarious:
The reason most shows don’t hire actual teens is they’re limited to how many hours they can work. That’s why seasons of Degrassi are so short.
Have you ever seen Degrassi? It’s a half hour show but each season has like 22 episodes. This season they changed the format and there’s 48 episodes.
Kind of blows your theory out of the water..
Mikey M
Let’s hope they go farther than they let Matt on the Original Melrose Place go. We have been treated to a realistic Gay couple on Six Feet Under and Brother’s and Sisters. Time for FOX to start shocking again.
Don’t cut away from any kisses.
hephaestion
“turn him fey”???
Who are these homophobes that are writing for Queerty?