A lot of LGBT people have been marginalized. Previously gay characters were played for laughs on TV or in movies, but we playing three-dimensional gay men and the audience can all see themselves whether they are straight, gay, black or white. LGBT culture has this reputation that is all drag. But we all put our pants on one leg at a time. We want to show real men and women as real people. We don’t want to give you another ‘Just Jack’ from Will & Grace. We’re past that! That’s not to say these characters can’t be seen or told anymore, but we’ve told them already.”
— Looking star Frankie J. Alvarez, in a revealing new interview with Attitude magazine
Alan down in Florida
Damn he looks hotter in this picture than he ever has on Looking.
jason smeds
He can only hope for Will and Grace’s ratings. I predict Looking will be canned at the end of the season. People don’t want to watch narcissistic, horny men in constant search of pick-ups. It’s boring.
MinnesotaNotNice
I’m trying to give him the benefit of the doubt in his comments, but when you step way back to look at the big picture, there had to be a ‘Will & Grace’ before there was ever going to be a ‘Looking’. Vice President Joe Biden was able to understand how having a show like ‘Will & Grace’ made it possible for America to watch gay and straight characters together and see how normal and everyday we are when he declared that it helped to move the discussion of having gay marriage become a reality in all 50 states.
Gruffling
Meh. Looking just traded one set of stereotypes for another. I certainly can’t see any of myself in them other than the fact that yeah, I fancy Russell Tovey too but I’m part of quite a large crowd on that front.
SebX
@jason smeds: I agree 100% !!
enlightenone
“…LGBT culture has this reputation that is all drag.”
Starting w/a FALSE premise. I’ll take Will & Grace any day. There is no comparison!
Notice he only pointed out Jack? Will and all his boyfriends was a reflection of the range of gay men including Black men. Would have liked to have seen a few more gay men of color.
Sweet Boy
He looks like Ted Schmidt
VampDC
He’s the most annoying character in the show and sounds just as annoying in real life.
Looking wishes it could be another will & grace!
SportGuy
Thats hilarious! He has nothing to worry about, because Will & Grace was actually good and ran for many seasons. This crap will end soon hopefully.
Paco
When are the “three-dimensional gay men” going to make an appearance in the series?
jimontp
@jason smeds: Do you ever say anything POSITIVE about anything?
Does any gay man want to live a life depicted in Will and Grace? You want to be Will without EVER having sex? Or Jack, the bitchy queen who never actually comes out?
“Narcasstic gay men in search of a constant hook-up” ???? Hello, Reality check-up here.
What the hell do you think all of the gay web hook-up sites are about?
If you don’t like the characters and story on Looking, DON’T watch. Just save us your constant negative judgemental comments,
please.
NoCagada
@jimontp: AMEN!
Zenguy
I think that Looking actually shows the progress and evolution of how gays are depicted in entertainment/media. Sure, there some stereotypes,but you have to admit those characteristics do exist in some gay men. But the show also has characters that don’t pander to the stereotype – with men just trying to find their way in life just like everyone else.
Will and Grace existed and served its purpose in a different generation. Perhaps casting gays as comedic characters was a palatable way to appeal to a general audience. The public was still processing the existence of homosexuals and their place in society.
Now, with marriage equality, along with every manner of people shattering the closet – actors, writers, CEOs, teachers, sportsmen/woman, singers, fathers, mothers, teenagers etc… the media is catching up, showing that the diversity of character isn’t exclusive to one’s sexual orientation.
lwoody75
I can see his point of view. I think Looking is the best depiction of gay life in a major city that we have ever seen. It hits really close to home and living in the Bay area this show gets its right. I don’t think he is putting down W&G he is talking about the evolution of gay characters in the media.
So ladies calm down. And if you really think the show is so bad create something better or shut up
Kieran
“Previously gay characters were played for laughs on TV or in movies…”
—Frankie J. Alvarez
Well nominate that for understatement of the year.
Of course gay men have been portrayed negatively or as the butt of jokes for years without much variation. This has been used very successfully to convince many gay men who can pass to stay closeted. Ridiculing gay men and portraying them relentlessly as pansies has been a time honored tradition in our entertainment culture. It’s good to hear people speaking of changing that. Bravo!
lauraspencer
I agree with Jason Smeds.
LOOKING can’t be compared to WILL & GRACE. It’s like comparing BREAKING BAD to FRIENDS. One is a comedy and the other is a drama. Characters in comedy tend to be broader and have cartoon qualities.
Did Alvarez never watch the original QUEER AS FOLK in the late 90s or the Showtime adaptation? QAF had more interesting and relatable characters than LOOKING.
Alvarez’s agent should start LOOKING for another job for his client. The ratings this season are down by half of last year’s numbers so it doesn’t look like it will be back for another season.
jwtraveler
No one TV program can ever depict the entirety of any demographic. Straight white people dominated the airwaves for the first half century of TV. No one would ever claim that “Leave it to Beaver” or “Married with Children” or “Dallas” or “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” or “Mad Men” represents all of straight white people. But each depicts an aspect of what straight, white life in the U.S. is like. When black people and, more recently, gay people began to appear on TV, those groups wanted to see themselves, but no single program is going to represent the lives of all black people or all gay people. As we see more varieties of TV shows with various demographics, we also begin to see a greater cross-section of those communities. We do not have to look to “Will and Grace” or “Modern Family” or “Looking” to show the entirety of the gay community. We can find various aspects of the community, and ourselves, in each of them. Although lesbians do seem to be conspicuously absent, except on talk shows.
And remember, this is TV; none of it is real life.
TK
Television, whether it be your local stations or the ones you have to subscribe to, is slowly (snails pace), bringing to light, more LGBT actors with half decent story lines. Sex scene’s? More like tame scene’s. Half the crud they show is on the down low. The only show to hit the air waves that was quite steamy, was Queer As Folk. This show, tempted to dive into a few highly risque scene’s. Society that tuned in, would talk about it openly in public. QaF got a huge following, gay and straight. The scene between Eric and Jason (True Blood) was quite hot but again, low key. When the heterosexuals get into it, again, low key. I’ve never seen Looking, since that show is only available on stations, one needs to subscribe to (Like OUTtv). LGBT’s are in the news today, since the Marriage Equality push for all of the USA is huge news. One small step at a time, since there’s just as many haters out there as is, no sense in creating more, right? As TV shows start to explore things remotely gay, they’ll take the chance and try something different, fully knowing that there may be a back lash. From reading the comments, it seems that “Looking” portraits a more “normal” sense of gays. Now, as for Will and Grace, sure, that was a tad on the ground breaking aspect of slowly introducing gay characters. Will was interestingly attractive and thank heaven’s no where near as annoying as Jack. Grace was… Grace. Now Anastasia Beaverhausen was a scream! I honestly believe, without Karen, the show would of been a bust. So, television shall continue to move forward and those tame “sex scenes” will keep on displaying, since they’re not that foolish to go any further than that. However, unless your watching Bravo, Showcase or HBO, you’ll have to make due with what’s being offered.
enlightenone
@Zenguy: “…the media is catching up,”
That’s the point! When will “Looking” catch up. 14 year old gay boys in Iowa are more socially intelligent than these post-adolescent repressed males in adult male bodies w/the exception of the over-sized twink “lead!”
enlightenone
@jimontp: “Just save us your constant negative judgemental comments,please.” UNTIL AFTER you watch the 7 SEASONS of Will and Grace, or watch the series after you eliminate your obvious cognitive deficits!
enlightenone
@Zenguy: “Will and Grace existed and served its purpose in a different generation.”
The last season was 2007!
“Perhaps casting gays as comedic characters was a palatable way to appeal to a general audience.”
True to an extent, but many of the topics/issues were serious ones not resolved in an episode. The adolescent sex in Looking is what “heterosexuals” presume is how all gay males engage (I use the word loosely here)in sex. Ironically, Will and Grace made Looking possible!!!
The public was still processing the existence of homosexuals…” ??????
They know we ‘existed’ since the “Garden of Eden!” It was and is a question of how to relegate us to the margins, exterminate, ex-gay us, or destroy our bodies by any barbaric means necessary.
lykeitiz
Who exactly in that cast does he think are playing “three dimensional gay men”? If they are, it’s only in their own heads, certainly not drawn from that remedial reading script they’re working from.
Let’s see……Will & Grace……Groundbreaking, unprecedented, smash ratings, hugely successful in syndication…….
He certainly is well on his path of not bringing us another “Just Jack”.
The show they should be trying to expand from is Queer As Folk, and as the saying goes………You Sirs, are NO Queer As Folk.
tdh1980
Just as black people needed Mammy, Amos and Andy, and Uncle Remus to get us to Cliff and Clair, Olivia Pope, and Anneliese Keating, gay men also needed Will, Jack, and all of the other characters so many of us are intent on criticizing in order to get us to more and better representations. They all should be celebrated for what they were able to accomplish during times when we were almost completely without voice. Evolution takes time.
Black Pegasus
@tdh1980: Good point…. But progress takes too darn long! I’m sick of seeing stereotypical queens on film.
enlightenone
@tdh1980: “They all should be celebrated for what they were able to accomplish during times when we were almost completely without voice. Evolution takes time.”
That’s why those of us who were w/o in our 20’s and early 30’s don’t want to see post-adolescent escapades from supposed grown men who were raised and/or live in San Francisco of all places. That’s what Faking It and other shows from the past few years are for. Put these characters on a college campus or off-campus housing in Wisconsin OR 1985 and then we would have a lower level of expectations!
tdh1980
@enlightenone: I have never seen an episode of “Looking,” so my comments don’t speak to those characters. They were directed at the actor featured in the post.
Geeker
Sex obsessed emotionally stunted gay men living in San Francisco…That sounds groundbreaking alright.
enlightenone
@tdh1980: “They were directed at the actor featured in the post.”
He’s one of the “stars” of Looking. Leaving Looking out of the equation, your comment was thoughtful and on point. However, my comment still addresses the issue of “evolution takes times.”
wpewen
I looked at Will and Grace a couple times. No way. A tall, thin Columbia grad, his fag hag, and effeminate sidekick. Yuk,
Now “Looking” Urban gay good looking YOUNG guys doing whatever they are supposed to do.
Maybe someday we’ll get a gay “Home Improvement.” Bet more guys would identify with that, I would. My life has never been like these shows, and nobody I know now has. Back in the 70’s Mary Hartman had a gay plumber written into the show. Much more interesting, and actually attractive to a lot of us. The way we live, not that different from our Dads, except we fuck other guys…
CCTR
@jimontp: Thanks for that!
I defended the show to no end last season and this season I said no more. I love the show for what it is just as I loved QAF, Noah’s Arc, and Will and Grace.
It appears that so much hate for Looking from people on this site is some type of response to being personally offended and for some reasons angered by the show. I still don’t get why some trash it so much and wish it off the network. For those who hate the show the show was not meant for you, just consider that you personally were not the targeted audience…you have the choice to not watch it. It would be nice if some magical perfect show with a cast of leading gay characters that every single gay person will love and appreciate were waiting in the wings to air once Looking is canceled, but that isn’t reality.
stranded
@lwoody75: totally agree.
Captain Obvious
Looking should try being interesting before worrying about being compared to a highly rated and highly syndicated sitcom.
lykeitiz
@Captain Obvious: Yeah, that’s what I said, @Captain Obvious:
wpewen
@lwoody75: That’s a big problem Most people don’t live in the Bay Area. I did for a year, I’m from SoCal. It’s grown to be a huge population with lots of folks in the Bay Area, they are obsessed with where they live. It is interesting, great in many respects, but it’s just a place. Nowhere else are people so hung up on geography. It’s old.
topshelf
I’m sure if he had the opportunity to be on a show as popular as Will and Grace, he’d jump ship in two seconds. Looking sucks.
SethNg
@TK:
Looking IS on HBO…
it is not on OUTtv…
which btw is ‘cable’ but is not a premium channel one must pay extra for… it’s included in a themed package or able to be used in a ‘pick n choose’ bundle…
of course HBO gets put in with the movie bundles for which one does have to pay extra…
Franklin
I’m sorry, what black people is he talking about on the cast of “Looking” again? Oh, he means the light skinned half-white black guy that’s never seen dating or interacting with other black men?
Professor Fate
But it’s IS Blanche, It IS Wil and Grace for the new millennia.
And a MUCH blander Wil and Grace at that.
Gman23
I personally like the show Looking. I also liked will and grace for the comedy, yes for the comedy. Looking is more than just comedy, if any comedy is present. Modern Family, also comedy. Although looking may not be the best show in the world, it is a pretty good show in the gay theme arena. What other shows are on about gays? Ru Paul’s drag show? Will and Grace is gone. Would you rather watch Sarah Palin’s Alaska? The Kardashians? Or even Ru Paul’s Drag Queen?