This is actually a reply to the entire board but it's nested here for no reason in particular.
I was a young adult when this series aired, and I honestly don't recall anything in it that directly addressed Sidney being gay. However, I DO remember that it was quite obvious in the pilot movie - exactly what they did or how they did it, I don't remember. Because I loved the movie, and watched the show because of it, I guess in my own mind, Sidney was definitely gay and maybe that's why I don't remember whether the writers played it down or not.
Something else that might help provide more insight is that the AIDS crisis had only just begun to be public knowledge, and didn't really bloom full force on television until the mid-1980s, after Love, Sidney went off the air. The movie, An Early Frost, portrayed a young gay man (played by Aidan Quinn) who discovered that he had AIDS, and the difficulties he encountered when he told his family. Compounding the difficulty was the fact that he was not yet "out." The most surprising line in the movie came from his grandmother (played by the AWESOME Sylvia Sidney), who loved him and accepted him no matter what.
I think one of the underlying themes of Love, Sidney was that the "family" living in the apartment was made up of societal misfits - a gay man, a single mom, and a child born out of wedlock. None of these things were particularly acceptable at the time. One of the most touching scenes I ever saw in any TV show anywhere was when Patti comes home from school one day, extremely upset, and Sidney holds her in his lap and comforts her, and finally gets her to tell him what's wrong. She asks him, why did a little boy in her class call her a bastard? It was heartwrenching. It was as heartwrenching as the final scene in the film, after Laurie and Patti moved to California. The final scene shows Sidney eagerly opening an envelope from Patti, and smiling as he looks at the drawing she sent him. Then the camera pans out to show that his kitchen is full of drawings from Patti but Sidney sits all alone in his apartment.
When people talk about "the great Tony Randall," man, they're not kidding.
neat . . . sweet . . . petite
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WarpedRecord
11 years ago
This is a series that's known more for the initial controversy it generated before it aired rather than the actual episodes, and I must admit that much of my recollection of this is based on the press it received rather than the episodes I saw, which were only a handful.
I remember this as being a sweet but rather generic sitcom about a middle-aged man raising a girl, kind of like "Diff'rent Strokes" except with one white girl instead of two black boys. The hot-button issues of the day(homosexuality, out-of-wedlock birth) seemed to be barely mentioned, if addressed at all. I don't remember the "bastard" episode, but this was an era I wasn't watching much TV and this show slipped through the cracks with me shortly after it debuted.
As far as AIDS, I think the disease and the virus were far from public awareness when this show aired. The disease was initially called GRID (gay-related immune deficiency) and the term AIDS wasn't introduced until July 1982, a month after the last episode of this show aired. The first time I heard of the disease was on an episode of "20/20" in November 1982 about a "gay cancer," but it seems it wasn't until '83 or '84 or so that the disease took hold in the mainstream media. Anyway, I don't think AIDS was a factor in removing Sidney's "gayness" from the episodes that aired -- it was skittishness over sponsors.
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TeOfLeDiKi
11 years ago
My recollections were all jumbled together, so my point got lost in the process of trying to make it . I brought up An Early Frost because it really was the first mainstream TV movie to focus on a main character who was gay. It is unfortunate that such a movie only came about because of AIDS, but then again, widespread acceptance of any minority culture is often preceded by a catastrophic event that affects, in particular, that culture.
When I considered WarpRecord's response, I also was reminded of another facet of Love, Sidney that I think was a subtle-yet-not-so-subtle point - that gay men did not have children (excepting, of course, gay men who, for whatever reason, choose to marry women and have families). The portrayal of Sidney, Laurie, and Patti as a family was a major step forward at the time. At the end of the pilot movie, Sidney seemed shocked that Laurie could actually fall in love with a man, marry him, and move away, because to him, Laurie and Patti were, in essence, his life companions.
WarpRecord - you're right that the buzz before the movie and the series is what is most remembered, rather than the series itself. But I would also posit that the series is also remembered for marking a shift in popular thinking - that gay men weren't just the leather dudes at Stonewall or effeminate fairies who love to do women's hair. Gay men like Sidney were just the guy next door - Sidney Shore may not have been the first gay TV character, but he certainly was among the first gay characters to have been portrayed as just-the-guy-who-lives-next-door. No special characteristics or clothes or taste in musicals - just a guy. Who happened to be gay.
neat . . . sweet . . . petite
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