TV Land’s ‘Happy Face’ On Homosexuality Masks Tragic Lifestyle

By Ed Thomas and Jenni Parker

June 8, 2005

(AgapePress) – A pro-family website is warning television audiences that TV Land, a cable network that advertises a schedule of well-known, classic, family-friendly television shows, is airing a special that promotes the homosexual agenda this month. A recent e-mail alert from OneMillionDads.com notes that the show called “Inside TV Land: Tickled Pink,” which celebrates homosexual undercurrents running through television history, is airing on TV Land throughout June.

TV Land is touting the “Tickled Pink” as the first program to look at how and why certain classic television shows “have hit the funny bone for generations of gay viewers.” The show promises to celebrate a variety of TV shows and situation comedies that have commanded huge homosexual fan bases, and will “get the inside scoop from the talented people that created them.”

Ed Vitagliano, a media researcher for the American Family Association, says although “Tickled Pink” does not promote the latest political issues of the pro-homosexual movement, the one-hour special does appear to have some disturbing objectives. One thing the show seems to do, he observes, is to hint that Hollywood has somehow “outsmarted” mainstream culture for decades by “sneaking” homosexual characters and motifs into television programs.

All this “underscores the fact that there really is an agenda in Hollywood amongst those who are homosexual,” Vitagliano says. And its chief aim, he asserts, has apparently been “to kind of broach the subject [of homosexuality] to straight America in as subtle a way as possible with the hopes that they’ll be more accepting of the political movement.”

Upon watching “Tickled Pink,” Vitagliano says it was “disturbing” to have Hollywood’s homosexual agenda so solidly confirmed. “In some ways it was worse than I expected it to be,” he notes, “because it really celebrated the fact that there were people in Hollywood who were trying to get a message across without the viewer really knowing it — at least if they were straight.”

In addition to focusing on actual “gay code” or subtext in some shows, Vitagliano says the TV Land special also examined how homosexuals watch many of the same shows popular with heterosexual viewers, yet interpret or experience them differently — through a homosexual lens, so to speak. “Tickled Pink” suggests that popular shows such as “The Golden Girls,” “Batman,” or “Chips” that feature close same-sex friendships have often been viewed by homosexuals as affirmations of their lifestyles — a fact the pro-family reviewer says he found sad.

“Even in TV shows that have nothing to do with homosexuality,” Vitagliano notes, “apparently gays and lesbians have often latched onto any hint of a close relationship or spiritual intimacy between characters of the same sex and have read a homosexual subtext into it, desperate to find something — anything — that will give them a sense of normalcy.” Or, in other cases, he adds, indications are that homosexuals often view shows about characters with supernatural powers and hidden abilities, such as “Bewitched” and “I Dream of Jeannie,” and see characters who must keep secrets or lead hidden lives as somehow paralleling the “closeted” homosexual existence.

“I watched the show with a deep sense of sadness,” Vitagliano notes. “It made me realize all the more how much Christians need to reach out to gays and lesbians, who are often extremely lonely people.” Not that homosexuals are to be pitied, he adds, “any more than we are all to be pitied by God.” But although many homosexuals may feel they are lacking intimacy and a sense of connection with people of their same sex, the AFA spokesman says, “What they really need is a relationship with Jesus.”

While the pro-family media researcher found the revelations of “Tickled Pink” unsettling, he points out that many in the entertainment industry, including those interviewed for the show, appear to be pleased or even amused by the fact that Hollywood has managed to slip in pro-homosexual “subliminal messages” through its programming.

“The people on the show celebrated that — they thought it was funny,” Vitagliano says. Still, he insists, no matter how TV Land may try to “put a happy face” on homosexuality, that lonely lifestyle is obviously no laughing matter. According to OneMillionDads.com, “Tickled Pink” will be shown repeatedly on TV Land’s schedule all this month, airing at least nine times.

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