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Book

The rainbow age of television : an opinionated history of queer TV

Call Number

  • 791.45 W284 (CEN)

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Publication Information

New York : Abrams Press, 2024

Physical Description

295 pages ; 24 cm

Summary

"With the last decade's television boom across a multitude of platforms, producing hundreds of network and streaming series, American audiences are being treated to a cascade of shows that some have trumpeted as a second Golden Age. But something completely new is stirring, too--the Rainbow Age. For the first time in the history of American television, we have shows in which LGBTQIA+ characters have evolved from being an anomaly to being an almost given and celebrated presence on the small screen. But what more can queer TV do? Is each new queer character really breaking ground? And has the curse of the fictional dead lesbian finally been defeated? The Rainbow Age of Television tackles these questions and more as author Shayna Maci Warner tracks the history and evolution of LGBTQIA+ icons across the televised ages and into the future of streaming--from the very first televised queer kiss (we think) to the shows that are making household names and heroes of queer characters today. Warner uses original interviews with queer TV icons such as Lilly Wachowski and Stephanie Beatriz along with detailed history to investigate the constraints under which queer people have been allowed to exist on American television. Surveying seventy-plus years of broadcasts, The Rainbow Age of Television explores why queer people are so invested in--and conflicted by--the kinds of storytelling that TV has to offer. Above all, it's a celebration of the LGBTQIA+ shows, their characters, and their creators that define this new age in television"--

Contents

  • Introduction: On owing everything to (and wanting more from) queer TV
  • For the very first time
  • QIA25+: Firsts and far to boldly go
  • Queer & A: Lilly Wachowski
  • Just a regular Jodie: Recurring, regular, and lead queer characters
  • Queer & A: Jamie Babbit
  • The rainbow age meets the gray area
  • Queer & A: Jessica Sutton
  • Everybody dies
  • Queer & A: Stephanie Beatriz
  • Gays in "real" life
  • Queer & A: Melissa King
  • Queer & A: Sasha Colby
  • For the very second time: Reboots and revisions
  • Queer & A: Jennifer Beals
  • Queer & A: Tanya Saracho
  • Conclusion: The end of the rainbow.

Subjects