the-lost-son
Telly Talk Well-Known Member
Please no.
That's the the laziest kind of writing. Except that 80s TV was not ready for that it's pretty pathetic and unbelievable to make a longtime character gay/bisexual if you run out of ideas. 90s shows did that constantly, which was boring because it was so predictable.
I liked Lucy the way she was. It's similar to Emma on Falcon Crest who filled the gaps when needed. Both had many (mostly meaningless) relationships but a show needs these characters who take a backseat for the power couples to shine.
In today's entertainment industry though Dallas wouldn't get away with an all white, heterosexual cast of characters (except the Kit Mainwaring episode) (and ethnic minorities as servants).
That's the the laziest kind of writing. Except that 80s TV was not ready for that it's pretty pathetic and unbelievable to make a longtime character gay/bisexual if you run out of ideas. 90s shows did that constantly, which was boring because it was so predictable.
I liked Lucy the way she was. It's similar to Emma on Falcon Crest who filled the gaps when needed. Both had many (mostly meaningless) relationships but a show needs these characters who take a backseat for the power couples to shine.
In today's entertainment industry though Dallas wouldn't get away with an all white, heterosexual cast of characters (except the Kit Mainwaring episode) (and ethnic minorities as servants).
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tommie
Telly Talk Hero
LuMu is the slash fiction we all need.
tommie
Telly Talk Hero
That's an interesting point - maybe Lucy would've been a stronger character if she had been given more room to comment on all other characters shaningans and effectively working as an "audience members" point of view character?
Mel O'Drama
Admin
This is how I remember the character working best. Her sarcastic "I think this is all so exciting" and asking Ray to kiss the bride in Digger's Daughter is the kind of Lucy I really enjoy.
I seem to remember they got some of this sass back in her 1988 return. Her quips from the sidelines - like the one about Sue Ellen giving Cally "something old" (JR) - improved some of these less-classic episodes with an injection of fun. And it felt character-driven as well.
Having a storyline is nice and all, and I'm sure it can be tedious for an actress to be sidelined, but with a character like Lucy the big moments aren't the highlights for me.
Snarky Oracle!
Telly Talk Supreme
Yes, Lucy snarky and occasionally insightful (like Afton) was what seemed to work best.
But I just tend to assume Lucy was a lesbian -- a Sagittarian nerdy lesbian.
But longtime real-life people often turn gay/bisexual because they've run out of ideas.
Oh, for sure. The culture changed in the early-'90s (post the advent of AIDS, which today, I guess, is monkeypox) and everyone suddenly fell out of the closet. Hollywood began to reflect that shift but went overboard with it, and still does -- shoehorning in homosexual stuff, forcing it down our throats and grinding away.
It is exhausting and irritating and contrived, and, at the risk of sounding like an old fogey, if they never mentioned gayness again in movies and TV, I'd be just fine.
I mean, now we know why, for so many eons, homosexuality was known as "the love that dare not speak its name," -- because once it starts talking, it just won't shut up (my posting count over the last few months notwithstanding).
We now have drag queen story hour, toddlers at strip shows, and empathy for "m.a.p.s" --- not the fault of most gay folks, mind you, but too much "acceptability" (or the weird blend of old-school oppression and new-found tolerance) just brings out the fringe crazies.
So whatchya gonna do?? Herd them all back into the closet?
Somebody's probably going to try.
I still say it's a CIA plot.
"Stop phone-sexing to my hubby Mitch -- and, by the way, you're even hairier than Muriel!"
But I just tend to assume Lucy was a lesbian -- a Sagittarian nerdy lesbian.
But longtime real-life people often turn gay/bisexual because they've run out of ideas.
Oh, for sure. The culture changed in the early-'90s (post the advent of AIDS, which today, I guess, is monkeypox) and everyone suddenly fell out of the closet. Hollywood began to reflect that shift but went overboard with it, and still does -- shoehorning in homosexual stuff, forcing it down our throats and grinding away.
It is exhausting and irritating and contrived, and, at the risk of sounding like an old fogey, if they never mentioned gayness again in movies and TV, I'd be just fine.
I mean, now we know why, for so many eons, homosexuality was known as "the love that dare not speak its name," -- because once it starts talking, it just won't shut up (my posting count over the last few months notwithstanding).
We now have drag queen story hour, toddlers at strip shows, and empathy for "m.a.p.s" --- not the fault of most gay folks, mind you, but too much "acceptability" (or the weird blend of old-school oppression and new-found tolerance) just brings out the fringe crazies.
So whatchya gonna do?? Herd them all back into the closet?
Somebody's probably going to try.
I still say it's a CIA plot.
"Stop phone-sexing to my hubby Mitch -- and, by the way, you're even hairier than Muriel!"
Seaviewer
Telly Talk Warrior
I don't really see the point to it - except the "wokeness' of it as seen through today's lens.
Now this I like. The writers clearly ran out of ideas for her. Turning her into a sort of Greek chorus could have been fun.
the-lost-son
Telly Talk Well-Known Member
Perfect. Couldn't have put it any better.
Taylor Bennett Jr.
Telly Talk Winner
tommie
Telly Talk Hero
I want to know what love is - I want you to show meif this isn't love, I don't know what is
Brian Kinney
Telly Talk Addict
A lesbian with long blond hair? That's very unrealistic (Muriel though, of course!). There were so many women who gave me more lezzo vibes than Lucy: Sue Ellen & Jamie, Phyliss & Marilee Stone, Angelica & Grace, Dora-Mae & Kimberly Cryder, Tracy McKay & Jory Taylor...
Google Search "Sue Ellen": this is the first entry there!
Google Search "Sue Ellen": this is the first entry there!
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Taylor Bennett Jr.
Telly Talk Winner
poor Mickey Trotter, seen below in between our favorite lovebirds: first an unwitting lovestruck beard for a blonde-haired heiress, then struck down for good trying to save a besotted lesbian bar magnate driven to drink by her unrequited love for the glamorous and very hetero Holly Harwood
(he'd have been far better off with Kit Mainwaring)
(he'd have been far better off with Kit Mainwaring)
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DallasFanForever
Telly Talk Supreme
I wouldn’t have liked Lucy being a lesbian, at least not during her first run on the show. That would’ve deprived us of her relationships with Mickey and Mitch, both of which I enjoyed. If they were going to do that with her character, then when she returned later on was definitely the time. At that point the character needed a new direction.
Mustard
Telly Talk TV Fanatic
You realize that same-sex relations were illegal in Texas until as recently as 2003? What they did with Kit Mainwaring was gutsy for the time (1978-79), and I don't think that storyline would have happened in the AIDS scare years. Lucy as a bisexual is more workable than as a lesbian, because it's far easier for a bisexual to stay closeted than a homosexual.
Taylor Bennett Jr.
Telly Talk Winner
a season of Lucy aggressively pursuing Marilee Stone who was aggressively pursuing Casey Denault who was aggressively pursuing Lucy would have ushered in the era of Peak TV at least a decade early
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Snarky Oracle!
Telly Talk Supreme
Maybe we find out Kit Mainwaring was actually straight, and his gay-closeted posing was an elaborate, chivalrous attempt to deflect attention away from Lucy's relationship with Muriel...
What a sweet man. As it were.
What a sweet man. As it were.
Mustard
Telly Talk TV Fanatic
In the context of the time and the Lucy character, it would be easier to have Lucy lusting after the guys as usual and some of the girls too rather than just be into the girls. In that era, only being into girls, and in Texas, would surely change Lucy's whole character? Today, her being a lesbian and not being with guys wouldn't make much difference to her character, but back then it would have. As a bisexual of that time, she'd still have her character, but would likely have to keep a part of her life secret or under the radar. It would even be a potential way of harming Ewing Oil or the Ewing's political interests, like the Ewings did with Cliff when they found out that his ex-girlfriend had an illegal abortion.
