“Silver Foxes” (AKA “The Golden Gays”) Might Not Happen Due To Ageist Homophobia
Silver Foxes, the Golden Girls homage featuring old gay dudes, is lying dead out on the lanai. And Hollywood bigotry is to blame! (I’m with you, because I, too, figured that it wasn’t happening because Bea Arthur looked down from the higher plane that she’s surely ruling and snarled “You’re replacing me with Bruce f**king Vilanch?”
No, actually the creators are saying that Hollywood is shutting doors to the Foxes because of ageism and homophobia. Believe me, I hear ya. Mature gays aren’t the most recognized demographic and they tend to be generally ignored, especially from younger gays. People assume it’s one ongoing lemon party but no! Hollywood is obviously run by a barrage of twinks in power suits, so old queens are pretty much screwed. Why don’t they just put it online? Oh, who am I kidding, no one has the attention span for a web series. There’s cute dog videos and Worldstar Hip-Hop fights to watch!
HuffPo spoke with co-creator (and co-writer of several Golden Girls episodes) Stan Zimmerman, who says that he can’t get a major network to even look at the script.
“In all my years in television, I’ve never seen a script reading get so much attention. I think this proves that there’s a great interest in seeing a sitcom like ours come to life. Ageism and homophobia are not only keeping the show from getting picked up, but from even being read by a major network.”
The creators and the cast (George Takei, Leslie Jordan, Bruce Vilanch, and Todd Sherry) met up for a table reading in June. Stan created the show with his writing partner James Berg. Besides writing the one where Blanche dates the younger guy who reveals he’s with her because of mommy issues, they’ve written episodes of Roseanne as well as A Very Brady Sequel. So it’s not like they don’t have the credits.
George agrees with Stan. He feels that “tv producers” are missing a major story-telling opportunity. (As long as this isn’t a polyamory thing. I don’t think my genitals can take the nuclear heat that would emit from a threeway between Sulu, Beverly Leslie from Will & Grace, and the head from Ice Pirates)
“Homophobia and ageism are currently problems for a significant part of our population. Television producers still seem reluctant to explore these issues head on with humor and humanity.”
All is not lost, though. Their next move is to shop the show around to streaming services like Netflix and Hulu. That could work. NBC, etc. probably aren’t the networks that are going to smile upon television shows concerned with old gays eating cheesecake and talking about their preferred positions during anal.
Pic: Instagram
Source: “Silver Foxes” (AKA “The Golden Gays”) Might Not Happen Due To Ageist Homophobia
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