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Just a reminder of how hard it's been to get to where we are today wrt queerness on tv:

2000, Dawson's Creek: Berlanti says “I had to threaten to quit, basically because they wouldn’t let us have the characters kiss,”. WB also asked them to film it from across the street.

2001, Buffy The Vampire Slayer: co-ep David Greenwalt, once recalled that he received a phone call from an anonymous WB exec asking "Is [Joss] really going to do this gay thing?". They were asked to cut Willow and Tara's kiss, and Whedon 'declared he would walk away from the show' if they didn't get their kiss.

2005, The OC: network affiliates said they were getting complaints about the bi Marissa storyline, and they went to the network saying, ‘If this doesn’t go away, we’re not going to air your show anymore.’. “I’ll never forget when we were forced to cut their first kiss way back before it aired. [...] I’m like, ‘What are we doing? Why are they doing that? They just made us cut this thing down to like a tiny little smooch,’” Schwartz recalled.

2000-2007, Gilmore Girls: Sherman-Palladino: "The networks were very different in how permissive they would allow you to be. So, Sookie was originally supposed to be gay, but that was a non-starter at that time."

2007-2012, Gossip Girl: “There was not a lot of representation the first time around on the show.” Safran said [...], adding: “I was the only gay writer I think the entire time I was there.” / ''Sure, Eric Van Der Woodsen came out in the 1st season -- he also triumphantly outed his boyfriend, which tells you a lot about where we were in 2007''.

2010, 90210: Q: 90210 doesn’t shy away from allowing its straight characters to express their sexuality. Will the show be as frank in its depiction of Teddy’s romantic relationships? Sinclair [EP]: I hope so.

27 LGBTQ+ characters were killed off in 2016 across various networks and shows.

Carter Covington (Faking It, 2014-2016) said in 2016: “Networks are terrified. They’re completely scared right now. They will look for any reason not to do something. …I would hate for us to lose opportunities because of fear.”

Javier Grillo-Marxuach [...] explained [he] doesn’t own the properties for which he is telling stories. “I don’t make promises I can’t keep,” he said. “I will not stand up in front of the world and promise to do this and then somehow become the scapegoat on something that is not my property.”

Extra not-related-but-kinda-related fact: 1999 - Felicity's Haircut: network executives suggested it could have been series star Keri Russell's drastic haircut that did the real ratings damage. According to entertainment president Susanne Daniels, [...] she provoked a reaction so "overwhelmingly negative" that audiences stopped tuning in. Rather than chiding viewers for their superficiality, Daniels promised Russell would regrow her mane. "Nobody is cutting her hair again on our network," she said.

Sometime around 2021-22, the 9-1-1 team starts seriously working up to expand their roster of queer characters (including two black women, a black man, and a white guy) by exploring Buck's bisexuality... but Fox hits the brakes and ends up cancelling the show. Fortunately ABC (owned by the same production company) picked it up and that storyline got the go ahead.

Now, The CW. Know Riverdale? that show where every plot point or detail that crosses your dash makes it seem even more bonkers, and whose fans are quick to tell you that actually it's even weirder? romantic entanglements included?

So there's a recurring gay character, and then the main cast (which includes Cheryl, who is a lesbian). Who kisses who? Cheryl and Topaz? YES. Cheryl and Veronica? YES. Cheryl and Betty? YES. Betty and Veronica? YES. Archie and Betty? YES. Archie and Veronica? YES. Jughead and Betty? YES. Jughead and Veronica? YES.

Archie and Jughead? NO.

...🤔

My main points:

Queer storylines are still not easily greenlit, especially for pre-existing characters (don't take risks. don't fix it if it ain't broken). It's getting easier, but it's still not easy.

White, male, and straight is still seen as the default and as neutral by the networks, and let's admit it, by a portion of the audience. So while they might be willing to include some diversity in their shows, I think these characters are still seen as 'other', and there's a strong reluctance to taking one of those 'neutral characters everyone can identify with' and... 'officially/openly queering them', so to speak.

And what about Supernatural? The show that Pedowitz was happy brought on some very wanted male viewers, and which they used to usher in new shows:

“It has been the lead-in or lead-out to almost the entire schedule,” Pedowitz said. “It’s made successes out of shows that might not have [otherwise] been sampled, and a lot of it has to do with the fact that Supernatural brought in an audience that demographically was 50-50, male to female.[...]"

The show that got this network note in season 1 (2005):

For the episode "Route 666" though, "… The note I got from the network was 'The girl can't be on top.'"

More not-fully-related-but-relevant tidbits, this time from Nancy Drew:

"[straight pairing were] never endgame in the very early days. It was never even a thing. It’s that beautiful thing that comes out of creating a show and getting to 62 chapters of a story and all of a sudden it kind of takes you somewhere."

[Actress from Nancy Drew] told Us that she “made it [her] mission” to make sure there were “little moments” between the two characters that fans could latch onto. “[Even] in subtle ways that weren’t necessarily scripted — just in case they decided to go that direction [so] that it would feel supported,”

Okay, now think back to the stuff Edlund has been saying. Misha has been saying. Jensen, even, has been saying.

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I am officially moving house on Friday!!

The (almost) perfect bookend - officially living apart on our 10th wedding anniversary.

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blows my mind that i have little online friends who mildly care about me. it’s really nice

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"I'm the one who f*cked you hard and raised you from perdition" sounds like something Cas would say to Dean to be a smartass after they've had sex...and then Dean would hit him with a pillow.

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620

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being an adult is just saying to yourself “this is the weekend i’ll clean my [x]” and then proceeding to not do that because it’s the weekend and you deserve to relax, goddamnit

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reblog to give somebody a fucking hug because we are all struggling to get through it. solidarity in this tough ass world.

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EVAN BUCKLEY, MADDIE BUCKLEY and CHIMNEY HAN | 9-1-1 → 7x04 Buck, Bothered and Bewildered

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1st time

2nd time

3rd time

4th time

5th time

last time

screaming, crying, fucking throwing up

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Dog tax for prev tags. At least she still loves me 🥰

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“Dean, like it or not, the stuff you don’t talk about doesn’t just go away. It builds up, like whatever’s eating at you right now.”

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Must admit that one thing that changed the way I see fandom discourse is realizing that a lot of fandom is just… playing with dolls. We're playing with dolls. Shipping? Playing with dolls. AUs? Dolls. Darkfic? Dolls.

Lotta people very agitated about the other kids playing with dolls wrong.

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🦔

This is Charles. He wants to go on a journey around tumblr. could you show him around?

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watching an actor's soul leave a television show five seasons before their body does