Yes, it’s true! Two new shows featuring gay and lesbian parents will be coming to television.
In addition to the upcoming Sean Saves the World, starring Sean Hayes as a single gay dad (and premiering October 3), two new shows are on the horizon:
Actor, writer, and gay dad Dan Bucatinsky is teaming with executive producer Shonda Rhimes (Scandal, Grey’s Anatomy) to create Show & Tell, a new hourlong series for ABC “inspired by” Bucatinsky’s book Does This Baby Make Me Look Straight? (See my review here.) The series will be “a fast-paced dramedy about the lives, loves, and scandalous secrets of a group of parents whose kids attend the same school.”
Out magazine has an interview with Bucatinsky, in which he reveals that although it is still in the planning stages, it will likely star “Four families whose first graders are all in the same class. . . . a gay couple. But also a single parent. And two others.” It also looks to have a tone different from the slapstick comedy of Modern Family and the light drama of The Fosters: “The show is really about what it’s like to juggle being a parent at a particular time in a person’s life… dealing with the politics of parenthood while struggling with a sort of comedic narcissism as we approach 40. But it’s a soap. Scandalous and fast.”
In addition, the CW just acquired U.S. broadcast rights for the Canadian comedy Seed, about “a single, an underachieving bachelor/bartender who is also a sperm donor [to] . . . a laid-back lesbian couple with a 9-year-old son, a neurotically hopeful single mom-to-be, and an uptight, upper-class family with a rebellious teenage daughter.” I’m always skeptical of any shows that rely too heavily on a storyline about sperm donors in telling about lesbian moms — but I’d be happy to learn that this one does it well. Any Canadian readers who have seen this? Is it any good? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
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