History FairForItsDay / LiveActionTV

*** Similarly, male characters repeatedly worry a lot about traditional masculinity, or about being MistakenForGay, which was pretty common for the era. But the tone of such episodes was generally about how silly they were to be so panicked about it.

* ''Series/{{Friends}}'' is starting to attract this label. When viewed through the lens of the late New Tens, the show's treatment of LGBT people and issues can feel outdated. For the mid-90s, though, it was very progressive, with Ross's ex-wife Carol and her wife Susan always portrayed in a positive light. Having a same-sex couple getting married on screen in 1996 was a big deal, as was the accepting reaction of all the character. [[note]]At least all the characters on-screen. Carol's parents are said to be boycotting the ceremony (which is treated as unequivocally horrible), but we never see them. Phoebe, while being 'possessed' by the spirit of an elderly woman who died on her massage table is the only person to express anything other than 100% support for the union, and even then it's merely to remark on how unusual it is.[[/note]]

* ''Series/{{Friends}}'' is starting to attract this label. When viewed through the lens of the late New Tens, the show's treatment of LGBT people (transgender especially), its rigidly-defined 'acceptable' masculinity and its lack of ethnic diversity is starting to draw criticism. However, considering its beginnings in the early 1990s, the complete lack of malicious homophobia from either the characters or the show itself is remarkable, with Ross's ex-wife Carol and her wife Susan always portrayed in a positive light. Considering that in the USA, same-sex marriage was not legalised nationwide until over a decade after the show ''ended'', the fact that an episode with a Carol and Susan's lesbian wedding aired in the second season with not a single character [[note]]Certainly no characters on-screen. Carol's parents are said to be boycotting the ceremony (which is treated as unequivocally horrible), but we never see them. Phoebe, while being 'possessed' by the spirit of an elderly woman who died on her massage table is the only person to express anything other than 100% support for the union, and even then it's merely to remark on how unusual it is -- you'd have to really be squinting to see anything truly objectionable in what she says.[[/note]] objecting handily demonstrates the show's progressive-for-the-time credentials.
** The criticism of the shows handling of 'traditional masculinity' is definitely earned, in episodes such as "The One With Joey's Bag", where Joey is mocked throughout the episode for wearing a 'man's bag', which the others all call a woman's purse. However in some episodes where, for example, Ross is uncomfortable with his son playing with a Barbie or Rachel hiring a male nanny to care for Emma, the show makes it clear that ''Ross'' is the one with the problem and that his issues are down to his own insecurities, such as when he used to get mocked for dressing like a girl as a child or his father mocking him for not playing sports 'like a real boy'.

* ''Series/{{The Goodies}}'':
** ''Series/{{The Goodies}}'' did an episode about South Africa which mocks and ridicules Apartheid. Try watching it on Youtube without wincing.

*** The episode uses gender identity as a science fiction stand-in to address homosexuality, failing to anticipate that gender identity would itself become a part of the greater LGBT movement. It simply wasn't on most people's radars in 1992.
*** The show never even acknowledges homosexuality in the 24th century. This was most likely due to content restrictions on prime-time broadcast television shows in 1992, several years before Ellen Degeneres coming out on her show was considered revolutionary (and, in fact, the show had previously been barred from merely having a same-sex couple in the background of a scene). It's limited to expressing support for gay rights through metaphor, though it's not [[{{Anvilicious}} exactly subtle]].
*** The episode is frequently criticized for not having Riker's lover be played by a male actor to make the gay aesop more explicit. While this would obviously have been difficult to pull off due to the social mores of its broadcast date, it also would have muddled the PersecutionFlip metaphor -- the episode's tactic was to gain the sympathy of a 1990s audience by presenting the argument for gay rights through the defense of an explicitly heterosexual relationship.

*** The [[TokenMinority only black cast member]], Lt. Uhura, is a communications officer. Her job was very similar to that of a phone operator, which is a stereotypically female occupation. Creator/NichelleNichols was going to leave the show at the end of the first season, but [[UsefulNotes/MartinLutherKingJr Martin Luther King]] convinced her into staying, because seeing a black woman on television in any role but that of a maid was groundbreaking for its day. She also protagonized the first interracial kiss on television, between Kirk and Uhura, in the episode "[[{{Recap/StarTrekS3E10PlatosStepchildren}} Plato's Stepchildren]]". Creator/WhoopiGoldberg credits seeing Nichols on this show as a major inspiration to her as a child, and the reason she lobbied hard to appear on ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''.

* In 1961 Creator/RodSerling wrote ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' episode [[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E27TheBigTallWish "The Big Tall Wish"]] and cast black actors in all the major roles, which was completely unheard of at the time. Several future episodes followed suit and cast black actors in what would nowadays be considered [[TokenMinority "token black"]] roles, but back then, seeing black people on TV was so rare that even token inclusion was considered revolutionary.
** In the fifth season, the episode [[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E151TheEncounter "The Encounter"]] portrays a psychologically escalating confrontation between a Japanese-American man and a white veteran of [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WorldWarII/WarInAsiaAndThePacific the Pacific theater]]. While the episode definitely contains some racially problematic elements (and was kept of out syndication for decades as a result), it's also an impressively open and nuanced portrayal of the reality and impacts of racism in America, to an extent that's quite impressive for 1964. Adding more nuance, the episode outright states that the American veteran had committed war crimes and that this wasn't all that unusual, and acknowledges how the dehumanizing racial propaganda of WWII contributed to these war crimes and post-war prejudice, both almost unthinkable to mention at the time.

** The 1960s era, owing to having a female producer, Creator/VerityLambert, had much better written and more dynamic female characters than most other science fiction at the time - there are [[UsefulNotes/TheBechdelTest two equally prominent female characters who have lives outside of the male characters]], Barbara in particular being very strong. (Compare with ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'', with only two recurring female crewmembers who rarely interact.) Some stories even played with 60s conceptions of gender, such as "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E6TheAztecs The Aztecs]]" where Barbara is mistaken for the reincarnation of a male priest, causing her to point out that not all cultures consider gender to be that different, and a discussion between Susan and Barbara about whether Ian should think himself to be be looking after them. In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E2TheDalekInvasionOfEarth The Dalek Invasion of Earth]]", Susan also snarks at a member of LaResistance who assumes that because she's a woman that she can cook, even though we later find out that she can when she prepares and cooks a wild rabbit for a Resistance member later. Future societies are depicted in which men and women are completely equal. Even the Doctor's patronising and patriarchal attitude towards his teenage granddaughter Susan was dismantled in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E7TheSensorites The Sensorites]]", when he seems to realise that the reason he and Susan never argued is because he's been keeping her dependent on him. Barbara even has a no-strings-attached offscreen relationship with a handsome young HumanAlien [[GirlOfTheWeek man]], which is not milked for romance and for which she is never shamed. However, there's still plenty of random sexism that would never be acceptable today - such as in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E2TheDaleks The Daleks]]" the way the Thals, presented as unambiguously heroic, openly mock their women - sexist {{Out Of Character Moment}}s when writers with a shakier grasp of gender relations try and write the female TARDIS crew-members, and how Susan is PutOnABus by having her get married (when she's supposed to be 16). There is also ''a lot'' of [[ScreamingWoman pointless female screaming]], and it's not always remotely appropriate for the situation - due to being a BottleEpisode, most of the implication that there is something amiss in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E3TheEdgeOfDestruction The Edge of Destruction]]" is transmitted through having Susan and Barbara shriek all the time for no visible reason. And once Verity Lambert ends her involvement with the series, portrayal of women quickly gets worse -- [[StrangledByTheRedString marrying off of female TARDIS crewmembers]] and getting killed off begins to happen (Vicki, Katarina and Sara), and ParentService and DamselInDistress characters start appearing (Polly and Victoria).

* Series/UglyBetty's handling of Alexis being transgender would definitely not fly today with more than a few inappropriate comments from otherwise sympathetic characters and being played by a cis actress. However, the show also makes a point of portraying her in a sympathetic light, respecting her gender identity and pronouns, treating her as a normal part of the cast and showing those who refer to her as male or act in a transphobic way as wrong and it was still one of the few mainstream shows to have a trans character at all in sharp contrast to shows like Series/HowIMetYourMother which still had jokes treating them as a punchline and something to be horrified by.

* The original run of ''Series/WillAndGrace'', which lasted between 1998-2006, is pretty tame compared to most post-2010 portrayals of LGBTQ+ characters on TV. Detractors can easily point to the fact that Grace's relationships are much more likely to take place on-screen than Will's, and that despite the premise of the show there were only four scenes featuring same-sex kisses in eight seasons (five if you count one between Grace, who was straight, and Karen). Add in casual transphobia PlayedForLaughs; the creators' refusal to [[NoBisexuals accept bisexuality as a valid identity]]; and the fact that there were no openly LGBTQ+ actors in the main cast at the time[[note]]Sean Hayes came out as gay nearly five years after the original run ended, though it was considered more or less an open secret at the time.[[/note]] — and it's easy to overlook how progressive the show was for the late nineties. Having not just one but ''two'' gay male leads in a prime time network sitcom was completely groundbreaking in 1998, and that Will in particular was not [[StraightGay particularly stereotypical]] made him pretty much unique among gay male characters on mainstream TV up to that point. Some fans have also praised the fact that Will and Jack's relationship remained (mostly) platonic throughout the show's run, demonstrating that two gay men could be good friends without sex being involved; though others counter that not developing on hints that they have feelings for each other allowed the show to maintain its ButNotTooGay presentation of same-sex romance.

* Much like ''Series/{{Friends}}'', ''Series/TheGoldenGirls'' has some elements that don't age terribly well. For example, the heavily stereotyped and often unrealistic portrayal of Dorothy and Sophia's Italian heritage and Rose's Scandinavian roots, the uncomfortably frequent tone-deafness on race and Phil [[note]]Dorothy's brother and Sophia's son, always an offscreen character[[/note]] being treated almost entirely as a running joke for his [[WholesomeCrossDresser cross-dressing]] right up until [[AuthorsSavingThrow the episode dealing with Dorothy's efforts to reconcile Sophia with his widow after his death]] can all be uncomfortable in hindsight. Nonetheless, the series consistently championed inclusive values and was often noticeably ahead of its time. Not surprisingly, ''Golden Girls'' [[ValuesResonance ages very well]] on gender and seniors' issues, but the series also features generally sympathetic portrayals of, among others, a main character's lesbian friend, another main character's gay brother, homeless people, an interracial marriage with a twenty-year age difference, a main character facing an AIDS test, an undocumented immigrant and a transgender man. Particularly noteworthy is that despite debuting almost a full decade earlier and having a significantly older cast, the series isn't all that far behind ''Friends'' in its treatment of LGBT people: they don't appear as often and there are a couple CampGay stereotypes played for laughs, but the gay and lesbian characters who do get major plotlines in their episodes are portrayed very sympathetically, often to deliver {{an Aesop}} against homophobia, and the one transgender character is portrayed quite matter of factly. ''The Golden Girls'' even had an episode revolving around a same-sex wedding five years before the abovementioned ''Friends'' example, although in this case the wedding itself is unseen and Blanche ''is'' initially uncomfortable with her brother marrying another man despite having mostly come to terms with his orientation in a previous episode, but the other main characters are accepting of the idea from the get-go (taken together, "Sister of the Bride" and "The One With the Lesbian Wedding" make an interesting case study in how rapidly attitudes towards LGBT people were changing in UsefulNotes/TheNineties).

** One episode even spoofed the popularity of ''The Black and White MinstrelShow'' (a LongRunner "light entertainment" show featuring musical numbers performed in {{blackface}} -- at that time there had been a recent attempt to ReTool it by doing a series of it without the blackface, but the ratings tanked, causing it to be changed back) by combining it with a WholePlotReference to ''Series/{{Roots|1977}}''. While most of the stereotypical jokes are aimed at [[AcceptableTargets Scotland]] and the story satirizes the concept of using something like blackface as a ratings grab, its assertion that everything's better with blackface doesn't come off as entirely ironic.

** In the fifth season, the episode [[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E151TheEncounter "The Encounter"]] portrays a psychologically escalating confrontation between a Japanese-American man and a white veteran of [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WorldWarII/WarInAsiaAndThePacific the Pacific theater]]. While the episode definitely contains some racially problematic elements (and was kept of out syndication for decades as a result), it's also an impressively open and nuanced portrayal of the reality and impacts of racism in America, to an extent that's quite impressive for 1964. Adding more nuance, the episode outright states that the American veteran had committed war crimes and that this wasn't all that unusual, something that was almost unthinkable to mention at the time.

*** The show never even acknowledges homosexuality in the 24th century. This was most likely due to content restrictions on prime-time broadcast television shows in 1992, several years before Ellen Degeneres coming out on her show was considered revolutionary. It's limited to expressing support for gay rights through metaphor, though it's not [[{{Anvilicious}} exactly subtle]].

*** The episode uses gender identity as a science fiction stand-in to address homosexuality, failing to anticipate that gender identity would itself become a part of the greater LGBT movement. It simply wasn't on most people's radars in 1992.
*** The show never even acknowledges homosexuality in the 24th century. This was most likely due to content restrictions on prime-time broadcast television shows in 1992, several years before Ellen Degeneres coming out on her show was considered revolutionary. It's limited to expressing support for gay rights through metaphor, though it's not [[{{Anvilicious}} exactly subtle]].
*** The episode is frequently criticized for not having Riker's lover be played by a male actor to make the gay aesop more explicit. While this would obviously have been difficult to pull off due to the social mores of its broadcast date, it also would have muddled the PersecutionFlip metaphor. The episode's tactic was to gain the sympathy of a 1990s audience by presenting the argument for gay rights through the defense of an explicitly heterosexual relationship.
*** When asked about gender roles, Riker and Crusher largely describe them along traditional lines, though they're clearly just acting as an AudienceSurrogate for people in the 1990s to think about gender from an outsider's perspective.

** [[https://www.themarysue.com/friends-progressive-moments/ This article by The Mary Sue describes other progressive moments in the series.]]

** In the fifth season, the episode [[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E151TheEncounter "The Encounter"]] portrays a psychologically escalating confrontation between a Japanese-American man and a white veteran of [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WorldWarII/WarInAsiaAndThePacific the Pacific theater]]. The episode definitely contains some racially problematic elements (and was kept of out syndication for decades as a result), it's also an impressively open and nuanced portrayal of the reality and impacts of racism in America, to an extent that's quite impressive for 1964. Adding more nuance, the episode outright states that the American veteran had committed war crimes and that this wasn't all that unusual, something that was almost unthinkable to mention at the time.

*** And then there's [[Recap/StarTrekS1E22SpaceSeed Khan]]. The official reason for [[Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness the 2013 movie]] casting the white Creator/BenedictCumberbatch to play him instead of an Indian actor was that the producers would have felt uncomfortable having a man of color as a villain, particularly since that version [[PostNineElevenTerrorismMovie played Khan up as a terrorist]]. As others have pointed out, however, they actually didn't get it right in the original series either, as the Indian Sikh Khan was played by the Mexican-born Creator/RicardoMontalban. But in 1967, casting a dark-skinned actor as a dark-skinned character was pretty progressive (remember, this was the same era that gave us [[Film/LawrenceOfArabia Alec Guinness and Anthony Quinn as Arabs]] and [[Film/TheConqueror John Wayne as Genghis Khan]]). And Khan wasn't ''just'' a villain, mind you: he was an incredibly brilliant, charismatic world leader who was genetically bred to be superior to other humans in every conceivable way--all of which was ''unthinkable'' for a character of color at the time. The Sikh community loved the character for those aspects, and were upset when the film producers threw away the chance for a Sikh actor to play him.