Adam and Yves
Adam and Yves was a proposed American television series that was going to be based on the 1978 film La Cage aux Folles. Producer Danny Arnold (Barney Miller) was a fan of La Cage and in 1979 pitched a series featuring a male couple with a masculine/feminine dynamic similar to the one in the film. ABC Entertainment president Anthony Thomopolous gave him the green-light.[1] Arnold brought in Chris Hayward to co-produce.[2] The title was a play both on the Biblical Adam and Eve and to a popular anti-gay slogan, "God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve". Adam and Yves would have been the first television series with gay protagonists. Arnold worked on the idea for several months but quickly ran into problems. He was unable to come up with a sustainable premise that did not rely on stereotypes or repetition. He had difficulty locating suitable writers. He also knew from the controversy that had surrounded the development of the series Soap with its gay character Jodie Dallas that the subject matter would attract a lot of media attention and he did not have sufficient staff to handle such a controversy. Work on Adam and Yves stopped in 1980.[3]
When plans for the proposed series became public, Donald Wildmon of the National Federation for Decency organized a letter-writing campaign against it. Wildmon targeted ABC president Elton Rule and Federal Communications Commission chairman Charles D. Ferris with postcards urging them not to allow "perverted filth" on the air.[4] ABC denied that Wildmon's campaign was a factor in the network's decision not to develop the series.[2] Despite the project's being taken out of development, right-wing Christian groups continued to use it as a fundraising tool. ABC received over 100,000 pieces of mail, much of it years after the series idea had been dropped.[5]
Notes
- ↑ Woods, Sherry (1980-07-08). "TV continues to push at boundaries of taste". The Miami News. p. 5B. Retrieved 2010-09-02.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Beck, Marilyn (1980-04-03). "Marilyn Beck's Hollywood: Producers Finding Financing Rough". The Victoria Advocate (Victoria, Texas). p. 11D. Retrieved 2010-09-02.
- ↑ Capsuto, p. 151
- ↑ Tropiano, p. 252
- ↑ Capsuto, p. 152
References
- Capsuto, Steven (2000). Alternate Channels: The Uncensored Story of Gay and Lesbian Images on Radio and Television. Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-41243-5.
- Tropiano, Stephen (2002). The Prime Time Closet: A History of Gays and Lesbians on TV. Hal Leonard Corporation. ISBN 1-55783-557-8.