Happily Divorced: new sitcom

I am a big fan of semiotics: examining the signs of the culture and their underlying values systems. As a result of teaching college critical thinking with a semiotic focus for fiften years, I'm especially drawn to the kinds of images on television and in films which have strong effects on our beliefs. For example, it's fascinating to look at "Will and Grace" and "Everybody Loves Raymond" and examine why the main relationships in the both programs work. Is "Will and Grace," for example, not showing us the main characters as such good friends--all the while allowing us to believe that perhaps some day Will will "straighten out" and and marry Grace?  And Ray's marriage: check how many times Ray's wife appears doing housework, making deals with her husband using sex as leverage and so forth. As I led my classes through this type of viewing/thinking exercise, we all became aware how we were being manipulated in very subtle ways to accept, for example, that the Romanos are showing us a model marriage. 

While I am not a fan of sitcoms (who'd believe this now?), the press on "Happily Divorced" intrigued me, particularly in light of our country's current squabbling with all things gay and the fact that I also unknowingly married a homosexual in the 60s.

In the first episode, just after what the wife (Fran Drescher) calls great sex, the husband (Michael John Higgins) announces that he is gay. After a lot of fluttering and canned laughter, (no tears or recriminations on either side) they decide to divorce but live under the same roof for economic reasons. What ensues is the story of the transition, complete with visits from her parents and a new love interest for Fran. Jolly quips all round and more canned laughter.

I don't know yet what kind of ratings this sitcom has earned, but the fact of its existence tells me there are lots of folks out there whose curiosity can be peaked by the topic.  So I have to add this presentation to all the other fantasies that television sitcoms feed us, because I doubt if anyone who goes through this situation finds it amusing. As it has always done by portraying gay men as effeminate and swish (to gales of laughter), this media presentation here seems to suggest that the "finding out" or "discovery" in "homosexual/heterosexual" marriages can be a fun-filled event.

I'm aware that this program is meant to be comedy. But I'm also aware of the way the media affects our personal values systems. In fact, "Happily Divorced" is a flat out lie. In reality, it's a painful situation, one that often leaves the straight spouse in the dark for years and when h/she is enlightened, confused and disturbed. As for the gay spouse, as "Brokeback Mountain" reveals, there is untold pain to homosexual love in a culture that labels those choices as evil or unnatural.