The Rainbow Age of Television: An Opinionated History of Queer TV

Summary

With the last decade's television boom across a multitude of platforms, American audiences are being treated to a cascade of shows that some have trumpeted as a second Golden Age. But something completely new is stirring, too—the Rainbow Age. For the first time in the history of American television, we have shows in which LGBTQIA+ characters have evolved from being an anomaly to being an almost given and celebrated presence on the small screen. But what more can queer TV do? Is each new queer character really breaking ground? And has the curse of the fictional dead lesbian finally been defeated?

The Rainbow Age of Television tackles these questions and more as author Shayna Maci Warner tracks the history and evolution of LGBTQIA+ icons across the televised ages and into the future—from the first televised queer kiss (we think) to the shows that are making household names and heroes of queer characters. Warner uses original interviews with queer TV icons along with detailed history to investigate the constraints under which queer people have been allowed to exist on American television. The Rainbow Age of Television explores why queer people are so invested in—and conflicted by—the kinds of storytelling that TV has to offer. Above all, it's a celebration of the LGBTQIA+ shows, their characters, and their creators that define this new age in television.