In the 1990s, ellen degeneres had a hit sitcom on ABC. Then she came out as gay. Pepsi, among other advertisers threatened to pull all advertising from ABC.
So ABC cancelled a show with decent ratings purely because she was gay.
Now, today we know that ellen is a piece of shit for OTHER reasons, but that wasn’t known in 1996. This was a move based purely on Pepsi and others not wanting to be assosiated with a gay person on their tv.
Now for the kicker. Ellen had some support, but it was not a majority. The majority of people at that time celebrated ellen getting removed from tv.
If that happened today? A beloved tv star being removed from tv because they were gay? I think it would have even bigger backlash than CBS is facing right now over Colbert, and 60 Minutes. Back then? America gave the thumbs up.
Ironically enough, I think being bi would have been MORE accepted in the 1880s.
TheWilliamist@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Yes, but that’s Ellen. The show was aimed directly at a “clean” segment of the market that rebelled once it went off the beaten path of white bread situation comedy. Folks knew Queen and Mercury from the 70’s, which were hedonistic as fuck. Not an apples to apples comparison. 🤷🏽♂️