Bi TV Characters??

[Sailorstarwriter]

Hi! This is my first thread, but there's something I've been talking a lot about with my friends and co-workers....
There are plenty of gay and certainly plenty of straight TV characters, but how many bi-characters come to mind? And not just a guest spot, I mean a regular.
The only one that I can immediately think of is Captain Jack Harkness from the new Doctor Who series. He's the one that actually got the discussion going. I find him very...empowering? (couldn't think of a less cheesy word) I'm very proud of the BBC (and SciFi in America) for showing this character who isn't portrayed as some evil disgusting pervert.
OH! I just thought of another! Inara the Companion from Firefly...that may not count as it's part of her job...And probably Utena and Anthy from Revolutionary Girl Utena.
Discuss! :tong:

[glantern954]

Conrad, on Footballer's Wives on the BBC.

One of the characters on Coupling, also BBC.

One of the characters on Nip Tuck.

The daughter on Six Feet Under.

Todd on Scrubs.

Several on The L Word.

[Sailorstarwriter]

Sweet! I had no idea! Thanks! :)

[allbimyself]

One of the characters on Coupling, also BBC.Did she ever actually have a relationship with a woman? I thought she only claimed it to attract men.

[kimba_n_hotrod]

And how could we forget Karen from Will & Grace???

[glantern954]

Did she ever actually have a relationship with a woman? I thought she only claimed it to attract men.

Not sure, I haven't seen every episode. I don't think it matters though, she still identified as bisexual.

[deletetacount123]

I thought the girl on Six Feet Under chickened out??
If its the episode I think your refering to, she kissed a girl, but then said "No, this is NOT happening" and broke away from the other girl.
I don't often watch that show so I don't know, I did see a few episodes and that one was one of them.

Yes, Karen from Will & Grace is Bi too :-)

I don't know how many of you remember FULL HOUSE (80s show) but I remember on a few message boards for the show, people were saying Joey Gladstone was Bi or gay but I don't believe that.

Tasha

[LouiseBrookslover]

I don't know about him being bi, but Dave (Uncle Joey) Coulier went out with Alanis Morrisette and was the subject of the vitrolic "You Oughtta Know". Apparently, he is a womanizer and serial user of women. I know I just find it funny to visualize Uncle Joey everytime I hear this song.

*Popeye laugh*

[glantern954]

You are right, it was her boyfriend that was bisexual.


I thought the girl on Six Feet Under chickened out??
If its the episode I think your refering to, she kissed a girl, but then said "No, this is NOT happening" and broke away from the other girl.
I don't often watch that show so I don't know, I did see a few episodes and that one was one of them.

Yes, Karen from Will & Grace is Bi too :-)

I don't know how many of you remember FULL HOUSE (80s show) but I remember on a few message boards for the show, people were saying Joey Gladstone was Bi or gay but I don't believe that.

Tasha

[Mystical Light]

Jane on Coupling said she slept with a woman in the first episode, but that was only to keep Steve from dumping her. She also claimed to be a Vegitarian in the dinner party episode. The one where Sally finds Steve's porno tape "Lesbian Spank Inferno". In the last season when Jane goes to Oliver's apartment and poor Oliver is trying to pick up all the skin mags, it becomes clear that Jane is not bi. She just uses the line to get men. Then again I could be wrong and she really is bi. I think she hit the nail on the head when she said there are just peoplesexuals.

[bignbi]

Anime is chalk full of all sorts of Bi or sexually ambiguous characters. Shows that are as childlike as Cardcaptor Sakura or as mature as VanDread. I really love Anime because of it!

[grizzle45]

Claire, the daughter on Six Feet Under, did go to bed with her friend but couldn't perform so decided she was still heterosexual. Russell, her boyfriend who slept with Olivier, the art teacher, did seem to be bi, though he never said anything more definite than "I think I might be bi". He was very emotionally involved with Claire and then dated/slept with Anita and later it was said he gave Jimmy a blow job. However, he was often referred to as "Claire's gay boyfriend" on the show and and there was never, in my opinion, a moment of triumphant bi self awareness to the extend that David and Keith were afforded. :2cents:

Yes, I will continue to harp on this subject every chance I get.

As for Jane on Coupling, she was never shown with a woman and there is every indication that she only claimed to be bi, but I feel strongly about deciding for a person, or a character, what their sexual orientation is. If I wanted for other people to tell me if I was bi, they would probably say I was not because I'm married to a woman and while I've slept with more men than my wife, I never dated them (much...long story).

And I forget to mention Olivier. I don't recall he ever said he was bi, but he slept with men and women without qualm or hesitation, though :2cents: he was a bit pretentious, facetious, and a little sleazy.

:bipride:

[Mimi]

Keith on Six Feet Under was bi!

Alice, Jenny (sortof), and Tina on The L Word are bi.

*scratches head* I wish this list were longer.

Mimi :flag1:

[pete333]

Although its a mystery, I am convinced all three are bi.... Sponge Bob, Patrick and Sandy Cheeks. I think they have been around the park a few times as a three some. Not sure though.

As for Squidwart, I think he is probably a-sexual. Not sure though.

[Avocado]

Kim in Sugar Rush

[deletetacount123]

Well, if your going to start using kid shows......

The Purple Teletubbie has long since been considered gay or bi :-) Since hes purple, carrys a purse and the symbol on his head.

I don't understand Teletubbies tho... they are weird, odd, and I never want to see one in real life :-) At least the baby sun was adorable!!! hehe

Tasha

[12voltman59]

It came to me on Saturday as I was going about doing things that I recalled several bisexual characters from some old favorite television shows...

one of my favorite television shows of all time, and one of the best television shows in my opinion, was a drama that aired on NBC-TV in the mid and late 90s until the early 2000's---

The show was "Homicide: Life on the Street"

The drama dealt with the homicide investigations squad of the Baltimore PD--the show was executive produced by James Levinson and created by Paul Attanasio.

The show won many emmies for its writing, directing, acting and other elements during its heyday.

The drama had an ensemble cast---while it is hard to say what characters were any more important than any others--two characters stand out:

Det. Tim Bayless (played by actor Kyle Secor-who played "first husband" to Geena Davis-who portrayed the first female US president in "Commander In Chief on ABC this past season) and Det. Frank Pembleton--played most intensly by Andre Braugher.

In an series of episodes that took place in one of the later seasons--Bayless and Pembleton were investigators on a case that involved the murder of a gay man--

Bayless becomes involved with one of the deceased's friends....

When Pembleton discovers that Bayless has had sexual relations with another man--he is at first upset but he comes to accept the fact that his policing partner is a bisexual--Bayless tells Pembleton that he is bisexual--not gay---
Bayless offers to change partners if his relations with men is a problem for Pembleton--at first Pembleton almost does decide to change but then has a change of heart and says that he wishes they remain partners...

the story moved on and it becomes an accepted thing by Pembleton that Bayless sometimes has relationships with men and women---

I also recalled a nurse character from another NBC drama of the past: "St Elsewhere"--one of the nurses on the show had a brief intimate relationship with another woman

[ScifiBiJen]

Good shows Voltman. I love Homocide and St. Elsewhere, though I haven't seen either in a long time. I also love Law & Order SVU (which got Richard Belzer from Homocide).
While SVU has had an episode or two that I didn't agree with the stance of sexuality ("on the down low" does not = gay), they've had QUITE a few sympathetic queer characters. While those characters have been limited to those involved in the crimes, so they come and go each episode, it has allowed them to cover a Lot of topics.

There was an incredible episode about a pretty Trans-girl on trial for murder, presented very very sympathetically to her. The episode didn't end well for her, but that's because in SVU-land... life sucks.

There have also been episodes where a character's sexuality was mentioned but it didn't define them completely. Very "Oh, so this guy is bi? Noted, but that's not the issue here"

Well done, I thought

[Driver 8]

Arguably, Willow (from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) was bisexual; she had a happy relationship with a man that broke up because of circumstances beyond their control before she met and fell in love with a woman. I think the official story is that she's a lesbian, and that she was never going to be involved with a guy again because that would be sending the wrong message about lesbians needing to find the right guy, et cetera, but I think it makes more sense to think of her as bisexual because her relationship with Oz was so credible and so right; if she was a lesbian all along, that undercuts the poignance of that story, IMO, since they couldn't have lasted anyway.

The new Dr. Who isn't out on DVD yet, is it? This isn't the first praise I've heard for Harkness.

[happyjoe68]

And not forgetting Susan Ivanova from Babylon 5 ...

[12voltman59]

I also think that the character Det. Lilly Rush from "Cold Case" on CBS might be but they downplay that..

In the first season--she was sort of seeing a young good looking male assitance DA but she broke it off without explaination...

Earlier this season there was this one episode--it was a tough case that took an emotional toll on the whole cold case squad team---

At the end of the episode--they were playing this music--I forget the song--it was an intense ending--each of the characters had a moment to reflect on the case.

Lilly came home to her apartment, went into her bedroom---it was early morning--in Lilly's bed was this very attractive and scantilly clad young lady--there was no dialogue but the girl woke up--Lillly and she exchanged knowing glances, the final shot of the show was of Lilly's face--she was both sort of happy and sad--sort of weary..then the episode ended...

I don't always watch the show, so I don't know if they ever mentioned that she had a girlfriend or not--the season ended with Lilly going to see a guy in the closing moments of that episode, who was involved in a case that had been solved on the show--she was definitely going to see him not for anything relating to police work---so I do wonder--is that character bi or not?

[membrain]

Anyone else seriously hoping Greg Sanders and Nick Stokes on CSI are bi? They'd just be such a cute couple. :bigrin: Plus, they've had a few moments. ;)

[deletetacount123]

I have wondered that lol in some episodes, you just can't help but wonder if theres something we don't know about. lol


Anyone else seriously hoping Greg Sanders and Nick Stokes on CSI are bi? They'd just be such a cute couple. :bigrin: Plus, they've had a few moments. ;)

[strawberry8302]

There's this show on the Noggin channel (123 on CABLEVISION, 298 on Direct tv) called Degrassi: The Next Generation, and recently this character named Paige was bi, even though it was only for like 2 episodes. She's a regular on the show, but she wasn't regularly bi. Just wanted to show that there are SOME bi characters on some shows.

[ScifiBiJen]

There's this show on the Noggin channel (123 on CABLEVISION, 298 on Direct tv) called Degrassi: The Next Generation

Noggin, like the channel for pre-schoolers? The one my little sister watches for Caillou ? How did they explain that the character was bi?

[Reprob8]

I need to start watching TV I guess, I have no idea what any of these shows are about.

[Mimi]

I think the "Dax" character on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was also bisexual. She was the type of alien that could be with men or women but she also changed genders. So maybe she's transgender? Or a bisexual transgender alien?

Mimi

[smurf111978]

The only one that I can immediately think of is Captain Jack Harkness from the new Doctor Who series. He's the one that actually got the discussion going. I find him very...empowering? (couldn't think of a less cheesy word) I'm very proud of the BBC (and Sci-Fi in America) for showing this character who isn't portrayed as some evil disgusting pervert.


I think John Barrowman plays Capt. Jack fantastically and I agree very much with Sailor that his character is empowering (as well as utterly sexy ;) ) and a great role model for bi people.

Capt. Jack will hopefully be in the third series of Doctor Who; however he will be staring in the new sci-fi show Torchwood. I can’t think of any other shows where the main character is bi and I think Torchwood will be fantastic.

Torchwood will be shown after the watershed so it will contain more adult material than Dr Who, at a recent event John appeared at he said we will be seeing "more" of Capt. Jack in Torchwood!!

Luckily I have been able to meet John a couple of times and found him to be very charming and a little flirtatious, as well as being very sexy :rolleyes:

If you can get BBC1 on TV he is currently acting as a judge on a TV prog "how to solve a problem like Maria" on Saturday nights.

Best wishes
Smurfie
xoxox

[strawberry8302]

Noggin, like the channel for pre-schoolers? The one my little sister watches for Caillou ? How did they explain that the character was bi?

Jen, some channels have daytime viewers and nighttime viewers. Lol, obviously the show im talking about airs in the afternoon and nighttime, when older kids can catch it. When you see Disney Channel and Nickelodeon, they don't have preschool shows on all day, do they? They have to catch the attention of kids of all ages, so after a certain time they air shows targeting older viewers. So, when "Noggin" airs shows like Degrassi after a certain time, the channel has an alias name: which is "The-N", to make it sound more cool.
Anyway, Degrassi is a great show Jen, you should check it out. It's airing tonight at 12am, 3am, and tomorrow night at 8pm. I hope you can check it out, and let me know what you think.

[12voltman59]

I think the "Dax" character on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was also bisexual. She was the type of alien that could be with men or women but she also changed genders. So maybe she's transgender? Or a bisexual transgender alien?

Mimi

Being a pretty big Star Trek fan--the race that the Dax character was supposed to be was first introduced in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

In that episode, Dr. Beverly Crusher (the Enterprise's chief medical officer) had fallen in love with a male from this species that was host to the "Trill symbiant"--during the course of the episode--the male character was killed and the slug like creature living inside was transferred to a female..

When the new Trill combination recovered, she wanted to pick up the relationship with Crusher from where it had left off--but Crusher said that she could not bring herself to love a woman---

"Jedzia Dax" was one of the characters in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine--during the run of the show--the writers used a number of shows to detail how this species dealt with the fact that the symbiant, which became the dominant personality in the merged being, lived in many host bodies that alternated between male and female hosts---that was perhaps the closest Star Trek got to dealing with characters with sexual orientation other than purely straight...

That is one of the things I wish the writers and producers of the various Star Trek shows would have done--had human characters who would love both males and females irrespective of their respective genders....

[membrain]

Strawberry and ScifibiJen,

Degrassi: The Next Generation is a Canadian show about teenagers in Toronto, and no, not quite suitable for pre-schoolers. lol :bigrin: Just so you know. There's also another character on the show named Marco who is gay (and Paige who is bi). It's a very progessive show. :) :flag1:

[Reprob8]

Being a pretty big Star Trek fan--the race that the Dax character was supposed to be was first introduced in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

In that episode, Dr. Beverly Crusher (the Enterprise's chief medical officer) had fallen in love with a male from this species that was host to the "Trill symbiant"--during the course of the episode--the male character was killed and the slug like creature living inside was transferred to a female..

When the new Trill combination recovered, she wanted to pick up the relationship with Crusher from where it had left off--but Crusher said that she could not bring herself to love a woman---

"Jedzia Dax" was one of the characters in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine--during the run of the show--the writers used a number of shows to detail how this species dealt with the fact that the symbiant, which became the dominant personality in the merged being, lived in many host bodies that alternated between male and female hosts---that was perhaps the closest Star Trek got to dealing with characters with sexual orientation other than purely straight...

That is one of the things I wish the writers and producers of the various Star Trek shows would have done--had human characters who would love both males and females irrespective of their respective genders....


Now that would have been a memorable episode

[Herbwoman39]

That is one of the things I wish the writers and producers of the various Star Trek shows would have done--had human characters who would love both males and females irrespective of their respective genders....

You'd think that in such a progressive future where there is no need for money, no hunger or disease, and equality for all human ethnicities that not every blessed character on the show would be straight.

I guess the "future" can only be as progressive as the present allows it to be
:(

[Driver 8]

You'd think that in such a progressive future where there is no need for money, no hunger or disease, and equality for all human ethnicities that not every blessed character on the show would be straight.

I guess the "future" can only be as progressive as the present allows it to be
:(
There's a long story about GLBT characters and Star Trek (http://www.webpan.com/dsinclair/trek.html). In short, Gene Roddenberry, the creator, said he wanted same-sex couples on the show - for exactly the reason you gave - but Paramount has been too uncomfortable with the idea. Lots and lots of quotes, details, and articles at the linked site.

[glantern954]

Now the episode of Coupling I watched last week had Jane saying to the other women that she had slept with 15 different women.



Jane on Coupling said she slept with a woman in the first episode, but that was only to keep Steve from dumping her. She also claimed to be a Vegitarian in the dinner party episode. The one where Sally finds Steve's porno tape "Lesbian Spank Inferno". In the last season when Jane goes to Oliver's apartment and poor Oliver is trying to pick up all the skin mags, it becomes clear that Jane is not bi. She just uses the line to get men. Then again I could be wrong and she really is bi. I think she hit the nail on the head when she said there are just peoplesexuals.

[smurf111978]

The new Dr. Who isn't out on DVD yet, is it? This isn't the first praise I've heard for Harkness.

All of series 1 is out here in the UK including the elegantly shaped Tardis boxed edition. Serial 2 which has just finished here in the UK is also starting to be released. Im not sure about US DVD though. I must say i do tend to freeze frame the bits with Cpt Jack in :drool: :bigrin:

I have all the 2nd series on my Sky+ box and perv on David Tennant (Dr Who) he is sooooo cute!! I think I might explode with him and Cpt Jack in the Tardis at same time!!! I was hoping the new companion would be male too :(

Just to add one of the characters appearing a few times in the latest series is gay in real life, and whilst not stated either way his character could be gay or bi too.