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In something of a programming coincidence, three same-sex weddings will screen on TV next week, including two at the same time.

All are US dramas, with two (Brothers & Sisters and Desperate Housewives) as responses to changes in Californian law. The third, on The L Word, first aired in the US in March 2006.

The first legal gay wedding to have screened in an American drama (as far as I can recall) was Queer as Folk, when Brian and Justin got hitched in Canada in mid-2005.

These three are season finales, under the watchful eyes of gay producers Marc Cherry, Ilene Chaiken and Greg Berlanti – although how hands-on each may be is debatable. Berlanti, who produces Brothers & Sisters, now oversees Dirty Sexy Money and Eli Stone, while creator Jon Robin Baitz fled the show over creative differences. Amongst other regrets, Baitz apparently wanted to explore ‘Kevin Walker’s internalized homophobia and his fear of contact with others’. Instead, we’re seeing him walk down the aisle.

Yet what is enormously significant here is that two of these weddings are from US network television.

So, how do they stack up? Frankly, with mixed results. Like any soap wedding, most of the focus is on frenzied preparations. In Desperate Housewives, the Wisteria ladies spring into wedding-planner action, making Oprah-perfect centrepieces and rescuing melting ice sculptures. Bob and Lee (yes, they do have names) alas are supporting players, and bicker like kids before the ‘adult’ Tom and Lynette. That said, the show has an unrelated, mind-boggling final sequence.

The Walker family are in a similar flurry (after all, Nora only throws dinner parties or bawls), but at least there’s depth mined from flashbacks to Kevin coming out to his dead father, confronting Scotty’s homophobic parents, and a final response from the closeted Uncle Saul. For my money, it’s overly sentimental, but at least there’s some honesty over flippancy.

Showtime’s The L Word wedding for Shane and Carmen at Whistler, Canada, is the best of the bunch. Simply staged in a wintery setting, it raises the dramatic stakes for a powerful season finale.

Finally, being soaps, one of the three will not go as planned. But you’ll just have to find that out for yourself.

Brothers and Sisters (Sun) and Desperate Housewives (Mon) air on Seven. The L Word (Sun) airs on Movie Extra.

5 Responses

  1. Brian and Justin (QAF)DO NOT get married and Justin does NOT have a scholarship in NYC.

    They both decide that they do not want each other to “give up” their lives and who they are, that is change everything about themselves, for the sake of a marriage, so they part (sadly).

    Justin goes to NYC and Brian stays in Pittsburgh and rebuilds Babylon.

  2. Actually, Justin and Brian didn’t marry from what I remember. They were planning to marry but at the last minute (I think at the pre wedding dinner) they told their friends that it was off because Brian didn’t want Justin to stay and miss out on the chance of a scholarship in NYC.

  3. Actually Justin and Brian did marry, but yes maybe not in Canada. So it probably qualifies as a commitment ceremony not a legal wedding, and Melanie and Lindsay also got hitched in season two.

  4. Great article. But first, the TV weddings were not in response to the California law change. The episodes were originally aired a month before roughly. Also, it wasn’t Brian and Justin who got hitched in Canada on QAF, it was Michael and Ben.
    As far as Desperate Housewives, it’s really sad the way they just sort of exploiting the gay characters without really developing them.

  5. I’ve only seen the Desperate Housewives wedding which IMO was a non event and basically a distraction for the main story line.

    The L Word has always been better at drama than Desperate could ever hope to be.

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