Amen Pits Two Closeted Sitcom Stars Into an Onscreen Smackdown
Added 2024-05-15 05:36:43 +0000 UTC“The Courtship of Bess Richards” (October 4, 1986)
The second episode of Amen concerns Sherman Hemsley’s Ernie trying to land his choir a new singer in Nell Carter’s Bess, and the result is a comedy of errors in which both he and she perform romantic interest that neither is capable of actually feeling. The result is a WWF-style wrestling match between these two iconic sitcom stars, and we’re joined once again by Dr. Alfred L. Martin to discuss how this is rendered all the stranger because Hemsley and Carter both were closeted and therefore all too accustomed to acting out hetero identities different from how they lived privately.
This episode mentions a TV Guide article about Sherman Hemsley’s private life that I now cannot find online. However, I bought the issue on eBay and will post as soon as it arrives.
Buy Alfred’s book, The Generic Closet: Black Gayness and the Black-Cast Sitcom.
Listen to Hemsley in the performance of Purlie that Alfred mentions.
Watch a clip of Hemsley’s gay villain turn in 2000’s Screwed.
Comments
Honestly, I never expected to cover it either. But it was worth stretching the interpretation of "gay episode" to be able to talk about the place this overlooked show played in TV history.
Drew Mackie
2024-05-19 01:42:03 +0000 UTCDr. Martin is one of my favorite guests and it's exciting to hear the three of you dig into "Amen", a show I never expected to get covered on this podcast.
Erin Hardy
2024-05-18 22:55:51 +0000 UTC
