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In the last couple of decades, LGBTQ+ characters have become more and more common on television, though this history goes further back than you might think. As Shayna Maci Warner writes in "The Rainbow Age of Television," The first "expressly named gay character" appeared on the first episode of "N.Y.P.D." in 1967. Meanwhile, the first lesbian couple appeared on "The Bold Ones: The New Doctors" in 1972, though the first lesbian kiss on TV didn't occur until 1991 in an episode of "L.A. Law."

Queer representation has increased greatly since then, though GLAAD's 2023-2024 Where We Are On TV report indicates that there has been a decrease in LGBTQ+ characters in the last few years. Thankfully, many queer-centric shows from years past are available to stream (apart from the ones that have been pulled from streaming), meaning we still have a significant...

Harvey Laidman, a veteran TV director who helmed multiple episodes of such series as The Waltons, Scarecrow and Mrs. King, the original Matlock and 7th Heaven, has died. He was 82.

Laidman died of cancer on Jan. 3 in a hospice facility in Simi Valley, his son, Dan Laidman, told The Hollywood Reporter.

During his three-decade-plus career, he also directed installments of The Blue Knight, Family, Hawaii Five-o, Hunter, Kojak, Eight Is Enough, The Incredible Hulk, Lou Grant, Knots Landing, Falcon Crest, Airwolf, Knight Rider, Magnum, P.I., Jake and the Fatman, Silk Stalkings and Jag.

Laidman served as assistant director and unit production manager on the second and third seasons of CBS’ The Waltons from 1973-75, then advanced to the director’s chair to call the shots on 11 episodes of the beloved period drama from 1975-81.

He also helmed 10 episodes of CBS’ Scarecrow and Mrs. King from 1985-87; 33 episodes of NBC...

Gabrielle Upton, who wrote the screenplay for the classic California surfing movie Gidget, starring Sandra Dee, Cliff Robertson and James Darren, has died. She was 101.

Upton died Sept. 13 in Santa Rosa, California, her daughter, Greer Upton, told The Hollywood Reporter. News of her death had not been reported until now.

A three-time WGA Award nominee, Upton wrote for such network shows as The Alfred Hitchcock Hour/Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Ben Casey, Convoy, One Step Beyond, The Bold Ones: The New Doctors, The Virginian, The Big Valley and The High Chaparral.

She also worked on several daytime soap operas during her career, including Guiding Light, As the World Turns, Edge of Night, Search for Tomorrow, The Secret Storm and Love of Life.

After Frederick Kohner took a crack at adapting his best-selling 1957 novel Gidget, the Little Girl With Big Ideas for Columbia Pictures’ Gidget (1959), Upton came on and received sole screenplay credit.

TV producer and writer Cy Chermak, who produced notable series including “CHiPs,” “Kolchak: The Night Stalker” and “Ironside,” died Friday of natural causes in Oahu, Hawaii. He was 91.

Chermak was born in 1929 in Bayonne, New Jersey as Seymour Albert Chermak. He began his career in Hollywood at the age of 17, going on to become a successful television producer on series like “Conway,” “The Virginian” and “The Bold Ones: The New Doctors.”

Chermak served as an executive producer on the drama series “Ironside” from 1967-1974, where he received three Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Drama Series. Some of his other producing credits include “Amy Prentiss,” “Kolchak: The Night Stalker,” “Barbary Coast” and “Murder at the World Series.” Most notably, he produced 125 episodes of the buddy crime action series “CHiPs,” which starred Robert Pine and Erik Estrada as two motorcycle officers of the California Highway Patrol (Chp).

In the early 1950s, Chermak...

It was 1971. Both Steven Spielberg and Steven Bochco were in their 20s, just starting out and yet to make their mark as icons of film and TV. Spielberg was largely an episodic director in television a few years away from his first blockbuster, Jaws. Future 10-time Emmy winner Bochco had co-created his first series, the 1969 NBC medical drama The Bold Ones: The New Doctors and had just landed a writing job on the hit NBC detective drama Columbo starring Peter Falk.

The first episode he penned was the Sept. 15 1971 series premiere, Murder By the Book, which followed two TV movies that aired in 1968 and 1971 and served as pilots. Spielberg was hired to direct Murder By the Book. The duo’s collaboration launched a hit series that had a successful 10-season run on NBC and ABC. (Above is a photo from a celebration of Columbo‘s 30th anniversary where series star...

Pity the poor gargoyle, second tier (at the very least) in horror iconography, resigned to being stone portents in many a film, but never getting their creepy due. This brings us to CBS’ Gargoyles (1972), a TV movie that aimed to rectify that situation and give these mostly forgotten creatures a chance to shine through the filter of a demented Saturday morning vibe.

Originally broadcast as part of The New CBS Tuesday Night Movies, Gargoyles had to contend with the ABC Movie of the Week/Marcus Welby M.D. and NBC’s The Bold Ones: The New Doctors/NBC Reports. (Please, if anyone has seen The Bold Ones, hit me up. I need to know these things.) And Gargoyles did make an impact, earning a Primetime Emmy for Makeup from some new up-and-comer named Stan Winston. (We’ll get to him in a bit.)

Let’s grab our TV Guide off...

The Christmas season is a special time for many. A chance for friends to gather and spread cheer, or clans to gather in the warm glow of familial love. Sometimes, however, the warm glow cools down, love turns to hate, and the carving knife is put to more insidious uses. Welcome to ABC’s Home for the Holidays (1972), a fun murder mystery filled with proto-slasher goodness.

Originally broadcast November 28th as part of the ABC Tuesday Movie of the Week, Home for the Holidays was up against CBS’s Hawaii Five-o and NBC’s The Bold Ones: The New Doctors (whatever that was) and had a solid showing, as ABC often did with this particular brand. However, you won’t find any Snoopies or undernourished trees in this Holiday special.

Let’s open our eggnog soaked TV Guide and see what’s going on around the tree:

Home For The Holidays (Tuesday,...