179: Before Balki, Bronson Pinchot Played Gay on Sara

“You Can’t Win ’Em All” (February 27, 1985)

Sara is a one-season sitcom that first came to our attention via a gag on The Simpsons, the context being that it wasn’t a show woqrth remembering. The Simpsons was wrong, however, and this Geena Davis vehicle does a lot of what we think ’80s sitcoms don’t do. Namely, it has an out gay character who is allowed to have a sex drive. He’s also more than a set of stereotypical mannerisms but he still reads as gay. And Bronson Pinchot, who one year later would become a sitcom star as Balki on Perfect Strangers, does a great job bringing dimension to this character who should have been on TV for a lot longer.

Many thanks to Steven Capsuto for collecting historical context around Sara in his amazing book, Alternate Channels: Queer Images on Twentieth-Century TV, which is a great resource for anyone studying LGBTQ representation in media. Also listen to the episode Steve did with us about Love, Sidney.

Thanks to Zach Wilson for giving us access to the video of this ep! You can watch the entire episode on the GEE Vimeo here.

Watch the credits to the also short-lived sitcom DREAMS.

Read the LA Times piece about the production of Sara.

And also have a look at the Pop Trash Museum article about Sara.

Episode artwork by Ian O’Phelan.