"Gigantic" Brings Gay Diversity to "Tween" Television with a Gay Dad
Gigantic dad Greg Ellis (right) and boyfriend, Don O. Knowlton ( Charlie Maddock)
Last year, when AfterElton.com asked TeenNick if they had any plans to include gay characters or gay families in any of their upcoming shows, the network couldn't have reacted much more awkwardly or befuddled, eventually just refusing to answer our questions.
It's a controversial subject: TeenNick, like the Disney Channel, targets a younger teen and "tween" audience.
But what do you know? Gigantic, which debuted last fall and which was TeenNick's first scripted show since changing their name from The N in 2009, has just introduced a minor storyline about two of the characters, Piper (Jolene Purdy) and Finn (Malcolm David Kelley) accidentally discovering their adoptive dad (played by Greg Ellis) is gay.
In "Carpe Diem," the March 11th episode, they accidentally catch him in bed with his boyfriend. In "Scramble," last week's episode, Piper tells her dad of the revelation, "I don't know you anymore. You've been lying to me for as long as I've been your daughter." Later, she adds, "I really am trying. I want it to be okay." But she clearly has issues.
In other words, the storyline is still unresolved, which is a good thing for gay viewers.
Gigantic revolves around the drama that surrounds the teenage children of famous celebrities in Hollywood — something that factored into Piper and Finn's dad's decision to stay closeted to his kids. Meryl Streep's actual daughter, Grace Gummer, plays one of the show's teens, Piper's best friend.
TeenNick has won plaudits and awards for prominent gay characters in the teen soap opera DeGrassi, but that's a show that's produced (with government funding, no less) in more-tolerant Canada for that country's television.
Gigantic's gay storyline is small so far, but it's noteworthy because it may be the first regular gay character ever in a scripted show produced for American audiences on a younger teen or "tween" channel. (Such channels have included "coded" gay characters before, characters who are strongly hinted to be gay like Ryan in The Disney's Channel's High School Musical movies, but they're never specifically identified as such.)
We've included both full episodes of Gigantic, below.
