| From Denver Post Media -- 'ER' gay feedback 'in-house' By Joanne Ostrow Denver Post Media Critic Thursday, January 17, 2002 - PASADENA, Calif. - When television's top-rated drama "ER" launched a gay plot line for Dr. Kerry Weaver (played by Laura Innes), series creator-producer John Wells knew he would receive some negative feedback. In fact, some of the most virulently negative voices are within Wells' own family. Certain of his relatives have been "vehemently opposed" to the lesbian story line, Wells said. "I don't want to name names. . . . I have several people in my family who are very conservative Christians, and I have someone in my family who's been very much involved in trying to prevent gays from being able to serve in Scouts. So you can imagine that some of our dinner conversations are heated." Wells, who grew up in Denver, is among the most prolific and successful producer-writers in television. In addition to "ER," he is creator/executive producer of "The West Wing" and "Third Watch" on NBC. His next projects for TV are "The 7th Floor," created by Lydia Woodward, and "The Court," with Carol Flint, starring Sally Field. Wells also has two feature films in the works: "White Oleander," starring Michelle Pfeiffer, and "Double Down," with Nick Nolte. In the past season, Dr. Weaver, the ER's physically challenged chief of emergency medicine, came out as a lesbian. Kerry is the daughter of Christian missionaries; she is a difficult personality, a source of friction within the hospital staff. The character's first relationship with a staff psychologist ended unsuccessfully when Kerry's own homophobia got in the way; recently she has begun seeing a woman firefighter. "I think anytime you introduce story lines that make people think, that's how ultimately you change attitudes," Wells said. The series is treating the subject more thoughtfully than other prime-time attempts. "Laura asked us and we made the commitment that, if we were going to go that way, it was not going to be kind of a Calista Flockhart kissing," Wells said, referring to the flip, purely titillating view of the topic on Fox's "Ally McBeal." "What we wanted to examine were the professional costs and the personal costs of trying to come to grips with your own sexuality, if it's not what's normally, conventionally accepted," he said. "We anticipated the reaction." Wells reports getting a range of letters from viewers, some "very opposed" and some "very thankful." He also has received "some angry letters from people who say, "Oh, of course you make the cripple the lesbian.' . . . Jeez, you know, we're just doin' the best we can." A lesbian writer on the "ER" staff is steering the story line. She and her partner have been "happily married for years with a child," Wells said, "and we talk about trying to get into some of those things in the story. We also didn't want to portray it as if it was an easy thing. There are professional consequences, emotional consequences. So we try to be true to it, (but) we also don't want to beat it over the head like, "Here's our lesbian story line.' " Will this one work out for Kerry? "We don't know," Wells said. It's the same answer he has given for the relationship between Dr. John Carter (Noah Wyle) and Dr. Susan Lewis (Sherry Stringfield). "We go into these things just trying to see whether the chemistry works, where the story takes you." Joanne Ostrow is in California previewing network programming. Her column runs Sundays in Arts & Entertainment and Tuesday through Thursday in The Denver Post's Scene section. |
| 'ER' gay feedback 'in-house' |