Book Review: The Rainbow Age of Television

With the last decade’s television boom across a multitude of platforms, producing hundreds of network and streaming series, American audiences are being treated to a cascade of shows that some have trumpeted as a second Golden Age. But something completely new is stirring, too—the Rainbow Age. For the first time in the history of American television, we have shows in which LGBTQIA+ characters have evolved from being an anomaly to being an almost given and celebrated presence on the small screen. But what more can queer TV do? Is each new queer character really breaking ground? And has the curse of the fictional dead lesbian finally been defeated?

The Rainbow Age of Television: An Opinionated History of Queer TV by Shayna Maci Warner will be published on August 27, 2024. Abrams Press provided an early galley for review.

I was a huge television fanatic growing up (a little less so in recent years as there are so many more offerings than the old network days of three channels plus the British offerings via PBS and whatever we picked up from the Canadian channels across the border). So, I was very excited to read what Warner had to say on this particular look at TV history.

After starting off with an introduction and shows I am less familiar, I was pleased to get to the early history of queer representation on shows. This was the stuff I grew up on. From the Lear offerings (I was a faithful All In the Family, and I do remember watching episodes as they aired of Hot l Baltimore) to Susan Harris' Soap (still a huge fan of the entire run), this was the history I knew well.

As the analysis moves through the 80's, 90's and into the 2000's and beyond, I was reminded of other shows I had watched. I was also presented with details from many shows I knew by reputation and name but not by my ever viewing them. Still, Warner is able to mine many examples to illustrate the points of each chapter.

The eight "Queer and A" sessions with various queer creatives were also a nice touch. They really provided additional insights, bringing in the conversation element to the whole discussion. They set the book apart from the standard "greatest hits"/listing TV history books.