Six Degrees of Thanksgiving

This Turkey Tastes Like Bacon

A Media Shmedia column

by Scott Patrick Wagner

This year, I've decided to list the things for which I'm thankful in tag-team fashion. My six degrees will take me from gay to fey. Won't that be fun?

Let's start with TV producer Greg Berlanti, whose three ABC series have just been reduced by two. One of the cancellations really irks me. Eli Stone, while not a perfect achievement, is sublimely innovative, both in its use of all-of-a-sudden musical numbers, and its willingness to explore spirituality through a lawyer who may be hearing straight from God. There's nothing else like it on TV, and I'm perturbed that it will be gone. Yet Berlanti's remaining show, Brothers & Sisters, is significant. Among its other virtues, B&S depicts a gay couple more honestly and with more equanimity than any other network show. This is largely due to the openly gay Berlanti, and it's good news for everyone that would like to see diversity normalized enough to make movements like Yes on Prop 8 obsolete.

Which leads me to link number two on this string of thanks: the Supporters of Same-Sex Marriage. Whereas in the past, a blow like the passing of Prop 8 might've made the oppressed depressed, the opposite has happened. Rallies across the country demonstrate an unwillingness to be subjugated, and the Issue that Won't Go Away is getting lots of media attention. One surprise of the No on 8 demonstrations: when edgy comedian Wanda Sykes outed herself.

Thinking of Outspoken Black Women like Sykes brings me next to Oprah Winfrey. (It's not my strongest link, I realize.) The Big O deserves a little shout-out because of her handling of her corner of the presidential campaign. After publicly supporting one candidate early in the primaries, she conscientiously refused to bring any candidate on her show, so as not to turn her program into a bully pulpit. But the day after the election, she became "unleashed," and used her hour for an ebullient and touching celebration.

Which takes us to Barack Obama, who won some kind of contest this year, and his prize is cleaning up the humongous mess an errant Texan left. Like everyone except Republicans, I got chills watching the acceptance speech in Grant Park, and continue my admiration of a man who is carrying himself with more grace than seems possible in a news-dissemination system that seems equal parts diss and semen.

One can't remember the Obama election without a haunted flashback to Sarah Palin. Why am I giving thanks to the Toxic-Spilla from Wasilla? Two reasons. First, she provided such an unabashedly clear portrait of the despotic and dyspeptic side of democracy that only the most Kool-Aid-drunk could remain on that frayed ticket. Second, her abuses against eloquence, literacy, and common sense were so jaw-dropping that life was made a little easier for media heroes Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. (They're not the next stop on the tag journey, just an honorable-mention aside.)

Governor Moose-alini (that never gets old) brings to mind my favorite Thanksgetter of this year: Tina Fey. Her utterly brilliant renditions of La Palin on Saturday Night Live made that program seem funny and relevant again. And the subsequent sinkhole of horrors in her absence speaks (and reeks) volumes. (The recent Thanksgiving skit — featuring jokes about eating the family dog — was the last coffin nail I needed.) But in almost equal counterpoint to the artless collapse of SNL is the shining, triumphal return of Fey's own 30 Rock. There isn't a brighter or more inventive comedy on television, and this season features big-time guest stars — normally the death-knell of creativity — doing some of their best work. The recent show featuring Steve Martin was crafted so meticulously as to be an homage to Mr. Martin's "Jerk" period, giving him hilarious material that served both as tribute and showcase.

And there you have it: gay to Fey. Happy Thanksgiving!