Commentary: Marc Cherry should not be so pleased with himself over Desperate Housewives’ GLAAD win

Congratulations to Desperate Housewives and its creator Marc Cherry for winning the GLAAD Media Award over the weekend for Outstanding Comedy Series. Mr. Cherry, flanked by cast members including Teri Hatcher, Dana Delaney, Kyle MacLachlan, Tuc Watkins and Kevin Rahm, accepted the award and seemed quite proud of himself for including regular gay characters on the show.

I wish I could say I was proud of him too.

But the truth is, Cherry – who is openly gay – has mostly wasted his gay characters since the early stages of season three. That’s when sociopathic gay teen Andrew Van de Kamp (played by the terrific Shawn Pyfrom) went from being one of the most highly-visible gay characters on television to glorified extra for much of seasons three and four.

Cherry told the crowd at the Nokia Theatre Saturday about how Pyfrom told him about all the letters he would get from gay teens who viewed him as a role model. He said he then”started to bring (Andrew) back into something where he could be more positive and show them there could be a way back.”

Back to what? Invisibility? Next thing we know,  Andrew has a few lines per episode and is working at the pizza place owned by Lynette and Tom (Felicity Huffman and Doug Savant) saying things like: “Do you need me to work an extra shift?” Bree did try to set him up with a guy during one episode last season but that was only because he was a contractor and she was trying to get her roof fixed after a tornado.

In season five – where the action on Wisteria Lane leaped forward five years – Andrew is a respectable young man who works as his mother’s assistant, helping her manage her Martha Stewart-like empire.

Cherry told me last summer during the Television Critics Association Press Tour that Andrew was based on him when he was younger during the first season, at least in terms of his mother’s attitude toward his being gay. He had Andrew be more “in your face” than he was as a kid.

“I got to work out some of my anger,” he said.

But now that Marc has worked things out and is closer than ever to his mother, Andrew’s more symbiotic relationship with Bree (Marcia Cross) reflects that. Andrew also has a boyfriend, Dr. Alex Cominis, played by Todd Grinnell.  So there is some improvement and Pyfrom is being given a bit more to do. But he is not the fully-realized gay character he should be and it’s a damned shame.

Cherry said at the GLAAD event that he really just wants to show America that having gay people live on your street, “it’s really just no big deal.” While Andrew has his own place and no longer lives on Wisteria Lane, gay couple Bob and Lee (Tuc Watkins and Kevin Rahm) do live there. But they have only been a minor presence since they made their debut in October 2007.

Things started off promising as next door neighbor Susan (Teri Hatcher) kept trying to endear herself to the couple after getting off on the wrong foot. Things went from bad to worse when the men had a really ugly water sculpture installed in their front yard. At the end of last season, they had a commitment ceremony but we never actually saw it since Gary Cole was busy shooting Justine Bateman to death and holding Dana Delaney and Marcia Cross hostage.

So much for gay visibility.

Rahm was very good on the CBS drama Judging Amy but Watkins, in my opinion, is the one being criminally underused. He’s that rare actor with leading and look and terrific comic chops which he has shown on One Life to Live and on the late, great Showtime series Beggars and Choosers. But of course he had characters on those shows.

I know that Marc Cherry has many characters to write for and a wide demographic to appeal to, but I sincerely hope he will use what time the show has left to do right by his gay characters.

He owes them that.