January meme: Night Court stuff

[arduinna]

dorinda asked a question that I had actually just been thinking about recently myself, so I'm gonna start with that:

Do you think it would be possible to have a story, written today, centered around the Night Court episode "Best of Friends", or would the period-accurate (& therefore sometimes transphobic) handling of some of it make it a non-starter or drawerfic?

So, for background: the Night Court ep 'Best of Friends' aired in 1985, and the main storyline was about Dan Fielding, absolutely giddy with delight at an upcoming visit from his best college buddy. This level of delight is so weird for Dan. He doesn't have friends, see; he has conquests, and he has contacts, and he has people he sucks up to or uses for whatever he needs, but he doesn't have friends. And yet clearly, he adores this guy, Chip, who's coming to see him, and he is so excited! They were drinking buddies and womanizing buddies and they told each other everything and YES! CHIP IS COMING TO VISIT! He has always been Dan's ideal of manhood, and Dan can't wait to relive their former glories.

But what Dan doesn't know is that "Chip" is really Charlene, who was AMAB and struggled terribly with that for years, and who is finally living the life she always wanted and about to get married, and wanted Dan (whom Charlene also adores - it was a genuine friendship) to know the truth, and to get his blessing. (Erk, wrong word; she wants him to be happy for her, because he really matters to her - but she loves her life and isn't going to not live it the way she wants to if Dan can't deal with the truth.)

Okay, so: 1985. Dan Fielding. A big chunk of the episode is Dan's furious, cruel, betrayed reaction to Charlene's appearance and explanation. Transphobic is putting it lightly.

But otoh, it doesn't end there; Dan works through it, and although it's incredibly difficult for him to see that Charlene is the same friend he always loved, he gets there. And he even gets protective of her (which okay, seriously sexist for him to tell her fiance that if he hurts Charlene, Dan will kill him - but Dan is sexist through and through, so it still comes as a sign of progress).

There is just so much scope in this episode for fanfic, looking at Dan's willingness to move past at least some of his rigid way of looking at the world, and how when he loves someone it's intense and real, and how maybe that's why he doesn't have friends - he knows how to do transactional relationships, but not really how to do casual friendships; it's all or nothing with him, and he anchors himself to his real relationships, so he's at risk of being set badly adrift if something goes wrong.

But that said, this would be really dicey to write about today, because even though this episode at heart is about accepting people for who they are, regardless of who that is, it's still done in a mid-80s way, which is 30 years out of date.

I think it could be done, but drawerfic or a locked-down posting might be the way to go. I would hate to see someone looking for trans tags stumble into 80s transphobia (and even 80s trans norms - lots of things were different) without realizing it.

My brain is all aswirl with caveats and but-ifs, but yeah: in this particular case, I think an episode-centered story should be kept more private.

Comments

[sholio]

You know, I rewatched about 3 seasons or so of this show a few years ago, when it started coming out on DVD, and while certain aspects were awfully cringeworthy and dated now (like Dan's constant sexual harassment played for laughs -- I still love Dan, and I remembered it so it's not like it came out of nowhere, but it's still a lot cringier now than it was for me in the 1980s) ... I was actually very pleasantly surprised at how hard the show tried and how much they got right. I never made it as far as this episode, although I think I vaguely remember it from the first airing (didn't remember she was engaged, though!), but there was another one along those lines in which Dan found out that one of his old friends, a super macho dude who had been in the military, was gay. It played out along similar lines, starting out with Dan reacting with betrayal and ended up with the two of them getting stuck in an elevator together and (if I remember right, it's been a few years) talking it out and getting found after they'd fallen asleep together and were basically cuddling. On the one hand, it's a very '80s sort of Very Special Episode that is clearly centered around the straight character's journey rather than the gay one. But on the other hand, it was, what, 1988 or something?

And the show had a lot of that sort of thing, and a lot of episodes like that. In a way it reminds me of a 1980s version of Community, where it was capable of both missing the boat in spectacularly faily ways, and also getting things right in ways that most other shows of its era didn't.

[arduinna]

Yes, exactly! There are some intensely cringy bits -- e.g., Bull doesn't understand and the explanations throughout the ep are, ye gods -- but otoh most of the people in the courtroom are willing to go with the flow, and the ultimate intent behind the ep is clearly that Dan's initial reaction was not cool; his feelings are his feelings, but dude, don't be a schmuck, Charlene is a good person who deserves the life she wants.

On the one hand, it's a very '80s sort of Very Special Episode that is clearly centered around the straight character's journey rather than the gay one.

Ah, yes, thank you, that's exactly what I was trying to figure out a way to say and coming up blank instead. The focus is completely wrong - but even then, the show made sure that the gay/trans/whatever character had agency and dignity and depth, which - wow, go them, mid-80s sitcom!

And yeah, they did this sort of thing a lot. It's one of the reasons I loved the show so much; on the surface it's just a wacky sitcom, but they dealt with some really intense emotional stuff over the years, and the upshot was always that people are people, and are worth knowing on their own merits.

[dorinda]

The focus is completely wrong - but even then, the show made sure that the gay/trans/whatever character had agency and dignity and depth, which - wow, go them, mid-80s sitcom!

This is really true, and I think can get lost in the shuffle of stereotypes about what "the 80s" and "80s sitcoms" were like. I mean, I was recently reading an article that looked back on lgbt plots in US media of the 1990s, which refreshed my memory of the cultural context and sensibilities of that place and time. And even compared to *that* time, Night Court, which was made earlier, was really different and progressive compared to so much other TV.

Of course, compared to today, it can fall short--after all, 30 years is a long time. And that seems pretty heartening, how some things have changed enough to leave some old ways and opinions in the dust.

[arduinna]

Yes! All of that! *g* \o/