"Happily Divorced" centers around Los Angeles florist Fran (Drescher) as she deals with dating after finding out her realtor husband of 18 years (John Michael Higgins) is gay. Fran juggles her new relationships, while still living under the same roof with her ex-husband. The cast is rounded out by Fran's best friend Judi (Tichina Arnold), her parents Dori and Glen (Rita Moreno and Robert Walden) and her flower delivery employee Cesar (Valente Rodriguez). Written by Fran Drescher and Peter Marc Jacobson ("The Nanny," "What I Like About You")
The show is inspired by real life. Several years ago, Drescher learned her husband was gay. But this show should be a drama filled with angst and anger, not an attempt to make people laugh at the situation that nearly four million women face -- being married to a gay man.
Go back a few posts and you'll see that I'm not homophobic. But I am very disturbed that a TV network would make light of such a devastating situation is a marriage and milk it for laughs.
I will watch the first episode because I've always believed you can't judge something if you don't know about it first hand. The TVLand website has video clips from upcoming episodes and just from those I'm already angry. While the lead character, who is named Fran, is upset that her husband Peter (this is the name of Drescher's gay ex-husband), everyone else is making jokes about it.
Trust me, people. It's not funny. And if those of you reading this are part of the four million, you're not laughing either.
After the first episode I plan to write TVLand and let them know my feelings. Would they air a sitcom about a family with an autistic child? A marriage where the wife is dying from breast cancer? I think not. So why is having a gay husband so funny? I'll tell them why it's not funny, right down to how my ex-husband brought his lovers into our home and had sex with them in our bed.
The TVLand website has message boards too. I plan to invade them until they block my IP address. But I will let my feelings be heard.
EDITED JUNE 6: It seems TVLand has taken down their promo videos, but if you go here, you can still see about the show at the Happily Divorced link above.
Thank you, Maggie, for bringing to light how ridiculous the premise of this new show really is. The sad part is that it will give such a distorted message to people who already don't understand our situation. Now they will question even more why it's so hard for us to move on when Fran and her family were able to accept it and laugh about it. It is really insulting to think that our lives have been reduced to a "sitcom" where more people can be misinformed about the challenges we face on a daily basis for years to come.
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