Gay San Francisco in the 1970s — a disco-fueled cauldron of sex, art,
power, riots, and liberation. It was an incredible time and place to be queer:
There was the grassroots rise of Harvey Milk; the seductive music of Sylvester,
Queen of Disco; the bawdy theater of the Cockettes; the invention of the Pride flag;
the first Gay Liberation march. There were countless revolutionary stories being told.
And there was also Phyllis. Wait, who?
So, Phyllis. A short-lived spinoff of The Mary Tyler Moore Show,
starring Cloris Leachman — you might know her from Young Frankenstein, where she played Frau Blucher.
On Phyllis, she played a recent widow who moved from Minnesota to San Francisco to
start her life anew, at the same time that in real life a queer revolution was underway,
and she ran right into it.
Hey friends, it’s Matt Baume. I make videos about queer pop culture history. And I want to show you
how this often overlooked sitcom managed to wander into an incredibly exciting queer time and place,
and to bring a message of gay liberation to audiences at the same time as Harvey
Milk. By the way, if you want to watch any of the shows I talk about in this video,
I’ve got links to them in the description. And if you’re enjoying these videos,
I’ve also got a link to my Patreon which you can join and help me make more videos like this.
So, Phyllis. The show was an attempt to capture some of the magic of The Mary Tyler Moore Show,
which had been a huge ratings hit. Lots of great people behind the scenes on
both shows. A lot of them would go on to create hits like Cheers and Frasier and The Simpsons.
Phyllis premiered in 1975 and was about a plucky single lady exploring an exciting new city — and
we’ll talk about why San Francisco was so exciting in just a minute — and also learning to date.
And just a side note here, this is where Phyllis is supposed to live on the show???
You know, one of those normal San Francisco apartments with a spiral staircase, pillars,
a sunken living room conversation pit. I lived in San Francisco for ten years,
and that sofa is larger than some apartments I spent time in. Anyway,
in the Season 2 episode “Out of the Closet” — not exactly a subtle title — we meet Phyllis’
new boyfriend Scott. He’s a nice guy, respectful. Maybe to a fault.
“You’ve always been a perfect gentleman with me.
But there’s only so much of that a woman can stand.”
Phyllis is starting to wonder why Scott’s not more passionate. She’s starting to
worry there’s something the matter with her. So Scott decides to confess his deep dark secret.
“What’s wrong with me, Scott?.”
“The problem isn’t with you, it’s with me.
I’m gay.” “Oh, that’s wonderful!”
Well that’s about as supportive a reaction as you could possibly hope for. It’s almost as though
Phyllis has received news like this before. And actually she has. Back in 1973, there’s
an episode of the Mary Tyler Moore show called My Brother’s Keeper in which Phyllis is worried that
her brother is falling for the neighbor Rhoda, whom she can’t stand, and she threatens to turn
it into a whole THING until Rhoda explains why there’s nothing between her and Phyllis’ brother.
“He’s not my type.” “What do you mean he’s not your type? He’s witty.
He’s attractive. He’s successful. He’s single.” “He’s gay!”
"I thought for sure you knew, Phyll." “Oh Rhoda I’m so relieved.”
Hey, maybe she could introduce her boyfriend to her brother. BTW I have a whole separate video
about that episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show — there’s a link in the description.
Anyway, now Scott is out, but that’s not the end of his troubles. Remember, it’s the mid-1970s,
not the worst time to be a gay person in American but also not the best. Homosexuality
was until a few years earlier considered a mental illness, it was illegal in most of the country.
A national news show had just aired an episode entitled “are gays going to hell?”
Sadly I haven’t been able to find a copy of that episode so I guess we’ll never know the answer.
Anyway, now that he’s out, Scott assumes Phyllis wants nothing to do with him.
“Don’t you want me to leave?” “Of course not. Is that the reaction
you usually receive from people you tell?” “You’re the only straight person I’ve told.”
Scott, it turns out, is really suffering. Being in the closet
is miserable for him. He has to great lengths to lie about who he is.
“I do ridiculous things, like dating you. I didn’t mean that the way it sounds." "I understand.
You were using me as a cover so people wouldn’t get suspicious.”
Hey, is Cloris Leachman television’s first beard? Good for her.
And time for another sidenote! Beards — that is, women who stand in as girlfriends for closeted
gay men — are explored in a bit more depth twenty years later on an episode of Seinfeld entitled,
and you’re never going to believe this, The Beard. In that one, Elaine poses as
a girlfriend for a gay guy, going on a date to the opera where she tries to convince her date’s
boss that he’s straight. And hey, notice anything about the boss?
“You and Robert, Hm?” “Yup!”
“I’m surprised!” “Why?”
“No reason.”
The boss is played the same actor who plays Scott on this episode of Phyllis!
What is the significance of that? Probably nothing,
it’s almost certainly one of those weird weird TV coincidences. There probably
isn’t a Seinfeld/Phyllis television universe. … Except that there kind of is, because Phyllis
is a spinoff of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, which shared characters with the show Hi Honey I’m Home,
which shared characters with The Dick Van Dyke Show, which was in the same universe
as Mad About You, which did a crossover with Seinfeld, so … actually. It checks
out. I’m not sure what checks out, but something must. Anyway. Same actor. Weird.
Where was I? Oh right. Scott wants to keep up the charade, to introduce Phyllis to his parents
as his girlfriend. Phyllis doesn’t like the sound of that and wants him to come out.
He says that he will, but then at the last second he gets nervous and here’s what he says instead:
“Phyllis and I are getting married.”
I love a good strong act break. This is a wonderful plot thickener,
very effective. So effective, in fact, that The Golden Girls used a variation on it a decade
later in the episode Scared Straight. In that one, Blanche’s brother Clayton comes to town,
Rose finds out he’s gay, and she urges him to come out. He says he will, but instead he blurts out …
“We slept together tonight.”
I also have a whole video about THAT episode that you can watch. Link in description.
Phyllis isn’t thrilled to learn that she’s engaged,
and she keeps pushing Scott to tell the truth.
“These are the 1970s, being gay isn’t something you have to hide anymore.”
Okay, Phyllis, not so fast, let’s talk about that. First of all, it’s a little weird to hear someone
declare what decade it is outside of a story about time-travel. Second … she’s actually not entirely
wrong, San Francisco was actually a pretty incredibly place to be openly gay in the 1970s.
For one thing, the Castro had just been solidified as the city’s gay neighborhood.
A local musician named Sylvester became an international star with the song You
Make me Feel and was declared the worldwide Queen of Disco. There was a new avant-garde
psychedelic gay theater troupe in town called The Cockettes that staged
wild raunchy shows like Tinsel Tarts In A Hot Coma, and Journey to the Center of Uranus.
At one point the Cockettes filmed a drag version of Tricia Nixon’s wedding — Nixon
staffers actually arranged a secret screening of that in the White House.
There was also a huge proliferation of gay bars. Places like Twin Peaks — the first
gay bar in the US to have big picture windows so you could see in, rather than everyone
trying to hide. It’s one of my favorite gay bars in the world, it's still there.
Another sidenote: if you’re ever in the Castro and there isn’t a pandemic going on,
go to Twin Peaks and look for the little spiral staircase at the back of the bar that goes up
to the balcony. It’s the best place to watch people in the entire Castro, and the cookie
shop next door vents their exhaust through the wall so you’ll come out smelling like cookies.
Also in the 70s, Gilbert Baker created the first Pride flag.
Armistead Maupin launched his Tales of the City books, which chronicled gay life in SF.
The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence were founded, an order of drag nuns that does good deeds around
the city still to this day. There was city’s first Gay Liberation Day. The first federal
employee to successfully challenge being fired for being gay. The first sex worker advocacy group,
COYOTE was founded. A huge leather district was thriving South of Market.
San Francisco in the 70s was exciting and chaotic and revolutionary and incredibly queer.
And then of course there was Harvey Milk.
Where even to start with Harvey? He’s famous today for being one of the first openly gay
elected officials in the country. But in 1976, when this episode of Phyllis aired,
barely anyone outside of the city knew his name — he was just some gay guy who owned a camera
store. People in the Castro called him The Mayor of Castro Street because he was always involved,
always helping people out. And at some point he decided that maybe he should be more than just
an unofficial city leader, and he ran for the Board of Supervisors.
It was a long shot. Even in a gay paradise like SF,
it seemed impossible that a gay man could win public office. In fact
it was impossible, at least at first — the first time he ran, he came in tenth place.
But Harvey kept at it for years. He ran again. And again. Every time, he got more support. More
people paid attention to the gay gay with the camera store, more people started to believe
in him, not just as a candidate, but in the possibility that people like him, people who were
used to always being outsiders, could actually win. And then, eventually, in 1978 he did.
"It was more than just a candidate winning. It was the fact that
all of these lesbians and gay men throughout San Francisco who felt like
they had no voice before now had someone who represented them."
As a leader, Harvey talked a lot about making life better for gay people.
He said that everything he did, he did with an eye to the gay movement. And he especially
talked about the importance of coming out. Here he is addressing another election night crowd:
“Every gay person must come out. As difficult as it is, you must tell your immediate family.
You must tell your relatives. You must tell your friends if
indeed they are your friends. You must tell your neighbors.
You must tell the people you work with. You must tell the people in the stores you shop in.”
It’s like he’s talking directly to Scott in this episode! So why was coming out such a big deal?
Well, as great as SF was in the 70s, Harvey wasn’t from there and he knew how rough people had it in
other places across the country. He believed one reason San Francisco had become such a wonderful
place for gay people was that so many people had come out there, and that only by coming out
can they dispel all the ignorance and lies about gay people. Here he is again:
“Once they realize that we are indeed their children, that we are indeed everywhere,
every myth, every lie, every innuendo will be destroyed once and all. And
once you do, you will feel so much better.”
He gave that speech in 1978. Now compare that to Phyllis talking to Scott to years earlier:
“You have to tell the people you love the truth about yourself.”
“Someday, when the right moment presents itself.”
“The right moment will never present itself. It’s only going to get tougher
the longer your wait. Why don’t you tell them tonight? Oh, you’ll feel so much better.”
You’ll feel so much better! The same exact words! It’s
uncanny. I don’t think Harvey was plagiarizing from Phyllis.
I think they share the same language for a much simpler reason — it’s just true.
Phyllis shares Harvey’s urgency throughout the episode, especially after Scott surprise-engages
her. Scott’s parents throw them an engagement party — and one more sidenote,
have you ever seen so many ferns in your life? They’ve even rolled one out on a cart.
Anyway, at the engagement party, Phyllis issues an ultimatum. If Scott doesn’t
tell his parents the truth, she’s going to call his bluff. She’ll go through with the wedding.
“Either you tell them, or some morning very soon, you will wake up in Niagara Falls next to me.”
That’s the push he needs. He spends a few minutes in a separate room, and when he comes out ...
“Phyllis, you are looking at a man who just stepped out of prison.”
I think a lot of people can identify with that feeling. It’s called liberation for
a reason. Scott is overjoyed to be out — looks like Harvey and
Phyllis were right! — and suddenly his engagement party is a coming out party.
“Aunt Dorothy, I’m gay. … I’m gay … I’m gay … I am gay. I'm gay.”
"He's gay! He's gay! He's gay! Did you hear the news? He's gay!"
No wonder Scott’s excited. I’d be excited too. There’s so much he gets to see and experience
as an openly gay man in San Francisco in the 1970s. The music, the art, the parades, the bars.
There’s a lot of big things ahead for Scott. And for queer people in real life too.
Two years later, Harvey Milk would win elected office. The next year,
anti-gay groups put a measure on the ballot that would require schools to fire gay teachers.
Harvey mobilized against it, and thanks in part to the political organizing machine that he built,
that measure was defeated. That was a huge milestone for queer power — one
of the first times LGBTQ+ people were able to push back against bigotry at the ballot box.
You probably know what happened next — Harvey was killed by a political rival.
Gone just like that. The movement that he started though, that didn’t disappear. The
inspiration. Thousands of people flooded the streets to remember him and what he stood for,
the belief that people could work together to make things better — he proved that was true.
And that it can start by simply coming out, living openly, so more people can do the same.
“There's hope for a better world. There's hope for a better tomorrow. I know that you
cannot live on hope alone. But without it life is not worth living. And you, and you,
and you, you’ve got to give them hope. Thank you very much.”
Thanks for watching and big thanks to everyone who makes these videos possible
with support on Patreon. You can join me over there at Patreon.com/mattbaume.
You can also join me over on Twitch, where I livestream games and also chat about
this kind of stuff, every MWF from 2-6pm pacific, that's at twitch.tv/mattbaume.
Now if you’ll excuse me, it’s time for me and Phyllis to enjoy a little nightcap.
"Ovaltine?"