Best Buddies

Danny's is shocked and confused when his longtime friend Ron confides that he is gay. Danny tries to set Ron up with Maxie for a date convinced that he'll be able to change his friends sexuality.

 Meanwhile Lydia and Leroy's friendship is jeopardized when they compete to choreograph a TV commercial for Dippy Dave.  

This is a difficult episode for me to review because it has never been broadcast in the U.K.  so I didn't actually get to watch it until 2009.  Obviously in that time since the original broadcast attitudes towards gay people have changed.  These days fully rounded gay characters are featured in lots of TV series and there are even a few dramas like "Heartstopper",  "Queer As Folk" and "The L Word" that are specifically about LGBTAIA+ characters.

This was not the case back in the 80s, so I have to try and keep that in mind when I view it. Had I watched this episode when it was originally made then I may  have viewed it differently and may have found it helpful as a gay viewer.

Firstly,  I certainly applaud the show for dealing with the subject.  I think it was actually very brave of them to do this show, considering the audience that "Fame" was aimed at and the attitudes to gay people back then. It would be interesting to hear what kind of reaction this episode got when it was screened as I’m sure there were some people who didn’t think it was an appropriate subject for the show to cover.

However, by today’s standards and even back then Ron is only a one dimensional character and because of that I can’t say that I really like him or feel sympathetically towards him. The writers did at least avoid the gay clichés with him and have gone completely in the opposite direction and made him totally straight acting, with what  could be seen as more macho hobbies like all the wood work stuff and kung fu.  For me perhaps they took this a little too far because apart from him actually saying he’s gay and we see him briefly chat to a male friend there is absolutely nothing about him that appears gay. In fact I feel he is a totally ungay gay character.

The main issue I have with this episode is more with Danny than with Ron. I have never viewed Danny as a prejudiced person. From his experience with cancer he knows what it is like to be treated differently because of something he has no control over and I don’t believe he would deliberately be nasty and cruel to anyone. So I find his reaction quite difficult to watch.

Yes, I’m sure he would be shocked and maybe a little confused as perhaps he doesn’t understand things properly. I can also see him trying to convert Ron by setting him up with Maxie but Danny doesn’t call people cruel names like queer, faggot and freak. I feel maybe the story line would have been more suitable to say Chris or even Jesse but Jesse doesn’t appear in this episode and Chris is the voice of reason, well sort of! Thankfully Danny does realise he’s wrong by the end of the episode and wants to continue to be friends with Ron.

 One thing that is definitely missing from this episode is the female voice of reason. In seasons 1 to 4 had this story occurred then Doris would defnitely taken Danny aside to talk to him calmly and make him see reason and how hurtful his comments were to someone who is his friend.  In Season 5 or even the first part of season 6 I think Nicole would have done the same but here the female characters just aren’t strong enough to take that role on. Maybe Reggie could have pulled it off but she doesn’t appear. Without such a scene it just comes across that for most of this episode the characters are acting all macho and shouting at each other and that becomes very irritating. I also don’t think the acting in this episode is very strong particularly the actors playing Ron and his father, and even Carlo seems to be struggling a little.

Also very irritating is the amount of touching and hugging Ron and Danny do during the first part of this episode, I’ve never seen Danny act like that with any of his other friends during the whole 6 years of the show. It seems to be done purely to highlight how Danny even avoided touching his friend when he found out the truth. Oh yes and where has this friend suddenly come from? They are so close but we’ve never seen him or heard anything about him before. Where was he in season one when Danny is out on his own with his drugs story line and not a friend in sight to support him or even turn up to his comedy performance. Where was he in season 3 when Danny had cancer? I hate when people just turn up and the audience is supposed to believe they have been friends with our characters for years. Maybe had Ron appeared in a couple of episodes prior to this in the season, even as a back up character it would have helped a little. So we could have seen their relationship in a  more neutral setting.

I assume the old footage of Danny as a kid really was footage of Carlo when he was young?

I do think the story is quite unrealistic, 6 years in a school where people want to be dancers, actors, performers and Danny doesn’t appear to even know one person who is gay. This is really hard to believe. I know coming out back then was difficult but even so someone in that School would have been gay and even if there weren’t out there would be rumours and suspicions, so it’s difficult to get my head round.

Also unusually for "Fame", although Danny comes around in the end, the relationship between Ron and his father doesn't get resolved.  Whilst I don't think it would have been realistic for the father to totally accept things but it might have been better if at least he was willing to talk to Ron. This how the show leaves difficult relationships between parents and kids in "Street Kid" and "Blizzard" where Tracy and Jaime make phone calls and there is hope for the future. Things in this episode do feel very bleak.  In fact the message here comes across as if you come out as gay your family will disown you.

The Lydia and Leroy story of them competing against each other is quite interesting. However I think a scene was needed where at the end where they realised their friendship was more important than a competition. Without this scene the characters don’t come across as so fully rounded as they do in other seasons. Still it was nice to have Debbie and Gene duet together, even though I'm not convinced that the song really suits their voices, particularly Debbie's. 

One idea I had for this episode was what if Montgomery was back in town appearing in a Broadway show and ends up staying with Danny. Montgomery is then the one who comes out as gay.  We then have the existing history between the characters to make the story more realistic. Also we already know that Montgomery had a difficult relationship with his Mother and his sexuality has made things worse. Also they could have explored how he'd been advised to stay in the closet to avoid harming his career. It could have made this a much more powerful episode.   

Original  air date in U.S.A.  30th  March 1987

Never aired In The U.K.   

Original air date in Italy 24th January 1989  

Original air date  in France 24th March 1996