Copyright by Alfred Leonard Martin, Jr. 2015 The Dissertation Committee for Alfred Leonard Martin, Jr., Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Trapped in a Generic Closet: Black-cast Television Sitcoms and Black Gay Men Committee: Mary C. Beltrán, Supervisor Jonathan A. Gray Alisa Perren Eric Pritchard Janet Staiger Karin Wilkins Trapped in a Generic Closet: Black-cast Television Sitcoms and Black Gay Men by Alfred Leonard Martin, Jr., B.A., M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May 2015 Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to two important men in my life. First, my dearly departed father Alfred Sr. (1944 – 2008), who taught me the value of hard work and perseverance and always supported me in whatever hair-brained idea I wanted to pursue. Second, my husband Tom, who like my father, supports me unequivocally. He possesses the greatest gift needed for the spouse of a dissertator: knowing when to leave the dissertator alone and when he needs a break from the madness of writing. Acknowledgements I’d first like to extend a very special thanks to my amazing dissertation committee without whom this project would be a distant glimmer. To have these brilliant minds provide their considerable expertise is more than I could have ever hoped for. My supervisor, Mary C. Beltrán, talked me off the ledge many times while writing and patiently helped me truly figure out where this project was headed. She believed in me, even at times when I didn’t believe in me. Mary knew when to push me, and when to leave me alone to figure it all out. Best of all, she has turned out to be an exceptional mentor. Janet Staiger stepped in an allowed me to lean on her knowledge of seemingly everything and helped to shape my ideas and provide me with always-interesting things to consider. Janet’s wisdom is scary and vast, and I am eternally grateful for the opportunity to have had her brainpower on this project. Jonathan Gray provided both snark and exceptional insight as I worked my way through this dissertation project. From my stalking him at ICA-Phoenix, he turned into an extraordinarily smart and gifted member of my committee, and someone I am happy to call an aca-friend and mentor. Eric Pritchard was always there when I needed “real talk” about my dissertation. I am overjoyed to call him a colleague, mentor, and a friend. Karin Wilkins kept pushing me to think about my research questions in a way that only she could. My project is better for it. I continue to be amazed at her brilliance. And last (but certainly not least), Alisa Perren who stepped into and provided valuable insight about studying TV production and told me to keep going even when I was not sure where I was headed. v This dissertation also would not have happened without “my girls” (in alphabetical order) Camille DeBose, Jennifer Fuller, and Kristen Warner. Thank you for listening to me as I tried to make sense of this project in various phases. Sometimes, I just needed to hear myself think out loud to smart people. But more than anything thanks for the ratchet! I do not think I would have made it through this project without our late night Facebook chats about the most inane subject matter. Thanks to my bud Andy Owens who was silly with me and shared my pain when I needed it. The laughter with Camille, Jennifer, Kristen and Andy helped me to re-focus on Job One: writing the dissertation. Thanks to Mike Rennett for going to “writing parties” with me that ultimately helped me write the dissertation and gave me the opportunity to talk about my project to someone who was largely unfamiliar with the work. That insight helped me to think about my project in different ways that, I think, made it stronger. Keara Goin stepped in to booze it up when I needed it, but also read parts of this project to let me know if/when my arguments were insane. A huge shout out to my birthday twin, Taylor Cole Miller who I felt connected to since we met on admissions day back in 2010. He has been an amazing cheerleader, friend and brother. He pushes my work to make it better, a practice that started during our first semester of graduate school. I look forward to many decades of being conference roommates and colleagues. Colin Tait is truly one of the nicest and most generous people I know. He was generous with his time and mentorship as I worked toward finishing this project. vi I am indebted to both Ron Becker and Stephen Tropiano. Their willingness to provide me with copies of television series that I would have been otherwise unable to view helped me make this project stronger, both in my analysis and my methodology. I also thank several of my dance teachers who instilled in me not only the art of dance, but the art of discipline. Without that discipline, I do not think I would have ever finished this project. Leslie and her late husband Gerald O’Day, showed me at a young age that anything was possible and that I could rise to any occasion if I put my mind to it. I have come a long way from O’Day School of Dance in Detroit, but I take your lessons with me always. Andrea Haynes Johnson (Mama J) taught me to always follow my dreams and that if you shoot for the moon and miss, at least you will hit the stars. Sharon Kay Randolph instilled in me a drive to work as hard and precisely as I can because life is not a dress rehearsal. Both Mama J and Sharon were proponents of leaving it all out on the dance floor. Sharee Lane taught me that all the flourishes in the world could not hide bad technique: a skill that has served me well as I have worked through this dissertation. I thank my family, both by blood and extended, for their support. My mother and I are often like oil and vinegar, but I will always love her and the ways she taught me to be a survivor. My late father, Alfred Sr., was the best dad a boy could hope for. He supported and loved me unconditionally and I miss him everyday. My sister Yolanda listened to me prattle on about this project, even when I am certain she did not understand. But that is what great big sisters do. To my in-laws, especially The Lust Family who have always loved and supported me and my mother in-law Janice Manternach, who was always there to get the prayer chain going when I needed it, thank vii you for loving me and welcoming me into the Knapp clan. My best friends in the universe (and my surrogate family), Erica Alford, Heather Dominey, Pat Gold, Joe Graham, Liberty Harris, Janelle Hinkley, Cory Lott, Ayanna McConnell, Rhea Norwood, Roy Rogers, Julie Smith, Krystal Villanosa, and Elizabeth Zuba, your support has really gotten me through this dissertation project. Your love means more to me than you will ever know. A special thanks to Pat Gold, who lent her talents as a retired high school English teacher to this dissertation to make sure my grammar was as good as it should be. Last, but certainly not least, I thank my husband Tom. Writing this dissertation has made me crabby, mean, moody and sometimes, downright bitchy, but he loved me through it. He’s been my rock, my support, my cheerleader, my confidant and my best friend. When I shipped him out of town so that I could focus on writing, he did it – even when he didn’t want to. I share this achievement with him, because my life would only be half as fulfilling without him in it. viii Trapped in a Generic Closet: Black-cast Television Sitcoms and Black Gay Men Alfred Leonard Martin, Jr., PhD The University of Texas at Austin, 2015 Supervisor: Mary C. Beltrán Trapped in a Generic Closet is an interdisciplinary, mixed methods project that examines the various sites where meaning is made and negotiated with respect to representations of black gay men in black-cast from the mid-late 1990s through the early part of the 21st century. Combining scholarship from TV genre theory, reception theory, authorship studies, critical race theory and queer media studies, this dissertation works toward developing a more holistic understanding of the ways black gayness operates within black-cast sitcoms. This project intervenes and works against the scholarly impetus to study lead and co-starring characters because they have more sustained visibility with viewers and instead examines those one-off (or nearly one-off) black gay male characters within the black sitcom because, I argue, they reveal more about the ways in which ideology function within the genre. It is within the moments of rupture that black gay guest-starring characters emerge that viewers can understand what the show's producers and writers (as a monolithic group) think about gayness and its intersection with comedy. Ultimately, this dissertation project shifts the scholarly attention away from white gay televisuality to black gay televisuality to explore the ways ix homosexuality functions within the black sitcom and begin correcting the erasure of black queer bodies from the televisual canon of gay representation.