From 'Bewitched' to 'Modern Family': Queer representation in TV sitcoms

TV sitcoms have the power to entertain, comfort, and practically hypnotize.

Ask anyone who’s emerged, blinking in the sunlight, after binging an entire season of “Schitt’s Creek,” wondering what day it is.

But, it’s not all just about delivering laughs.

The sitcom has also been a driver of societal change, a kind of “Trojan horse” for empathy for those different from you, and understanding of changing cultural norms.

That may be especially true when it comes to helping advance LGBTQ+ rights.

Seattle writer and YouTuber Matt Baume takes a closer look at this history in his new book, "HI HONEY, I’M HOMO: Sitcoms, Specials, and the Queering of American Culture."

In it, he charts the course of decades of television, from "Bewitched" to the "Golden Girls" and "Modern Family," television embraced queer culture, and how it helped change America.

"Bewitched" is an ideal starting place. According to Baume, the show "sits at this really interesting time, because it started pre Stonewall." And while it wasn't explicit in its inclusion, the show "straddles, essentially, the modern the birth of the modern queer liberation movement."

You can listen to the entire conversation in the audio above.