![]() "Squash" Bernstein, bodyguard to his straight buddy, is still refreshing now compared to the gay male characters introduced to us this TV season on The New Normal and Partners. Guys who pitched in to help someone in need regardless of your age, looks, body type, income, clothing and neighborhood. Like Karras' character, they were just regular working class guys who happened to be gay. Midwest gay men I knew were carpenters, landscapers, supermarket managers, factory workers, sons of farmers, nightclub bouncers and Coast Guards. I worked and lived for ten years in Milwaukee. Stop beating it into us with a velvet hammer." I grew up in South L.A. I felt like saying to the TV screen, "OK, I get it. The characters are busy being so hyper-trendy, hip, snarky, cute, upscale and fabulous-fabulous-fabulous that it's draining. I can't connect to those gay men - and I'm in the union. ![]() I tried to sit through another episode of NBC's freshman sitcom, The New Normal. Last week, Puerto Rico's Orlando Cruz - who represented Puerto Rico in the 2000 Olympics - became the first openly gay boxer in professional sports. But with a twist.Īt the gym, "Squash" knows boxers who are gay. The protector, the sidekick, the regular guy. What a totally cool character! He was to James Garner what William Demarest was to Henry Fonda in The Lady Eve. Enter Alex Karras as "Squash" Bernstein in Victor/Victoria. (Remember when singer John Davidson played a psychotic drag queen killer on ABC's The Streets of San Francisco? He killed and dressed as Carol Channing.) America had to realize that masculinity wasn't the sole turf of heterosexual males. Those new images were kicking aside shame and moving up from the "sissy" victim, substitute gal pal and social deviant characters that were constantly seen. Victor/Victoria came out when gay images were evolving in America and in American entertainment. That gender bender story is my favorite Julie Andrews film. I feel it ranks right up there with the best of Preston Sturges and Ernst Lubitsch from Hollywood's golden era of the 1930s and early '40s. First of all, that Blake Edwards film is one of the last truly terrific screwball comedies. ![]() ![]() His big bear of a bodyguard to the James Garner tough guy in Victor/Victoria was a breakthrough and a role that is still relevant and refreshing today. That's the movie that taught me that if you punch a horse, it will fall down in the wrong direction.He was straight as Mongo in Blazing Saddles.gay as the burly bodyguard in Victor/Victoria.he embraced racial diversity on TV's, Webster.and he was great on the gridiron for the Detroit Lions. Most notable was his star turn as the cowboy henchman "Mongo" in Blazing Saddles. Karras was the first round draft pick of the Detroit Lions, and made four Pro Bowls.Īfter his playing career ended, Karras worked the sidelines for ABC's Monday Night Football (back when that meant something), starred as the title character's adoptive-Dad on the sitcom Webster, and appeared in several movies. In 1957, Karras won the Outland Trophy, and finished second in the Heisman voting, the highest ever finish for a Tackle. That game clinched Iowa's first ever trip to the Rose Bowl. As a Junior in 1956, Karras finished the Hawkeyes' 7-0 win over Ohio State with a game-ending sack. We talked about the brilliant acting chops of Bubba Smith earlier, and now it's time to single out an Iowa Hawkeye All-American who moved onto both the big and small screen.Īlex Karras was a dominant force in Forrest Evashkevski's Hawkeye teams of the late Fifties. ![]()
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