Normal, Ohio was a American television sitcom, which aired on the Fox Network in 2000. The show starred John Goodman as William "Butch" Gamble, a gay man returning to his Midwestern home town. The cast also included Joely Fisher, Anita Gillette , Orson Bean, Mo Gaffney and Charles Rocket.
Goodman won the People's Choice Award for Best Actor in a New Comedy Series, but the show was not generally a success in the Nielsen ratings, and was cancelled after only a few months on the air.
The show was most notable for the divisions it exposed regarding American culture's view of homosexuality. Gamble was portrayed as an average blue collar guy with many traits typical of American masculinity, including a love of football and beer. As a result, many gay media outlets praised the show for its portrayal of an average gay man living a normal life, while mainstream media outlets often dismissed Goodman's role as "unrealistic".
The credibility of Goodman's portrayal, in fact, depended significantly on one's own preconceived notions of how a gay man should look and act. In reality, gay men who look and act like a "John Goodman type" are quite common (see bear community), but in mainstream culture's perception of homosexuality, such men are virtually invisible since they don't fit the usual stereotypes of a gay man. Conversely, Jack (Sean Hayes) on Will and Grace, a much more stereotypical figure, has been labelled as an objectionable portrayal by some of the same media commentators who praised Goodman's role in Normal, Ohio.
External Link
