Writer Marc Cherry, creator of the TV series Desperate Housewives, has revealed that he got death threats earlier in his career when he penned an episode of The Golden Girls that tackled gay marriage.
Cherry was chatting to Rebecca Budig and Greg Rikaart on the podcast Soapy, when he shared details of the scary time in his career.
The writer and producer got his first success as a scriptwriter on classic sitcom The Golden Girls in the early 1990s. At 27 years of age, it was just the second show he’d been part of.
One of the episodes he helped write saw the character of Blanche dealing with accepting that he brother Clayton is gay. The episode Sisters of the Bride aired in the show’s sixth season.
The previous season the writer’s had introduced Clayton and he’d let his sister know that he was gay. Producers thought it would it would be a great idea to bring the character played by actor Monte Markham back.
While Blanche had told her brother she had no problem with his sexuality, viewers soon saw that she wasn’t being completely honest. Her views are challenged further when Clayton and his boyfriend Doug announce they are getting married.
“We came up with the idea, let’s bring him back. And she thinks it was a phase and he’s probably over it,” Cherry said. “But he comes back with a guy, and the premise episode is he’s announcing they’re getting married.”
While it would be decades before same-sex marriage became legal in the USA, at the time gay couples would often have services that had no legal standing. When the episode aired it upset a lot of people.
“They called us up to the office a few days after the episode aired, and they said, ‘So you guys are getting death threats.’” Cheery recalled.
Cherry also shared that he was shocked to get a letter that was antisemitic.
“I thought that’s weird – I’m not Jewish.” he said.
Soon the writers were having to get their phone numbers unlisted to avoid the insulting phone calls.
Cherry said despite the death threats it was a privilege to be writer television that was groundbreaking for its time.
