Ellen DeGeneres: Alternate Lifestyles Make a Splash on TV

While "The West Wing" made the big news at 2000's Emmy Awards show in Los Angeles, what became apparent to many involved, including television viewers, actors, and producers, is that shows depicting gays and alternate lifestyles are becoming more popular and gaining mainstream acceptance.

ABC's sitcom "Ellen," starring Ellen DeGeneres, actually lost viewers after her character "came out of the closet" in 1998 and revealed that she was a lesbian, but many attribute the show's decline in popularity to the fact that at the time many mainstream viewers were not ready to accept such "controversial" themes. Since then, however, a number of shows have had success in dealing with alternate lifestyles, most notably "Will & Grace," a sitcom that depicts a gay man living with a heterosexual female roommate. The show, which airs on NBC, won an Emmy for "Best Comedy Series."

Executives at the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation have taken note and shown a positive endorsement of the networks' ability to add non-traditional relationships to mainstream television entertainment. They also note that television goes a long way in molding the views of gays and lesbians in the minds of both viewers and society in general.

Many question whether such depictions are appropriate, and conservative groups around the country oppose such television shows, placing the "morally corrupt" label on them and much of what Hollywood produces on the big screen as well. But unlike the gratuitous violence that abounds both on television and in movies, showing the world that not all relationships and households are traditional in nature is arguably based as much on reality as any desire for enhanced ratings.