The history of sitcoms is rich an varied. Sitcoms always last half an hour. An unwritten law in television land, which starts from the assumption that the average viewer will not be able to keep up his concentration much longer to take in the staple ingredients of puns and misunderstandings. How many sitcoms did you see? And how many do you remember?
Absolute classics of course are Lucy, Soap and The Golden Girls, but meanwhile dozens of others are floating as memory fragments through your unconscious somewhere below your level of awareness. Taxi for instance? That garage where cab drivers embittered each other`s life. Remember? Danny DeVito played the boss and Tony Danza an Italian macho. Danza stood out enough to eventually play a lead. Which he did in Who`s The Boss. As a single parent out of work, with Alyssa Milano playing his daughter (who later played in Melrose Place), he looked for a job as a housekeeper and ended up working for the prim and proper Miss Judith Light, also single parently raising her little boy Jonathan, played by Danny Pintauro. Excuse this long foreplay to get to the guy.
For eight seasons in a row, to be precise from 1984 till 1992, Pintauro played the role of darling son. From his eighth till his sixteenth he took on the persona of the sweet, cute, charming little boy next door. Just your ordinary successful sitcom, you might think. If it hadn`t been for Pintauro, who already at that tender showed obvious signs his hormones would eventually head the gay way. Of course you don`t say so where it concerns a sweet young kid. Before you know it you`re looked upon as a pervert. But miracles do happen. Danny Pintauro came out of his closet! Not modestly, but open and honestly and unashamedly proud. And in the land of golden opportunities and Victorian morals this may still be called a miracle!
Coming out
Pintauro chose the The National Enquirer to make his homosexuality public. Not of his own accord, but because the magazine had threatened to lay his sexual preference before the public. So Danny decided to cooperate. I couldn`t deny it any longer", the young actor said. The interview happened already a few years back, but didn`t attract the attention of the Dutch press. Pintauro wasn`t famous enough to do so. Yet his revelation" is important for the gay community. According anyway to the American GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation), who ascertained his coming out was courageous and that for this many gays and lesbians owe him one. By telling his story Pintauro has become a role model for young homosexuals struggling with their sexuality", GLAAD says.
Theatre
But a silence fell around the actor. A silence lasting till the middle of this year, when all the attention got focused on Pintauro again on account of his solo theatre play The Velocity of Gary (Not His Real Name). In this play the by now 24 year old actor plays the role of a naive male homosexual prostitute. The Bay Area Reporter commends the play as well as its writer James Still, who for a decade played the role himself, most favourably. Now Pintauro brings it to the stage and convinces his audience with his interpretation, his charisma and last but not least his looks. Pintauro has come a long way since playing the perfect little boy. A frail young guy, with a square jawed characteristic face, pale, his hair spiking straight up, playing the proverbial stars from heaven in this hour and a half tour de force, with which he leaves his impersonation of the ideal young child in Who`s The Boss way behind him.
Press
The Velocity of Gary is only a minor event in the fringe of the theatre world. But since the role is played by an (inter)national celebrity, who also came out for his homosexuality, The Advocate had reasons enough to put Pintauro on the front page of their September issue and publish a long interview with him. In the interview the attractive young guy comes across as a grown up man. Almost like a seasoned Hollywood actor, who makes it clear he wants to be open and honest. I don`t like bullshit. When The Enquirer threatened with publication, I immediately called Judith Light", he says. She supports gays and lesbians for years already and is on the board of the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center."
It`s not about the circumstances under which Danny is coming out", says Light, it`s important he did it so well and so elegantly. Because of that he`s become another human being and that`s the most important to me. As a heterosexual you have no idea what you could come out for, everything seems so natural. I admire Danny enormously for the step he has taken".
The threat of being outed has quite some consequences for the person involved. Also Pintauro had to get his act together in no time. No, he says, he did not go crazy. I was completely prepared for it. Privately I`d come out of the closet a long time ago and I was living an open lifestyle in Los Angeles. I behaved like a slut` over there, so I was surprised it took the publicity machine that long. I did call my parents straight away though and they were shocked a bit more than I was. They needed some time to come to terms with my being gay. Judith advised me to go talk to The Enquirer, so they would not publish a nonsense story. Judith is great really, but I was a bit more scared for Tony Danza. He reacted like you would expect of an Italian dad - he didn`t know what to say. And that was that".
Pintauro doesn`t think twice about possible consequences. I don`t wanna live like a celebrity and I also don`t wanna be a full-time actor. So I couldn`t care less about the press. And as far as roles are concerned, I wanna be chosen for my talent and get parts that suit me. I could be the romantic Romeo. I`m masculine, but not straight-acting. So what? Me playing Jonathan has had more impact than my coming out. Time and again people pull Who`s The Boss out of the closet and I`ve yet to hear you`re too gay".
Also The Advocate posed the unavoidable question about other homosexual celebrities in Hollywood. Discreetly Pintauro doesn`t drop names, but says he has met quite a number of them and adds that there are enough who have no problem being gay. I myself knew already for a long time I was gay. In the television world I saw so many gays around me. Everywhere. Judith`s manager for instance lives already for twenty years with his boyfriend".
Lovelife
The path of love of a gay celebrity is`t strewn with roses. Also here Danny is open and honest. For five years I`m out of the closet now and have had several affairs, of which I`ve learned a lot. What I do want and what I don`t want for instance. I catch myself time and again looking for boyfriends who haven`t had an affair yet and so do not know their own feelings well enough. I fancy real masculine guys, but they also bring with them the characteristics I hate so much in straight men. Yet I keep finding masculine, military men the most attractive. At the moment I`m involved in just such a complicated relationship and face the problems which I should have been avoiding from the start. A bit of a mess really".
When I`m looking at old parts of Who`s The Boss I always think what a nurd, that kid, what a weakling, grow up". I felt I got further and further away from Jonathan, I didn`t wanna be like that and I wasn`t like that either".
Plans for the future generally conclude an interview. Also the talk with Danny Pintauro. I found out acting is not the most fun. I think I`m quite good at it, but when I see other actors deal with their profession I think I lack true passion. I`m now taking courses in directing, but eventually i wanna teach. That`s what I see for myself".
When will we be the day the Dutch theatre scene will offer more gay theatre? Abroad everywhere smaller productions are playing you`d like to go see at once. But unfortunately, in Holland this culture shines by its very absence. And so we also miss out on Danny Pintauro. What a pity!