Normal, Ohio

Normal, Ohio
Format	Sitcom
Created by	Bonnie Turner Terry Turner Caryn Mandabach
Starring	John Goodman Joely Fisher Anita Gillette Orson Bean Mo Gaffney Charles Rocket
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	13
Production
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	23 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	Fox
Original run	November 1, 2000 (2000-11-01) – December 13, 2000 (2000-12-13)

Normal, Ohio is an American television sitcom, which aired on the Fox Network in 2000. The show stars John Goodman as William "Butch" Gamble, a gay man returning to his Midwestern home town. The cast also includes Joely Fisher, Anita Gillette, Orson Bean, Mo Gaffney and Charles Rocket.

Overview

The original concept for the series was an Odd Couple-style situation comedy called Don't Ask, with Goodman as "Rex", sharing his West Hollywood apartment with college friend David (Anthony LaPaglia). Although the pilot was well-received, creators Bonnie and Terry Turner felt that the premise was not strong enough for an ongoing series. LaPaglia's character was written out and the series was relocated to Ohio.^[1]

The show was most notable for the divisions it exposed regarding American culture's view of homosexuality. Gamble was an average blue collar gay bear with many traits typical of American masculinity, including a love of football and beer, and very few of the traits stereotypically associated with gay men — and yet his sexuality itself was signified in part by isolated moments of more stereotypically gay behavior, such as singing snippets of Broadway show tunes and helping his sister to dye her hair, that were seemingly at odds with the way his character was presented most of the time. As a result, many media outlets dismissed Goodman's role as unrealistic.^[2]

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. Thirteen episodes of the series were made, but only seven were aired before its cancellation.

Notes

1. ^ Tropiano, Stephen (2002). The Prime Time Closet: A History of Gays and Lesbians on TV. New York, Applause Theatre and Cinema Books. ISBN 1557835578. p. 252
2. ^ Maitra, Rob. "Getting Back to Normal". popmatters.com. http://www.popmatters.com/tv/reviews/n/normal-ohio.html. Retrieved 2009-06-24. 

External links

• Normal, Ohio at the Internet Movie Database
• Normal, Ohio at TV.com