VIDEO: Ellen DeGeneres, Neil Patrick Harris, Rachel Maddow, and More Speak Out in ‘Visible: Out on Television’ Trailer
LGBTQ+ documentary series also features interviews with Andy Cohen, Wanda Sykes, and Carl Reiner
January 20, 2020A multitude of famous faces explore the ever-changing relationship between TV and LGBTQ+ themes, characters, and actors in the trailer for Apple TV+’s upcoming documentary series “Visible: Out on Television.”
The clip (above) begins with comedian turned TV icon Ellen DeGeneres opening up about her own backstory. “When I called the executive producers over to my house and I told them I wanted to come out, it became bigger than any of us ever anticipated,” the Stern Show guest says.
From actors and executive producers Wilson Cruz and Wanda Sykes, the series investigates the importance of TV as an intimate medium that has shaped the American conscience, and how the LGBTQ movement has shaped television. Combining archival footage with never-before-seen interviews, it explores themes ranging from homophobia to the difficulties of coming out in the TV industry.
“The truth was there was no LGBT presence on TV that I can remember,” Andy Cohen says at one point (above).
“People couldn’t be just who they were,” fellow Stern Show veteran Neil Patrick Harris explains.
As Stern show fans may remember, NPH opened up to Howard and Robin Quivers in 2014 about coming out as gay in Hollywood while playing a heterosexual character on his sitcom “How I Met Your Mother.” “I worried a little bit that they would start re-writing the material to not be, like, so aggressively male,” Neil admitted at the time.
“Visible: Out On Television” is created by Ryan White and Jessica Hargrave. The five-part, hour-long series also features contributions from Stern Show veterans Carl Reiner and Rachel Maddow as well as Billy Crystal, Oprah Winfrey, Don Lemon, Margaret Cho, Lena Waithe, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, and dozens more.
“Visible: Out On Television” premieres Feb. 14 on Apple TV+