THE UNGAYING OF ZACH

Cleaning out my stockpile of never-blogged stories that were piling up in my "Waiting To Be Sent" folder......

There was a big news conference today in Hollywood dealing with 'Heroes' - plans for next season (ending in April so that 'Heroes: Origins' can take the crucial May Sweeps), and plans for a world tour of the actors involved (even those whose characters died) to promote the first season's arrival on DVD.

About the only negative news that came out of the series all year was the controversy over the direction to be taken with the character of Zach, Claire's confidante who was played by Thomas Dekker. Originally it was planned that he would admit - at least to her, - that he was gay. There was to be a line about the upcoming Homecoming, which would turn out to be so crucial to the lives of so many of the 'Heroes', in which Zach would tell Claire: "I would take you to homecoming but you have to know that I don't like girls that way."

But when Dekker's management got the script, they flipped out and saw it as a firebomb to his career path. Eventually the line was excised, or at the very least altered/neutered to be read with several meanings, but it caused a lot of bad blood and finally they just decided to write Dekker and Zach out of the show.

Not that it mattered much to me, and I think to most viewers; as far as we cared, the intimation was already there that Zach was gay. And it's nice to read in an interview that the producers felt the same way. ("In really, in all of our minds, the character was still gay but we couldn't say it explicitly." - Bryan Fuller)

I don't know how Dekker felt about it all; I haven't seen any interviews with him dealing with the controversy. I'd like to think that at the worst he was just kowtowed by his management to go along with their decision.

But to the Ari Gold in his life, I'd have to say "Nuts!" to you! Your plan didn't work, and in the annals of Toobworld, the character of Zach will always be considered as gay.

Snap!

BCnU!
Toby OB