G.P. (Australia, 1989-96)

[surrenderdotty]

G.P. was a prime time soap that ran on Australian tv on the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corp.) channel between 1989 and 1996. G.P. centred on the group of doctors and patients at a fictional inner city doctor's clinic, the Ross St Surgery, in Sydney. (In Australia family doctors are known as G.P.s, or General Practitioners.) At the time that G.P. went to air one of the most popular shows on Aussie tv was the prime time soap "A Country Practice", which was similarly about a group of family doctors but in a rural setting. G.P. became a popular show for the ABC, and during its 8 season run tackled a number of issues that were considered topical, and for a couple of seasons towards the end of the show (1994 & 95) introduced a gay doctor, Dr Martin Dempsey played by blonde tousle haired cutie Damian Rice. 

This episode is from 1994 and Dr Dempsey has just joined the practice, is dealing with a short fling with one of his patients (Patrick, played by Lochie Daddo), and is also coming out as gay to the somewhat conservative senior doctor of the practice, Dr William Sharp. Just having an out, regular main character on a popular prime time tv show was quite a rarity in 1994, but this episode "Out" was considered quite a topical episode at the time for its frank discussions about coming out, AIDS and especially for THE GAY KISS. Sadly the romance only lasted this episode, but Dr Dempsey remained out and proud for the 2 years he was on the show.

The episode looks a little creaky by modern standards, some of the acting is a bit wooden, and I could certainly do without the lame brother/sister storyline, but viewed in context of the time it was pretty great. As a young homosexualist I had a major crush on Dr Dempsey, so it's nice to revisit that.   

Here's the episode in full courtesy of kurvapisa on youtube, the smooch happens around the 33:35 mark.

[justinate]

Thanks for posting this blast from the past. It's impressive to see that, over 20 years ago, Australia did not shy away from depicting gay intimacy - especially the bed scene, which was ahead of its time. Strange, then, that it took so long to translate to the Aussie soaps (H&A still doesn't have a gay male character).

Dr Dempsey is indeed a heartthrob. Do you know why he never had a romance after this?

[surrenderdotty]

Apr 13, 2017 8:35:39 GMT -5 justinate said:

Thanks for posting this blast from the past. It's impressive to see that, over 20 years ago, Australia did not shy away from depicting gay intimacy - especially the bed scene, which was ahead of its time. Strange, then, that it took so long to translate to the Aussie soaps (H&A still doesn't have a gay male character).

Dr Dempsey is indeed a heartthrob. Do you know why he never had a romance after this?

There's been lgbt characters on quite a few Aussie shows over the years, including even earlier shows than G.P.. In 1972 the sexy prime time soap Number 96 had a regular gay character Don Finlayson, supposedly one of the first in the world. Neighbours still has ongoing gay characters, although they are poorly written and the show is so bad I don't watch it.

G.P. tackled a number of lgbt and AIDS related storylines, including one about whether or not Dr Dempsey had assisted in the euthanasia of an AIDS patient. Unfortunately the show isn't available on DVD anymore and it's been many years since I saw many of the episodes. I don't remember another romance storyline for Dr Dempsey, but they didn't shy away from the fact that he was gay. 

[kevvoi]

There is an old thread for Number 96:

gaydaytime.proboards.com/thread/1747/number-96s-don