KTLA News: "Protest against portrayal of lesbians in The Prisoner" (1979)

[Silence]. [Reporter Stan Chambers] What is the reason for the protest? [Unidentified Woman] Because of the ugly portrayal of the so-called token lesbian on the "Prisoner" series of which it shows a woman who was sadistic and ugly and ill kept and acting so "male"- as the male people are supposed to treat women- and has no relationship to women, has no relationship to lesbians and we would like it off the air and we would like them to consider perhaps a good series, of which there are a lot of scripts around town because I also am in the various unions and I know they're there. We want positive image, not ugly image. Not flies (?). [Protestors chanting]. "Gay rights or gay..." [Silence]. [Protestors chanting]. "Gay rights, right now... Gay rights, right now...Gay rights, right now..." [Silence]. [Protestors chanting] "Take the 'Prisoner' off the air... Take the 'Prisoner' off the air...Take the 'Prisoner' off the air..." [Protestors chanting] "...your act...KTLA, clean up your act... KTLA, clean up your act...KTLA, clean up your act...." [Silence]. [Protestors chanting] "KTLA, clean up your act...KTLA, clean..." [Traffic noise]. [Protestors chanting] "Take the 'Prisoner' off the air... Take the 'Prisoner' off the air...Take the 'Prisoner' off the air..." [Reporter Chambers question is not audible]. [Unidentified man] That the show does not present that there is  an alternative to prisons. That violence against persons and property can be stopped,  can be stopped by many ways. Prisons are dehumanizing institutions and all the people in the prison, be they guards  or women residents, are brutalized and my lesbian sister is most brutalized. Please notice that she's cast entirely differently in the show than anyone else. Even dress differently. I think the station has...has...done a wrong judgment and I think they could change that. [Protestors chanting] "Gay rights..." [Silence]. [Chambers] What is your reaction to the demonstration in front of the station against the "Prisoner." [Unidentified Man] Well, I think, uhm...Stan right at first  impressions are that I think they're not giving the show a chance and they're not really... first impressions are tricky and the first impression of Frankie in the first episodes of the "Prisoner" she looks like a hard stereotype character  but without giving away the plot line the Frankie character completely unveils in a   different perspective as the episodes go on. So they should really watch episodes three, four, five and six because the character is completely different than what the  first impression of it is. My other big worry that people think...is this show is not a documentary. It's a fictional series and the Frankie Doyle character is not...it's just a character, a fictional  character not representing any group. It's just one person. Just basically, like, Archie Bunker was not  representing all male Americans. Or Fred Sanford wasn't representing all Los Angeles  junk men in the city. They're just fictional characters. [Chambers] They also say that it's a stereotype. That it's  a brutal and unfavorable portrayal. [Unidentified Man] Well they... it could at first. It may look like a stereotype to 'em but I'm telling you Stan the amazing thing about this series... [Silence]. [Unidentified Man] Every character in the show...it first looks  like a stereotype. Every character looks like a stereotype. But as the episodes unveil...it's one of the few shows  I have ever witnessed uhm...that every characters three dimensional.  There is a good side to 'em, a bad side to 'em. Which is unusual in television. Usually  everybody is perfect or everybody is evil. In this show every characters three-dimensional  they have a little good in 'em, a little bad in 'em, and a little of everything and the Frankie  Doyle character at first looks bad and I'm telling you is that- and I don't want  to give away the plot- uhm...she is a completely different character by episode 7 and you'll  be rooting for her instead of against her. [Silence].