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They'll boldly go where no gay couple has gone before
George Tekei and Brad Altman
Star Trek's Mr Sulu to appear on The Newlywed Game - with his husband
Star Trek's Mr Sulu, actor George Takei, is to appear in a celebrity edition of the American TV show The Newlywed Game with his partner Brad Altman, who he married in California last year.
They'll be the first gay couple ever to appear on the game show, which has been on and off TV since 1967, but is now on the GSN cable network, with the latest series beginning in October. The show is similar to the UK's Mr and Mrs, with couples being asked questions on their knowledge of their partners, but requires that they have a legally-recognised marriage to play.
"George and I are thrilled. It's pretty historic for us," Altman told the New York Daily News. "It's going to be a great experience for both of us to see how well we really know each other after twenty-two years together."
It may not be the "final frontier" for Takei, and there's no apparent plan for him and Altman to be "beamed" onto the show next to a pile of fibreglass 'rocks', but he has revealed that he was quietly preparing for his appearance by taking notes of what his partner orders in restaurants and wears. "What we want is to display the normality and the joy of having a happy union," he said. "To be included in something we never felt we'd be included in is very satisfying."
Takei and Altman have just celebrated their first anniversary after marrying in Los Angeles last September, two months before voters overruled a decision by the California Supreme Court that briefly legalized marriage in the state, but their union remains legal.
Kelly Goode, GSN's programming chief, said the change (of having a gay couple on the show) "made sense for GSN. It seems like the show has always reflected the times in terms of marriages depicted and this felt like the next logical step."
The show's host, singer Carnie Wilson, said that she had been pressing for an all-gay edition of the show and was excited by Takei's appearance. "It's needed at this point," she said. "To me, this is not anything political. This is not a political statement. This show has always been about couples and how well they know each other."
But Dan Gainor, a vice-president at the conservative Culture and Media Institute, claimed that Takei and Altman's appearance was a political statement for the California-based GSN, following the state's banning of same-sex marriages only months ago. "They're trying to use TV and the movies to set the gay agenda and make it mainstream," he said.
