1972 - That Certain Summer, a TV movie with Martin Sheen and Hal Holbrook, was I think the first sympathetic TV movie about gays.
1977 - the TV show had the first regular gay character on primetime TV, however the show was a soap-opera spoof, i.e., not very serious.
1977 - the Starsky & Hutch episode "Death in a Different Place" one of the first (I think it was THE first, but I'm not sure) sympathetic and explicit discussions/portrayals of homosexuality.
I don't know much about movies, since the Hayes Code messed with the trajectory of what was acceptable to be shown in theaters for a long time.
Re: Early gayness on American movies and TV
1972 - That Certain Summer, a TV movie with Martin Sheen and Hal Holbrook, was I think the first sympathetic TV movie about gays.
1977 - the TV show had the first regular gay character on primetime TV, however the show was a soap-opera spoof, i.e., not very serious.
1977 - the Starsky & Hutch episode "Death in a Different Place" one of the first (I think it was THE first, but I'm not sure) sympathetic and explicit discussions/portrayals of homosexuality.
I don't know much about movies, since the Hayes Code messed with the trajectory of what was acceptable to be shown in theaters for a long time.