TV & Video - Nov. 9, 1989

‘thirtysomething’ Gets Calls: David Marshall Grant and Peter Frechette slipped between the sheets on Tuesday night’s episode of ABC’s “thirtysomething,” and Wednesday morning the ABC switchboard was busy answering the phones as a result. By midmorning, one operator (of three taking calls) had logged 25 calls, 23 of which were offended by the post-bed scene between the two men. “thirtysomething’s” Emmy-winning executive producer Marshall Herskovitz’s own response Wednesday: “We didn’t do it for fun. It was a natural following-out of themes we had established. I don’t know if the relationship between the characters will continue; that hasn’t been decided. But we’re not waiting for public response to influence our decision. We’ve never worked that way, and we’re not going to start now.” Incidentally, this was not the first time the two actors had played a homosexual couple. Two years ago, Grant and Frechette co-starred as gays interned in Dachau in the acclaimed drama “Bent” at the Coast Playhouse--for which Frechette won a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award.