George Takei & Brad Altman to Boldly Go Where No Other Same-Sex Couple Has Gone Before

By stephen on October 13th, 2009

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The Newlywed Game is an old show with seemingly old values. While somewhat controversial when it debuted in 1967, it’s euphanistic catchphrase “making whoopee” just isn’t doing it, for anyone, anymore. Fortunately, that, and other things, appear to be changing. That is, later tonight the game show will feature, for the first time, a gay, newlywed, couple: actor George Takei (Mr. Sulu on Star Trek) and his husband Brad Altman. As Takei explained, they’re “boldly going where no other same-sex couple has gone before.”

While married just over a year ago, the show’s first gay couple does, however, hold one key advantage: they’ve already been together over twenty years. That is, of course, due to gay marriage being illegal throughout the United States until, for a couple states at least, a few short years ago. After all, Takei and Altman were married in California during the short window between when the state Supreme Court had ruled gay marriage legal, and when the ballot measure Prop. 8 overturned that ruling and made it, once again, illegal.

What makes this story especially interesting, though, is that this historic episode is happening under the watch of eHarmony.com, the show’s biggest sponsor. Interesting because eHarmony, an online dating website, has received a lot of criticism over the years for not accepting gay profiles. Maybe that’s all about to change?

Takei on why he accepted the show’s offer: “Proposition 8 was passed in California, and there’s a whole group of people who cannot enjoy what we’re enjoying. And to get on The Newlywed Game hopefully will demonstrate to many of those decent, fair-minded people out there, that our wedding is not unlike all the others.”

The show is on tonight at 6:00 p.m. on The Game Show Network.