Show Business: Out of the Closet

The diabetic patient entered the office of TV's Dr. Marcus Welby last week with a raft of problems: dizzy spells, headaches, a surge of excessive drinking, irritability and the impending breakup of his marriage. The diagnosis: not another run-of-the-medical-show rare disease, but an inability to cope with a confused sexual identity. Welby thus became at least the fourth show this season to deal with the once-closeted subject of homosexuality.

Last fall, in ABC's award-winning TV movie That Certain Summer, a divorced father was forced to explain his homosexuality to his shocked son. In the same week, NBC's The Bold Ones dealt explicitly...