David Fisher (Six Feet Under)
Encyclopedia
David James Fisher is a fictional character played by Michael C. Hall
on the HBO television series Six Feet Under. The character is the middle child of three and is a third-generation funeral director. Initially, the character is portrayed as socially conservative (and possibly politically so), dutiful to his family, emotionally repressed and conflicted about his homosexuality
. Over the course of the series, he faces struggles and triumphs both personally and professionally. His most significant challenges are related to keeping his funeral home in business, navigating his relationship with Keith Charles, surviving being carjacked, and coping with the death of his father. By the show's end, he reconciles his religious beliefs, personal goals and homosexuality, and he and Keith settle down. They adopt two children: eight-year-old Anthony and twelve-year-old Durrell. The series finale and official HBO website indicate that Keith is murdered in a robbery in 2029, and that David at some point finds companionship with Raoul Martinez, with whom he remains until his death at the age of 75.
Among critics, David Fisher has been cited as the first realistic portrayal of a gay lead male character on television and is popularly regarded as one of the most beloved characters of the series. Michael C. Hall was widely praised for his portrayal of the character, and was nominated for and won major awards as a result.
, says he based the characters Nate, Claire and David on himself. Of David, he said "I'm like David in that for years I tried to do everything right, as if that would some way redeem me." When he first conceived the characters, in one interview he said, "David was just always gay. He was the brother who was 'the best little boy in the world' who did everything to please everybody, and that's such a classic gay thing."
Jeremy Sisto
(who played Billy Chenowith) and Peter Krause
(Nate Fisher
) both originally auditioned for the role of David. However, director Sam Mendes
had just finished working with Hall on the Broadway
show Cabaret
, and called him one day at noon to invite him to audition for the role that evening. Ball (who had worked with Mendes on the film American Beauty
) said that, after four days of auditions "[Hall] started reading, and I just saw the character come to life. And it was David."
and 14 years older than Claire) of Nathaniel Sr. and Ruth Fisher. They are owner and operators of Fisher & Sons Funeral Home, which Nathaniel Sr. inherited from his own father. Some years prior to the pilot episode, David abandoned his desire to become a lawyer and, instead, went to mortuary school to assist his father with the business. These decisions cause him to resent his older brother who left home at 17 and only visits for major holidays. David's relationship with his mother is affectionate, but his relationship with his father is conflicted. His father's death in the show’s pilot episode brings their unresolved issues to the fore.
David is in many ways conservative (more so than either of his siblings) and he was even a Young Republican in college. Although he began to suspect he was gay in childhood, Season 3 reveals that he spent "ten years" dating women, going as far as to get engaged to a woman named Jennifer Mason. Their relationship ended when David revealed he was gay, but he still remained closeted about his homosexuality. In the pilot, he is in a several-month long relationship with an African-American police officer named Keith Charles whom he met at a gay-friendly church.
Meanwhile, he relies emotionally on his boyfriend Keith in private, while he publicly declares them to be racquetball
partners. Claire observes them at her father's funeral and deduces that they are a couple. Weeks later, when Nate chances upon the couple having lunch, David tacitly outs himself by taking Keith's hand, which the couple considers a personal triumph. However, moments later David chastises Keith after he angrily confronts a man who called them "fags". Keith accuses David of self-loathing and dumps him. David is devastated. In the wake of their break-up, David is offered and accepts his father's deacon
position at the Episcopalian Church
while secretly engaging in a series of one-night stand
s and risky sex. He is even arrested for sex with a prostitute, and Keith gets him out of jail. The brutal murder of a young gay man spurs him to clean his life up and come out of the closet. His mother reluctantly accepts him, but he is stripped of his deaconhood. In a sign of support for David the Fisher famliy leaves the church as well.
, however, Keith is in a relationship with an emergency medical technician
named Eddie. However, after Keith kills someone while on duty, he seeks David for comfort and they have sex, but to David's disappointment, Keith considers it a mistake. David begins dating a lawyer named Ben, but cannot shake his love for Keith. When David and Keith's relationships fail, they get back together. Over time, David moves into Keith's apartment. David bonds with Keith's young niece Taylor of whom Keith gets custody after Taylor's mother is incarcerated. The two begin adoption proceedings. The growing pressures on Keith exacerbate his anger management
problems, and he becomes increasingly distant and verbally abusive. After getting suspended from work for use of excessive force
, Keith sends Taylor to live with his parents without consulting David. David tolerates his behavior until an argument about attending Claire's graduation turns violent and erupts into the two men grappling on the floor before engaging in rough sex that leaves both of them slightly injured.
together to help resolve some of their communication issues. When the therapist suggests that David have an independent hobby, David joins the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles
. The difference between his and Keith's social circles is highlighted when Keith reluctantly plays a game of leading ladies
with David's friends at a brunch, and later when Keith invites David to play combat-style paintball
with Keith's gay cop friends. When one of the paintball players (named Sarge) is too inebriated to drive home, he stays over, which leads to the men having a three-way sexual experience. A part of David enjoys "being wild," but he feels conflicted about having an open relationship
; still, he hesitantly agrees to more such encounters.
When David and Keith travel to San Diego for Keith's aunt's funeral, David defends Keith during an explosive and violent argument between Keith and his father, but Keith rejects his support and David, furious and humiliated, catches the bus back to Los Angeles. His chorus buddy, Patrick, picks him up, and the two have sex. The incident coincides with the disappearance of Nate's wife, Lisa, and David stays with his brother for a time while avoiding Keith. Soon after he returns home, a fight about a telemarketer
escalates into another battle about the San Diego incident, so David breaks up with Keith and moves back to the family home. A few weeks later they encounter each other at their church and have a long talk.
from a plumber. Keith finds employment with a private security agency to celebrities, but does not come out at work. Soon, he is assigned to go on a three-month tour with a pop star named Celeste.
While Keith is away, David is kidnapped at gunpoint by a hitchhiker he picks up en route to delivering a dead body to the funeral home. The carjacker robs David, makes him smoke crack cocaine
, beats him, and finally douses him in gasoline and puts a gun in his mouth, forcing him to beg for his life. When he finds out what happened, Keith rushes home, but David convinces him to go back on tour. However, David begins to experience crippling panic attack
s, which worry Keith from afar. David grows increasingly lonely and emotionally unhinged, starts drinking more and tearfully tells Keith that he wants them to become sexually exclusive. Even so, David sleeps with the paintballer Sarge again. Although Keith eventually "comes out" at work, Celeste seduces him into sleeping with her, and then fires him for the indiscretion. When he comes home, Keith confesses his infidelity, and David begins to worry that Keith will leave him for a woman. David eventually confesses his own tryst with Sarge. The pressure builds until finally, an irrational David assault
s a man at a restaurant. The victim implies that he will drop a $500,000 lawsuit if Keith will allow him to perform oral sex on him, and Keith complies. The man then hires Keith for personal security.
David confronts his carjacker in jail to put the trauma
behind him.
", and the obituaries published at the official HBO website, the viewers learn of David's life after the show up until his death. David teaches Durrell how to embalm a body, and Durrell is seen continuing the business into adulthood. In 2009, David and Keith are legally married, which was the first depicted on a fictional American series; they remain together until Keith is murdered in 2029. At Claire's wedding, Durrell is seated with a woman and (presumably) their child, while Anthony is seated next to a man, whose hand he is holding. David retires from Fisher & Sons in 2034 (Durrell continues the business), and goes on to star in many local community theater productions. He later enters into a relationship with a man named Raoul Martinez, and they are together when David dies at a family function in 2044 at age 75. His final vision is of a young and healthy Keith catching a football and smiling at him.
' whose quest for love and self-acceptance inculcates the viewer." In reference to the scene when David comes out to his mother, Queer TV: Theories, Histories, Politics commented that it "purposefully counters the predictability of most coming out scenes in film and television texts, in which a bold declaration is followed swiftly by angry rejection or emotional acceptance." The book Fade to Black and White: Interracial Images in Popular Culture called the relationships between Keith, David, their niece Taylor and their adopted children a "rare exception" to the interracial relationships on television that advance negative stereotypes. Ellen Lewin, in her book Gay Fatherhood: Narratives of Family and Citizenship in America, cited David and Keith as "realistic, if somewhat parodic" examples of real gay fathers who adopt children that heterosexual couples – with "more attractive options (presumably)" – might not adopt, a trend that contrasts with the typical stereotype of the pleasure-seeking and self-indulgent gay male.
David also was a reference point for cultural studies on trends in gay perception and entertainment of the time. One Temple University
publication purported that "Six Feet Under offers a critique of bourgeois selfhood through the gay heroic figure of David Fisher and his psychic states are represented as a logical outcome of his homosexual middle-class identity."
For his part, Hall was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series
and for an AFI Award
for Actor of the Year in 2002 for his role as David Fisher. In addition, he shared in the Screen Actors Guild
nominations for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series all five years that the show was in production, winning the award in 2003 and 2004.
Michael C. Hall
Michael Carlyle Hall is an American actor whose television roles include David Fisher on the HBO drama series Six Feet Under and Dexter Morgan on the Showtime series Dexter. In 2009, Hall won a Golden Globe award and a Screen Actors Guild Award for his role in Dexter.-Early life:Hall was born in...
on the HBO television series Six Feet Under. The character is the middle child of three and is a third-generation funeral director. Initially, the character is portrayed as socially conservative (and possibly politically so), dutiful to his family, emotionally repressed and conflicted about his homosexuality
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
. Over the course of the series, he faces struggles and triumphs both personally and professionally. His most significant challenges are related to keeping his funeral home in business, navigating his relationship with Keith Charles, surviving being carjacked, and coping with the death of his father. By the show's end, he reconciles his religious beliefs, personal goals and homosexuality, and he and Keith settle down. They adopt two children: eight-year-old Anthony and twelve-year-old Durrell. The series finale and official HBO website indicate that Keith is murdered in a robbery in 2029, and that David at some point finds companionship with Raoul Martinez, with whom he remains until his death at the age of 75.
Among critics, David Fisher has been cited as the first realistic portrayal of a gay lead male character on television and is popularly regarded as one of the most beloved characters of the series. Michael C. Hall was widely praised for his portrayal of the character, and was nominated for and won major awards as a result.
Character conception
The show's creator, Alan BallAlan Ball (screenwriter)
Alan E. Ball is an American writer, director, actor and producer for film, theatre and television.-Early life:Ball was born in Atlanta, Georgia, to Frank and Mary Ball, an aircraft inspector and a homemaker...
, says he based the characters Nate, Claire and David on himself. Of David, he said "I'm like David in that for years I tried to do everything right, as if that would some way redeem me." When he first conceived the characters, in one interview he said, "David was just always gay. He was the brother who was 'the best little boy in the world' who did everything to please everybody, and that's such a classic gay thing."
Jeremy Sisto
Jeremy Sisto
Jeremy Merton Sisto is an American actor. Sisto has had recurring roles as Billy Chenowith on the HBO series Six Feet Under and Detective Cyrus Lupo on Law & Order on television and also starred in the films Jesus, Clueless and Thirteen.-Early life:Sisto was born in Grass Valley, California, the...
(who played Billy Chenowith) and Peter Krause
Peter Krause
Peter William Krause is an American film and television actor and film producer. He is perhaps best known for his lead roles as Nate Fisher on Six Feet Under, Adam Braverman on Parenthood, and Casey McCall on Sports Night...
(Nate Fisher
Nate Fisher
Nathaniel Samuel "Nate" Fisher, Jr. is a fictional character on the HBO television series Six Feet Under, played by Peter Krause.-Prior to the Pilot:...
) both originally auditioned for the role of David. However, director Sam Mendes
Sam Mendes
Samuel Alexander "Sam" Mendes, CBE is an English stage and film director. He is best known for his Academy Award-winning work on his debut film American Beauty and his dark re-inventions of the stage musicals Cabaret , Oliver! , Company and Gypsy . He's currently working on the 23rd James Bond...
had just finished working with Hall on the Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
show Cabaret
Cabaret (musical)
Cabaret is a musical based on a book written by Christopher Isherwood, music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb. The 1966 Broadway production became a hit and spawned a 1972 film as well as numerous subsequent productions....
, and called him one day at noon to invite him to audition for the role that evening. Ball (who had worked with Mendes on the film American Beauty
American Beauty (film)
American Beauty is a 1999 American drama film directed by Sam Mendes and written by Alan Ball. Kevin Spacey stars as Lester Burnham, a middle-aged magazine writer who has a midlife crisis when he becomes infatuated with his teenage daughter's best friend, Angela...
) said that, after four days of auditions "[Hall] started reading, and I just saw the character come to life. And it was David."
Show's outset
David is the second son (four years younger than NateNate Fisher
Nathaniel Samuel "Nate" Fisher, Jr. is a fictional character on the HBO television series Six Feet Under, played by Peter Krause.-Prior to the Pilot:...
and 14 years older than Claire) of Nathaniel Sr. and Ruth Fisher. They are owner and operators of Fisher & Sons Funeral Home, which Nathaniel Sr. inherited from his own father. Some years prior to the pilot episode, David abandoned his desire to become a lawyer and, instead, went to mortuary school to assist his father with the business. These decisions cause him to resent his older brother who left home at 17 and only visits for major holidays. David's relationship with his mother is affectionate, but his relationship with his father is conflicted. His father's death in the show’s pilot episode brings their unresolved issues to the fore.
David is in many ways conservative (more so than either of his siblings) and he was even a Young Republican in college. Although he began to suspect he was gay in childhood, Season 3 reveals that he spent "ten years" dating women, going as far as to get engaged to a woman named Jennifer Mason. Their relationship ended when David revealed he was gay, but he still remained closeted about his homosexuality. In the pilot, he is in a several-month long relationship with an African-American police officer named Keith Charles whom he met at a gay-friendly church.
Season 1
Soon after his father's death, David becomes angered at Nate's sudden, and permanent, return home. Worse, their father bequeaths half of the business to Nate, which David takes as a trivialization of the sacrifices he has made for the family business. His anger is complicated when a major funeral home chain, Kroehner Service International, harasses the brothers to sell to them. Nate initially wants to sell and then changes his mind; Ruth backs Nate both times and, as a result, David feels even further marginalized.Meanwhile, he relies emotionally on his boyfriend Keith in private, while he publicly declares them to be racquetball
Racquetball
For other sports often called "paddleball", see Paddleball .Racquetball is a racquet sport played with a hollow rubber ball in an indoor or outdoor court...
partners. Claire observes them at her father's funeral and deduces that they are a couple. Weeks later, when Nate chances upon the couple having lunch, David tacitly outs himself by taking Keith's hand, which the couple considers a personal triumph. However, moments later David chastises Keith after he angrily confronts a man who called them "fags". Keith accuses David of self-loathing and dumps him. David is devastated. In the wake of their break-up, David is offered and accepts his father's deacon
Deacon
Deacon is a ministry in the Christian Church that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions...
position at the Episcopalian Church
Episcopal Church (United States)
The Episcopal Church is a mainline Anglican Christian church found mainly in the United States , but also in Honduras, Taiwan, Colombia, Ecuador, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, the British Virgin Islands and parts of Europe...
while secretly engaging in a series of one-night stand
One-night stand
Originally, a one-night stand was a single theatre performance, usually by a guest performer on tour, as opposed to an ongoing engagement. Today, however, the term is more commonly defined as a single sexual encounter, in which neither participant has any intention or expectation of a relationship...
s and risky sex. He is even arrested for sex with a prostitute, and Keith gets him out of jail. The brutal murder of a young gay man spurs him to clean his life up and come out of the closet. His mother reluctantly accepts him, but he is stripped of his deaconhood. In a sign of support for David the Fisher famliy leaves the church as well.
Season 2
By the time David comes outComing out
Coming out is a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people's disclosure of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity....
, however, Keith is in a relationship with an emergency medical technician
Emergency medical technician
Emergency Medical Technician or Ambulance Technician are terms used in some countries to denote a healthcare provider of emergency medical services...
named Eddie. However, after Keith kills someone while on duty, he seeks David for comfort and they have sex, but to David's disappointment, Keith considers it a mistake. David begins dating a lawyer named Ben, but cannot shake his love for Keith. When David and Keith's relationships fail, they get back together. Over time, David moves into Keith's apartment. David bonds with Keith's young niece Taylor of whom Keith gets custody after Taylor's mother is incarcerated. The two begin adoption proceedings. The growing pressures on Keith exacerbate his anger management
Anger management
The term anger management commonly refers to a system of psychological therapeutic techniques and exercises by which someone with excessive or uncontrollable anger & aggression can control or reduce the triggers, degrees, and effects of an angered emotional state...
problems, and he becomes increasingly distant and verbally abusive. After getting suspended from work for use of excessive force
Excessive Force
Excessive Force is a musical side project started in 1991 by Sascha Konietzko of KMFDM and Buzz McCoy of My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult.-History:...
, Keith sends Taylor to live with his parents without consulting David. David tolerates his behavior until an argument about attending Claire's graduation turns violent and erupts into the two men grappling on the floor before engaging in rough sex that leaves both of them slightly injured.
Season 3
David and Keith decide to start therapyFamily therapy
Family therapy, also referred to as couple and family therapy, family systems therapy, and family counseling, is a branch of psychotherapy that works with families and couples in intimate relationships to nurture change and development. It tends to view change in terms of the systems of...
together to help resolve some of their communication issues. When the therapist suggests that David have an independent hobby, David joins the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles
Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles
- About :The Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles has been a notable part of the Southern California performing arts community for over twenty-eight years...
. The difference between his and Keith's social circles is highlighted when Keith reluctantly plays a game of leading ladies
Leading ladies (game)
Leading ladies is a party game in which each participant is tagged with a famous actress on their back. Over the course of the party, the participant must ask fellow guests "yes or no" questions until they figure out who they are.-In popular culture:...
with David's friends at a brunch, and later when Keith invites David to play combat-style paintball
Paintball
Paintball is a sport in which players compete, in teams or individually, to eliminate opponents by tagging them with capsules containing water soluble dye and gelatin shell outside propelled from a device called a paintball marker . Paintballs have a non-toxic, biodegradable, water soluble...
with Keith's gay cop friends. When one of the paintball players (named Sarge) is too inebriated to drive home, he stays over, which leads to the men having a three-way sexual experience. A part of David enjoys "being wild," but he feels conflicted about having an open relationship
Open relationship
An open relationship is an interpersonal relationship in which the parties want to be together but agree to a form of a non-monogamous relationship. This means that they agree that a romantic or sexual relationship with another person is accepted, permitted, or tolerated...
; still, he hesitantly agrees to more such encounters.
When David and Keith travel to San Diego for Keith's aunt's funeral, David defends Keith during an explosive and violent argument between Keith and his father, but Keith rejects his support and David, furious and humiliated, catches the bus back to Los Angeles. His chorus buddy, Patrick, picks him up, and the two have sex. The incident coincides with the disappearance of Nate's wife, Lisa, and David stays with his brother for a time while avoiding Keith. Soon after he returns home, a fight about a telemarketer
Telemarketing
Telemarketing is a method of direct marketing in which a salesperson solicits prospective customers to buy products or services, either over the phone or through a subsequent face to face or Web conferencing appointment scheduled during the call.Telemarketing can also include recorded sales pitches...
escalates into another battle about the San Diego incident, so David breaks up with Keith and moves back to the family home. A few weeks later they encounter each other at their church and have a long talk.
Season 4
In the season premiere, after a hard night, Nate tells his family that a body that washed ashore has been identified as Lisa's. After mediating a contentious discussion between Nate and Lisa's family, David handles the bulk of the funeral arrangements. David then assists Nate in deceiving Lisa's family by giving them the unclaimed cremains from storage at the mortuary, while Nate buries Lisa's body in an open field according to her wishes. After the funeral, David and Keith revisit their relationship and decide to "start over," but without therapy and on the condition that Keith quit his job. Keith and David's relationship remains open, however, and David receives oral sexOral sex
Oral sex is sexual activity involving the stimulation of the genitalia of a sex partner by the use of the mouth, tongue, teeth or throat. Cunnilingus refers to oral sex performed on females while fellatio refer to oral sex performed on males. Anilingus refers to oral stimulation of a person's anus...
from a plumber. Keith finds employment with a private security agency to celebrities, but does not come out at work. Soon, he is assigned to go on a three-month tour with a pop star named Celeste.
While Keith is away, David is kidnapped at gunpoint by a hitchhiker he picks up en route to delivering a dead body to the funeral home. The carjacker robs David, makes him smoke crack cocaine
Crack cocaine
Crack cocaine is the freebase form of cocaine that can be smoked. It may also be termed rock, hard, iron, cavvy, base, or just crack; it is the most addictive form of cocaine. Crack rocks offer a short but intense high to smokers...
, beats him, and finally douses him in gasoline and puts a gun in his mouth, forcing him to beg for his life. When he finds out what happened, Keith rushes home, but David convinces him to go back on tour. However, David begins to experience crippling panic attack
Panic attack
Panic attacks are periods of intense fear or apprehension that are of sudden onset and of relatively brief duration. Panic attacks usually begin abruptly, reach a peak within 10 minutes, and subside over the next several hours...
s, which worry Keith from afar. David grows increasingly lonely and emotionally unhinged, starts drinking more and tearfully tells Keith that he wants them to become sexually exclusive. Even so, David sleeps with the paintballer Sarge again. Although Keith eventually "comes out" at work, Celeste seduces him into sleeping with her, and then fires him for the indiscretion. When he comes home, Keith confesses his infidelity, and David begins to worry that Keith will leave him for a woman. David eventually confesses his own tryst with Sarge. The pressure builds until finally, an irrational David assault
Assault
In law, assault is a crime causing a victim to fear violence. The term is often confused with battery, which involves physical contact. The specific meaning of assault varies between countries, but can refer to an act that causes another to apprehend immediate and personal violence, or in the more...
s a man at a restaurant. The victim implies that he will drop a $500,000 lawsuit if Keith will allow him to perform oral sex on him, and Keith complies. The man then hires Keith for personal security.
David confronts his carjacker in jail to put the trauma
Psychological trauma
Psychological trauma is a type of damage to the psyche that occurs as a result of a traumatic event...
behind him.
Season 5
David begins to refer to Keith as his husband. As their lives begin to settle down again, they start making plans in earnest to become parents. After a surrogacy attempt fails, the couple adopts two brothers (Durrell and Anthony) after David bonds with Anthony at an adoption fair. The boys suffer from trust issues, and Durrell is particularly rebellious, due to their previous experiences in foster care. When Keith considers returning them to the agency, David insists that they keep them. Soon after the adoption is finalized, Nate dies and David begins to fall apart. His panic attacks return, along with visions of his carjacker. After six weeks, he's scarcely better and still unready to confer with his business partner (Rico) and Nate's second wife (Brenda) on how to proceed with the business, which the three co-own. After David almost burns down the apartment accidentally, Keith suggests that David live elsewhere until he recovers. After a brief stay with his mother, he and Keith pool their savings to purchase the shares of Fisher & Sons owned by Brenda and Rico. They redecorate and move into the Fisher home as the new owners.David's future and death
Between the series finale, "Everyone's WaitingEveryone's Waiting
"Everyone's Waiting" is the 12th episode of the fifth season of the HBO television series Six Feet Under, the series' 63rd episode overall and the series finale. The episode was written and directed by Alan Ball and originally aired in the United States on August 21, 2005...
", and the obituaries published at the official HBO website, the viewers learn of David's life after the show up until his death. David teaches Durrell how to embalm a body, and Durrell is seen continuing the business into adulthood. In 2009, David and Keith are legally married, which was the first depicted on a fictional American series; they remain together until Keith is murdered in 2029. At Claire's wedding, Durrell is seated with a woman and (presumably) their child, while Anthony is seated next to a man, whose hand he is holding. David retires from Fisher & Sons in 2034 (Durrell continues the business), and goes on to star in many local community theater productions. He later enters into a relationship with a man named Raoul Martinez, and they are together when David dies at a family function in 2044 at age 75. His final vision is of a young and healthy Keith catching a football and smiling at him.
Legacy
David Fisher is often referred to as the first realistic gay lead portrayed on television, and the character has been widely praised for the way he was written as well as his portrayal by Michael C. Hall. The Essential HBO Reader noted how Six Feet Under offered "an affirming but alternative version of image of non-traditional families and couples," and concluded that, unlike their heterosexual counterparts on the show (Nate and Brenda), they emerge "as the ideal couple at the end." Sally Munt, in her book Queer Attachments: The Cultural Politics of Shame, said, "For the first time in mass broadcasting, gay David is the 'everymanEveryman
In literature and drama, the term everyman has come to mean an ordinary individual, with whom the audience or reader is supposed to be able to identify easily, and who is often placed in extraordinary circumstances...
' whose quest for love and self-acceptance inculcates the viewer." In reference to the scene when David comes out to his mother, Queer TV: Theories, Histories, Politics commented that it "purposefully counters the predictability of most coming out scenes in film and television texts, in which a bold declaration is followed swiftly by angry rejection or emotional acceptance." The book Fade to Black and White: Interracial Images in Popular Culture called the relationships between Keith, David, their niece Taylor and their adopted children a "rare exception" to the interracial relationships on television that advance negative stereotypes. Ellen Lewin, in her book Gay Fatherhood: Narratives of Family and Citizenship in America, cited David and Keith as "realistic, if somewhat parodic" examples of real gay fathers who adopt children that heterosexual couples – with "more attractive options (presumably)" – might not adopt, a trend that contrasts with the typical stereotype of the pleasure-seeking and self-indulgent gay male.
David also was a reference point for cultural studies on trends in gay perception and entertainment of the time. One Temple University
Temple University
Temple University is a comprehensive public research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Originally founded in 1884 by Dr. Russell Conwell, Temple University is among the nation's largest providers of professional education and prepares the largest body of professional...
publication purported that "Six Feet Under offers a critique of bourgeois selfhood through the gay heroic figure of David Fisher and his psychic states are represented as a logical outcome of his homosexual middle-class identity."
For his part, Hall was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor - Drama Series
This is a list of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series winners.-1950s:*1956: Robert Young as Jim Anderson - Father Knows Best*1957: Robert Young as Jim Anderson - Father Knows Best...
and for an AFI Award
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
for Actor of the Year in 2002 for his role as David Fisher. In addition, he shared in the Screen Actors Guild
Screen Actors Guild
The Screen Actors Guild is an American labor union representing over 200,000 film and television principal performers and background performers worldwide...
nominations for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series all five years that the show was in production, winning the award in 2003 and 2004.
Further reading
- Six Feet Under: Better Living Through Death, Edited by Alan Ball and Alan Poul, Published by Melcher Media/Pocket Books