Game Show First: Gays on 'Newlywed Game'
"Star Trek's" Mr. Sulu and partner to be "The Newlywed Game's" first gay couple.
Oct. 13, 2009 — -- Old show, new era: the first gay couple will compete on "The Newlywed Game" today on the Game Show Network.
George Takei -- who played Mr. Sulu on "Star Trek" -- and his partner, Brad Altman, will be the first gay contestants on the show that has been on and off TV since its primetime premiere on ABC in 1967.
The game show, currently hosted by singer Carnie Wilson, has newly married couples compete against each other in a series of question rounds to determine how well the spouses know, or don't know, each other.
When longtime host Bob Eubanks presided during the show's earlier days, he always teased and tested couples about how well they knew each other, with questions about "making whoopee."
"I grew up watching the show in the 1970s where Bob would talk about 'making whoopee' and now Carnie Wilson just asks how often you have sex," Altman said. "It shows how much our culture has changed."
Takei and Altman have been together for 22 years, and they just celebrated their first wedding anniversary after getting married in Los Angeles last September.
"We have to do our best and prove to the world that we know each other intimately," Altman added.
While the couple has more than two decades years of homework and practice, Takei made a conscious effort to prepare for the show.
"I began paying strict attention to what he says, his shirt choices, and noted what he orders in restaurants," said Takei.
The show is a pioneering event in the world of gay married couples. Part of the game's rules is that the couple needs to have a legally recognized marriage to play.
"We're boldly going where no other same-sex couple has gone," Takei added. "We want to be seen [on the show] in context throughout society as no different from other couples who preceded us, in the context of normalcy and commitment to each other."
The other couples on the show Tuesday are Christopher Knight (Peter on "The Brady Bunch") and Adrianne Curry ("America's Next Top Model"), and Damien Gurganius and Nicole Brewer from "The Biggest Loser: Couples 2."