Character Development
In 1995, Neighbours introduced a storyline about the bullying of gay teacher, Andrew Watson (Christopher Uhlman). It was a turning point for the show, but it took another five years before another gay male character was introduced. Gino made his first appearance in 2000. He was a hairdresser who owned the local hair salon and spoke about his flatmate Aaron often. It was later revealed that Aaron was his partner. Neighbours script producer, Luke Devenish said of the character, "He is a stereotype, and we don't have a problem with that as he is not a negative stereotype, he is a comic charter and it is for a laugh – in the Mr Humphries kind of tradition". David Knox of TV Tonight called Gino an "incidental gay male character." When Gino moves in with Harold Bishop (Ian Smith), the writers decided to tweak the "standard love triangle story" with Lou Carpenter (Tom Oliver) becoming jealous of the duo. Harold and Gino get along very well and share a love of musicals. Of this, Peter Mattessi of The Age said "The tension this created between Lou and Harold ("same-sex platonic life-partners", according to Toadie) was a wonderful storytelling twist, and the innuendo made Gino's sexuality clear to those in the know, yet avoided the questions from younger viewers which would jeopardise the G rating."
Read more about this topic: Gino Esposito
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