The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green
Encyclopedia
The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green is a syndicated comic strip
drawn by Eric Orner
. Appearing in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
publications, the strip's title character is Ethan Green, a young gay
man trying to balance his professional career as a personal assistant with his search for love. It was started in 1989.
as Ethan Green, Meredith Baxter
as his mother, Diego Serrano
as his boyfriend Kyle, Shanola Hampton
as his roommate Charlotte and Joel Brooks
and Richard Riehle
as the Hat Sisters, an older gay couple in Ethan's circle of friends who are known for wearing outrageous hats. Roy Firestone wrote music for the film, including the title song "Don't Walk Away" (credits shared with Kazakh-American opera singer Timur Bekbosunov, named The Reform Tenor by LA Weekly in 2011.)
The film premiered on the film festival
circuit in 2005
and enjoyed a limited theatrical release beginning June 16, 2006.
player-turned-autobiographer Kyle Underhill for several months, so when Leo announces he plans to sell the house, Ethan starts dropping hints to Kyle that they should live together. Inexplicably, when Kyle actually asks him to move in, Ethan breaks up with him.
Ethan hooks up with a younger man, Punch, who works in a real estate office. Together they conspire to delay the sale of Leo's house by convincing him to sign with the world's worst realtor, the terminally depressed Sunny Deal. However, Charlotte ends up sleeping with Sunny which knocks her out of her depression and motivates her to make the sale.
Meanwhile, after a nostalgic one-night stand, Ethan has decided he wants to get back together with Leo. Unfortunately, Leo has gotten engaged to a controlling and even emotionally abusive gay Republican Chester Baer and Ethan's event planner mother has agreed to plan their commitment ceremony.
In an odd moment, Leo, Punch and Kyle end up in a torrid threesome in Ethan's bedroom. Punch decides that Ethan isn't mature enough for him and dumps him. Kyle, who'd been considering taking Ethan back, abruptly changes his mind. Chester forgives Leo and they go ahead with their plans. The house sells, Charlotte and Sunny move in together and Ethan signs a lease at a local retirement community
.
Ethan crashes the commitment ceremony but only to give Leo his silent blessing. However, at the altar, Leo has an anxiety attack
and has to be taken away in an ambulance. A few days later Ethan settles in at the retirement community and the screen fades to black with the words THE END.
The screen then fades back up on Leo talking with a lady retiree. As Ethan stands nearby, Leo tells her that he gave Chester his ring back and broke up with him. Leo has realized that he still loves Ethan. He and Ethan reconcile and the film ends as they kiss.
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
drawn by Eric Orner
Eric Orner
Eric Orner is an openly gay American cartoonist whose works revolve around LGBT issues. He is best known for long running indy comic strip, The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green, which was adapted into a feature film and which received a limited national cinematic release in 2005...
. Appearing in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
publications, the strip's title character is Ethan Green, a young gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
man trying to balance his professional career as a personal assistant with his search for love. It was started in 1989.
Film adaptation
In 2005, George Bamber directed a film based on the comic strip, starring Daniel LetterleDaniel Letterle
Daniel Letterle is an American actor who portrayed the lead roles in The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green and Camp.- Biography :...
as Ethan Green, Meredith Baxter
Meredith Baxter
Meredith Baxter , also known for some years as Meredith Baxter-Birney, is an American actress and producer. She is known for her acting roles including three television series: Family , an ABC television-network drama, Family Ties , an NBC television-network situation comedy, and Dan Vs. , a...
as his mother, Diego Serrano
Diego Serrano
Diego Serrano is an American actor.Serrano was born in Quito, Ecuador. He has appeared on The Young and the Restless as Diego Guittierez and the long-running, defunct soap opera, Another World as Tomas Rivera . In 2000, he starred alongside star Jennifer Love Hewitt on the Fox television series...
as his boyfriend Kyle, Shanola Hampton
Shanola Hampton
Shanola Hampton is an American actress. She is currently starring in the television drama series Shameless.-References:...
as his roommate Charlotte and Joel Brooks
Joel Brooks
Joel Brooks is an American actor, known for his roles in My Sister Sam, Six Feet Under, The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green and Phil of the Future...
and Richard Riehle
Richard Riehle
-Life and career:Riehle was born in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, the son of Mary Margaret , a nurse, and Herbert John Riehle , an assistant postmaster. He attended the University of Notre Dame....
as the Hat Sisters, an older gay couple in Ethan's circle of friends who are known for wearing outrageous hats. Roy Firestone wrote music for the film, including the title song "Don't Walk Away" (credits shared with Kazakh-American opera singer Timur Bekbosunov, named The Reform Tenor by LA Weekly in 2011.)
The film premiered on the film festival
Film festival
A film festival is an organised, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theaters or screening venues, usually in a single locality. More and more often film festivals show part of their films to the public by adding outdoor movie screenings...
circuit in 2005
2005 in film
- Highest-grossing films :Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top-grossing films that were first released in the United States in 2005...
and enjoyed a limited theatrical release beginning June 16, 2006.
Plot summary
26 year-old Ethan lives with roommate Charlotte in a house owned by his ex-boyfriend Leo in West Hollywood. Ethan has been dating former pro baseballBaseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
player-turned-autobiographer Kyle Underhill for several months, so when Leo announces he plans to sell the house, Ethan starts dropping hints to Kyle that they should live together. Inexplicably, when Kyle actually asks him to move in, Ethan breaks up with him.
Ethan hooks up with a younger man, Punch, who works in a real estate office. Together they conspire to delay the sale of Leo's house by convincing him to sign with the world's worst realtor, the terminally depressed Sunny Deal. However, Charlotte ends up sleeping with Sunny which knocks her out of her depression and motivates her to make the sale.
Meanwhile, after a nostalgic one-night stand, Ethan has decided he wants to get back together with Leo. Unfortunately, Leo has gotten engaged to a controlling and even emotionally abusive gay Republican Chester Baer and Ethan's event planner mother has agreed to plan their commitment ceremony.
In an odd moment, Leo, Punch and Kyle end up in a torrid threesome in Ethan's bedroom. Punch decides that Ethan isn't mature enough for him and dumps him. Kyle, who'd been considering taking Ethan back, abruptly changes his mind. Chester forgives Leo and they go ahead with their plans. The house sells, Charlotte and Sunny move in together and Ethan signs a lease at a local retirement community
Retirement community
A retirement community, or active adult community, is a very broad, generic term that covers many varieties of housing for retirees and seniors - especially designed or geared for people who no longer work, or restricted to those over a certain age . It differs from a retirement home which is a...
.
Ethan crashes the commitment ceremony but only to give Leo his silent blessing. However, at the altar, Leo has an anxiety 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...
and has to be taken away in an ambulance. A few days later Ethan settles in at the retirement community and the screen fades to black with the words THE END.
The screen then fades back up on Leo talking with a lady retiree. As Ethan stands nearby, Leo tells her that he gave Chester his ring back and broke up with him. Leo has realized that he still loves Ethan. He and Ethan reconcile and the film ends as they kiss.