History channel and TBS get failing grades from GLAAD

Mr. Burns (l.) and Waylon Smithers, one of the gay characters on "The Simpsons"

These channels play it much too straight.

The History channel and TBS have drawn failing grades from GLAAD for featuring no lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender characters in any of their shows.

The stunning finding was at the core of the watchdog group’s annual Network Responsibility Index survey, which examined the period from June 2012 to May 2013, rating the networks on “LGBT-inclusive” content.

GLAAD based its grades — excellent, good, adequate and failing — on the overall quantity, quality and diversity of LGBT representation in scripted shows. While no networks were rated excellent, History and TBS are the only two with failing grades.

On the flip side, GLAAD found Fox was the most inclusive broadcast network, with 42% of its prime-time programming (like “Glee,” “Bones” and “The Simpsons”) containing LGBT images or characters. That earned the network a good rating.

ABC came in second, with 33% of prime time being inclusive, and was also rated good.

Cable’s ABC Family was the most inclusive network GLAAD tracked, with 50% of its original programming including LGBT images or story lines, like “The Fosters,” which follows a gay couple raising a multiethnic family.

It was followed by FX at 40 %.

A second survey — the “Where We Are on TV” report, which counted LGBT characters in the current TV season — found that 3.3% of regular characters on prime-time broadcast scripted series will be LGBT, following a record high (4.4%) in last season’s tally.

TBS declined to comment on the rankings. History praised GLAAD's work but added, "we have very limited scripted programs, and what we do have is historically based, such as 'Vikings' and 'Hatfields & McCoys.' Because of the nature of our programming, as a network, we feel it is inappropriate and insensitive to ask any of our characters about their sexuality (or sexual preferences)."