Abby’s (2019) was a short-lived sitcom that aired on NBC. This half-hour comedy starred Natalie Morales (#Bi2) as the titular character, a former Marine sergeant who runs an unlicensed bar out of her San Diego backyard with a set of quirky neighbors/regulars in order to make ends meet. Abby is most often seen behind the bar with a jean jacket or flannel and her long brown hair in a high ponytail.
While the show did not really last long enough to show Abby having any romantic relationships with anyone, it did good, subtle, respectful work to establish her bisexuality. Abby uses the term to describe herself, and most of the main cast already knew about and were comfortable with her queerness. In fact, in such a short first season, the term “bi” was used more times than one can count – a rarity. Even the way Abby’s brings it up – in the third episode, with one of the main cast of characters being surprised she didn’t know about one of Abby’s exes, and another plot line dealing with a different main cast member committing a comedic faux pas about Abby’s queerness – is masterfully done.
It’s also important to note the casting as well as the network’s comfort with displaying Abby’s bisexuality. Morales is a bi woman of color playing a bi woman of color lead in a major network series – while the show was short-lived, this was nothing short of groundbreaking in terms of bi representation. In sending out the screeners before the season started, Autostraddle’s Heather Hogan noted that the aforementioned Episode 3 was one of the three episodes featured on the screener, showing NBC was proud to have Abby’s bisexuality be a selling point in people knowing and reporting about the show. It should also be noted that Michael Schur of The Good Place was an executive producer on the series, continuing a pattern of positive bi representation on a major network.
During press interviews, Morales was not afraid to talk about Abby’s bisexuality, either, and how she loved that it was important to her character but not a focal point. From an interview with Autostraddle:
“It’s so important to tell stories about marginalized people, but if we tell stories that reduce them always and only to the ways they’re marginalized, it just perpetuates the problem. Abby is a bisexual woman whose friends love her, whose life is pretty normal. She dates women and men because that’s who she is, and doing so doesn’t cause her any shame or put her in any peril. She’s not going to, you know, get killed off her own show any time soon … Sometimes a person’s sexuality is at the forefront of their life. Sometimes it’s just one of the many, many things about them — and those can be different things at different times. Abby is Cuban; she’s a veteran; she’s a good friend. I’m glad she’s bisexual and I’m glad she’s also well-rounded.”
And while speaking to The Advocate:
“‘It’s a huge deal for me,’ Morales says of carrying the mantle of bi visibility, especially since it’s also personal. ‘I never saw that growing up. I never saw anything like that and especially not on network television and especially like an LGBTQ+ character that wasn’t in peril and who wasn’t going to be killed or their girlfriend was going to die in their arms or whatever.’”
In the same article, it is also discussed how show creator Jason Malmuth wanted Abby to be bisexual from the start.
In conclusion, while Abby’s was short-lived, its impact was huge, with Morales being one of, if not the, first bi lead character on network television.