Withering Glance: A breakthrough kiss on "Glee"

Rick Nelson and Claude Peck dispense unasked-for advice about clothing, etiquette, culture, relationships, grooming and more.

CP: A kiss is but a kiss, right?

RN: Not when it's teens Blaine and Kurt, in their long-awaited lip-lock on "Glee."

CP: Somehow, this pioneering prime-time makeout session didn't seem to generate much heat or light.

RN: Aside from making pop- culture history, think about it: Two high school guys, necking just like every other teenage straight couple have done since it was called "heavy petting" during the era of "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis."

CP: The smooch has to get in line now, with First Gay Kiss daytime, prime-time, network, cable, PBS, lesbian, Latino -- it's a long list. Can it still matter?

RN: Absolutely. A little part of me thinks that the "Glee" makeout has a far greater immediate impact than a zillion of those admirable "It Gets Better" videos on YouTube.

RN: What isn't highly heterosexualized on TV? Apparently you've never seen "The Bachelor," and its traditional views on boy-girl love and marriage. Still, the Kurt-Blaine mash-up is a symbol of the distance our culture has traveled.

CP: I think the culture is way ahead of this show.

RN: As a 1970s teen, I remember being enthralled by a groundbreaking episode of the ABC drama "Family," just because it dared to feature an actual gay teen. An unhappy one, of course. But still.

CP: Even before that, I was saucer-eyed at every antic of flamboyant Lance Loud on PBS' "An American Family." Now that was some reality TV, almost 30 years before the genre broke its water.

RN: Yes, but on the fickle pop-culture meter, does public television count? That's the thing about "Glee." It's on Fox, not member-supported TPT.

RN: Amen. Best TV dad, ever. He's the best reason to watch "Glee," next to Darren Criss' eyebrows and the Santana character, played with delicious malice by Naya Rivera. Even your glacier-like heart had to melt when she declared her love for Brittany, because what's a good high school show choir without a lesbian love plotline?

CP: When slow-witted Brittany and Santana discussed "getting our lady kisses on" as if they were "getting a Coke together," it was pretty great. Then, of course, there was Santana's own song, "Trouty Mouth," aimed at Chord Overstreet's big-lipped character. High-larry-us.

RN: So you're enjoying "Glee" after all. Hmm.