Is Mid-Century Modern an Unauthorized Adaptation of the Chelsea Boys?

Comics To Film News
Is Mid-Century Modern an Unauthorized Adaptation of the Chelsea Boys?
By Hervé St-Louis
June 14, 2025 - 14:07

Writer(s): Allan Neuwirth, Glen Hanson
Artist(s): Glen Hanson
Colourist(s): Glen Hanson
Starring: Nathan Lane, Matt Bomer, Nathan Lee Graham, Linda Lavin

Three gay friends become roommates. They are platonic friends living in a vibrant gay town with lots of adventure in the gay community. One is beefy but stupid pretty gym boy; one is pudgy nerd with a truckload of self-doubt; and a sassy stylish black man. This story has been told at least twice, once in Mid-Century Modern, a recent streaming series on Disney Plus, and once in Chelsea Boys, a comic strip from the late 1990s.

In January 2025, Disney released a new streaming series labelled Mid-Century Modern about three friends that decide to move in together after the death of a common friend. The series is modelled after the old ABC television series, The Golden Girls. The Golden Girls was about three middle-aged women and an elderly one living together in Miami. It was a successful 1980s sitcom whose success and glory tried to recreate with Mid-Century Modern, but based in gay-friendly Palm Springs, California.

Bunny Schneiderman (Nathan Lane) was the neurotic one, matching Bea Arthur’s Dorothy. Jerry Frank (Matt Bomer) was the muscular but and imbecile one, matching parts of Rose Nylund (Betty White) for smarts, and Blanche Devereaux (Rue McClanahan), for his ability to date guys easily. Finally, Arthur Broussard (Nathan Lee Graham) was the feisty and flamboyant one, who was kind of a match for Blanche Devereaux. To round up the cast, the first few episodes featured Schneiderman’s mother, Sybil (Linda Lavin) as the pesty, irreverent mother figure to the all-male household. She clearly was a cypher for Sophia (Estelle Getty), Dorothy’s mother.

The formula was easy, take The Golden Girls and turn it gay. But by doing this, the well-received Mid-Century Modern reused the same tropes that was already used by Chelsea Boys, a comic by Canadian cartoonist Glen Hanson and American Allan Neuwirth. Nathan was a short Jewish guy. Sky was a muscular younger guy from Canada, while Soirée was the effeminate and bashful member of the cast.

Starting in 1998, Hanson and Neuwirth’s comic strip that was syndicated in several publications around the world, as well as New York’s Next Magazine. The comic ran from 1998 to 2008 and was also published online. Copies of the book and the original web site have since become out of print and unavailable online. Co-creator Glen Hanson does not even acknowledge that he created this series in his personal bio on his web site.

Several attempts were made to adapt Chelsea Boys for television as a cartoon sitcom for Logo, an LGBTQ cable channel owned by paramount. None ever had a breakthrough. This is why it is so odd to see the close resemblance of Mid-Century Modern with Chelsea Boys. It’s the same formula, the same characters, but with an older cast taking on The Golden Girls vibe.

Were ideas and options for Chelsea Boys became the basis for Mid-Century Modern, but marketed as revival of The Golden Girls instead of an obscure comic strip to attract a wider audience? Who knows? Perhaps it is time for newer editions of Chelsea Boys to be released again for the public.