Michael Novotny
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Michael Charles Novotny is a central character on the American television series Queer As Folk, played by Hal Sparks.
Michael has a mother, Debbie Novotny, played by Sharon Gless. An episode's plot was dedicated to Michael discovering his roots, and how his mother changed her name to have him believe that his father was a soldier and hero who died in a war.
Michael is best friends with Brian Kinney (Gale Harold) whom he has been friends with since school. Since the show's debut, their lives have gone in extremely different directions. Michael has settled down with his partner, Ben, a university professor, and the two eventually adopted teenage son Hunter. Michael is also (as of the end of season 4) the father of baby daughter, JR (short for Jenny Rebecca), whose primary parents are lesbian couple Melanie Marcus and Lindsay Peterson (Michael donated the sperm for Melanie's pregnancy, but nevertheless remains an active father figure to the baby girl). Brian on the other hand has led a very promiscuous life, filled with drugs and sex.
At one point, Michael and Justin (Randy Harrison), Brian's boyfriend, created a comic book character named Rage, who is a gay superhero based on Brian Kinney. The comic was a success but the movie version was a disaster due to a fickle Hollywood. To make ends meet Michael works as the owner/general manager of a comic book store.
In the later stages of the series, Michael is badly injured in a bomb explosion at the local gay nightclub, Babylon. He recovers and the series ends with him and Brian dancing in the burned out infrastructure of the building.
Brian has accused Michael of being a conformist homosexual and bases this on Michael having a partner, a house, and an adopted son. While Michael feels that this was always what he wanted, Brian accuses him of being a traitor. This issue is an ongoing one in the gay community: some gay-rights activists complain that other gays are conforming to a heterosexual lifestyle, thereby ignoring and rendering useless their plight against Conservativism.
| Queer as Folk (US) | |
|---|---|
| Production: | Episode List | Season 1 | Season 2 | Season 3 | Season 4 | Season 5 |
| Main characters: | Brian | Michael | Justin | Emmett | Ted | Lindsay | Melanie | Debbie | Vic | Ben |
| Secondary characters: | David | Blake | Ethan | Chief Stockwell | Hunter | Jennifer Taylor | Daphne | Horvath | Drew Boyd |
| Places & locations: | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
