is doing well I think. Great shows like Six Feet Under and The Wire have really interesting openly gay characters/couples. These are well developed realistic characters who just happen to be gay as opposed to other shows that seem focus on the sexuality of the character more than the actual person.

Of course HBO shows are better in just about every respect

I don't watch much regular TV but I've seen Everybody Loves Raymond once or twice and I could be wrong about this but the impression I got was that the show felt the need to remind the audience every 5 minutes that its characters are gay.