Maya

Way back in the day Jay North, having become too big to be Dennis the Menace any more, he went to India with Clint Walker and did a very nice film named Maya. Kind of confusing because Maya is an elephant, not a group of native Americans from the Yucatan. The film did a good box office and North got a TV series out of it.

Well the so-so ratings and the huge expense of location shooting in India proved to be prohibitive and Maya the TV series got cancelled.

The movie had Jay North searching for his father in India and doing it with another kid, an orphan Indian boy played by Sajid Khan. In the movie they had a kind of Huck Finn/Tom Sawyer relationship which was cute.

The TV series eliminated Clint Walker, but the premise was the same, North's search for his father accompanied by Maya the elephant and Sajid Khan. But now both kids were well into puberty and they had eyes only for each other.

I mean these two now about 15 or 16 acted very much like they were in love. No one and I mean NO ONE except the elephant was a part of their world. I remember an episode where Sajid Khan was reduced to tears at the thought of North going back to America.

Both Khan and North enjoyed a burst of bubblegum popularity. Sajid Khan had a short lived singing career. But in those pre-Stonewall days I wonder how many young gay males identified with those two kids and felt kind of validated in their feelings.

I really hope TV Land channel gets those episodes and runs them. There weren't many, but I'll bet they become a bit gay hit now.