Cable TV Shows: August 2006 Archives

With those DVD boxed sets of "Queer as Folk" still costing a pretty penny, here is some good news: Logo will begin airing all five seasons of the Showtime series which ended earlier this year.

Every Thursday at 10 p.m., starting on Sept. 21, the ups and downs of Michael, Brian, Melanie, Justin, Lindsay, Emmet, Ted and all the rest can be seen from the very beginning. Logo will air back-to-back episodes. Remember the first episode when Brian met Justin? What about when Debbie (Sharon Gless) flipped her wig? When Emmet hooked up with the football stud? When Ted OD'd? It's all here, all 84 episodes. But, they are in edited form since some of the steamier scenes that were just fine on pay cable won't make the cut on basic cable.

Oh well, use your imagination.

It's not for nothing that the Lifetime channel has long been dubbed "television for women...AND GAY MEN." The last three words aren't a part of the official tagline but it may as well be with gay men lapping up all those melodramatic television movies starring Tracy Gold, Melissa Gilbert or Jaclyn Smith and endless reruns of "The Golden Girls" and (my favorite) 'Designing Women."

Now Lifetime is really embracing the gays with "Lovespring International," a largely improvised show centered around a fictional dating service with clients both gay and straight, undecided or just confused. The show, executive produced by Erik McCormack ("Will & Grace"), airs Monday nights at 11 p.m. on Lifetime.

The cast includes three openly gay performers: Jack Plotnick, Sam Pancake, and Jane Lynch although none of their characters are openly gay. But Pancake's character, Burke Christopher, clearly falls into the "confused" category. He's married to a woman but he is a barely closeted gay man.

AfterElton.com says in its review of the show: "It's a thin charade: the gay man playing a straight husband. In real life you can expect tears and unhappiness, but in the Lovespring world, with the characters taken to their exaggerated extremes, you can see it in a funhouse mirror. Yet there's a kernel of truth behind every joke."

The review also says the show "has well-written characters performed expertly by a talented comedic cast. The situations are campy and fun, with a bit of twisted naughtiness thrown in. There is no laugh track, and since much of the show is improvised, many of the lines are fluid and overlapping. Expect a bit of Christopher Guest-style realism and dry humor—just the sort of gaiety to make you forget the scorching heat and unbearable humidity of summer."

Sounds like this is a show worth checking out!

Now that I have your attention, wanted to share with you my impressions of the two star-crossed lovers from the first season of "Dante's Cove" played by straight actor Gregory Michael (the blonde) and openly gay actor Charles David (the brunette).

Met Gregory Michael, just last month at the Outfest opening night VIP party. At that point, I had not seen a single second of "Dante's Cove" since I (gasp!) had not ordered Here! TV. But I figured he was an actor because at a party filled with 10s, he was like a 12 (judge for yourself, see the picture at right). I told hom about this new blog and we had a little chat.

"It's an amazing opportunity," Gregory said of being cast on the show, a gothic gay soap. " I think it's really great to see a show like this actually on a gay and lesbian channel."

I asked him for a preview of season two.

"Something is always happening on 'Dante's Cove.'" he said. " Do you want to know who I'm going to do this time?"

Um, sure.

"I have a boyfriend on the show, Charlie David plays my boyfriend, and this year you're going to see us get involved in some fiascos. Who's going to cheat on who and who reaps the benefits of cheating? That's what I want to know?"

Hmmmmm. Sounds intriguing. So what's it like for a straight man to play a gay man - especially a gay man who gets as much action as your character does? Gregory admitted that he was a little afraid to take such a sexual role on because, frankly, he didn't really know how to do convincing love scenes with another man.

" I'm a straight man. But Charlie's gay and I think if he weren't gay, it would be two straight guys who are kind of lost. Especially on the sex things, he can kind of teach me the right way. We work it out," he said.

That brings me to the terrific Charlie David who is the real heart and soul of Dante's Cove. I met almost a year ago in Chicago where he was promoting the show at the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Convention. We were at a huge club in Boys Town and he was being introduced around. Somehow, Charlie and I ended up having this maybe 30 minute conversation about relationships, about choosing to be out in your professional life, and, of course, a bit about "Dante's Cove."

This guy is a class act. Since I wasn;t taking notes duing our conversation in Chicago (this was pre-blog days), here are some comments he makes on a documentary included in the DVD of Dante's Cove: "I've decided to be out because that's important to me as a person regardless of my career. Regardless if I was an actor or a basketball player or a dentist or a librarian."
He adds: "Although I've taken into consideration the effects, positive or negative, that it might have on my career, that's the not ultimate deciding factor...I would not be a happy person to be living in the closet."

Check out a clip of Charlie and Greg in action on Dante's Cove!