That’s what I saw for myself before I came out, and that’s what I thought was in store for me.” They were traipsed across the media like a sideshow. I remember when I was growing up in Rhode Island, and two guys wanted to go to the prom together. If we did see ourselves on screen before that, we were the punchline. We always talk about making omni-cultural entertainment, and now we are seeing ourselves. It’s not like with Paul Lynde, and maybe there’s a chance that he’s not gay. There was no getting around the fact that they were queer since it was in the title. This show comes along, and there’s not just one or two lead guys that are gay–there are five. “When the first Queer Eye came out in 2003, there were no queer people on television. “What’s exciting is seeing ourselves,” Eric began. During my chat with Collins, Williams, and Eric, I could tell all three men were revelling in how much queer culture we are steeped in.
We are living through a golden age of queer entertainment whether it’s a documentary series about Andy Warhol or a drama series revolving around Harlem ball culture in 1980’s New York City. Scout Productions was behind the original version of Queer Eye, and the team, including David Collins, Michael Williams, and Rob Eric, has no plans on stopping any time soon. Putting queer characters on television was a fantastic milestone for the early 2000s, but seeing authentic gay men on our screens was a game-changer.
While Will and Folk have their adoring fans, Queer Eye stuck out because it was a reality show. All three of these shows garnered their own respective buzz as it rode a wave of gay visibility in entertainment. In December 2000, the American version of Queer as Folk dropped on Showtime, and, in the summer of 2003, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy came out on Bravo. Download: How Scout Productions Remains a Pioneer of Authentic, Queer Reality TelevisionĪround the time that I was in high school, queer television started to boom.