Feature

The Queerest Show on Earth

Gless plays the waitress mother of Michael, the role played by Sparks. "She loves all the boys," Gless said of her character. "I see her like the den mother to all of them."

Gless's favorite line so far is when she asks the boys, " 'So what are you having?' and Emmett says, 'I'm not hungry.' And I say, 'Em, honey, you should try and eat some of your protein off the plate.' "

Gale Harold is the newcomer who plays Brian, the edgiest character in the piece, a guiltless 29-year-old who seems determined to sleep with every attractive young man in Pittsburgh -- except Michael, his best friend, who has secretly been in love with him since they were teenagers. This unrequited love is at the heart of the story. Harold, who looks like a cross between Eric Roberts and Jeff Bridges, ran a motorcycle shop in East Oakland before he started acting three years ago, at the age of 28. In person, he has a smoldering quality, which snared him the role of Brian on the final day of casting. Lipman said, "We all ran over to the casting director's office, and Gale had it all." When shooting began, he was also one of the first two actors who had to expose it all.

"The sex scenes were kind of mind-blowing," Harold told me. "There was one day of wardrobe, and then it was right to bed. And it's intense, you know, because it's going to be on television. You've got this cavalier predator having his way with a 17-year-old, who looks maybe 10, and the visual implications are unbelievable." And maybe too risky, even for a cable network whose motto is "No limits." For the producers, what will actually make it to air has suddenly become the $22 million question -- that's the amount they're spending to produce the show's first season.

When I interviewed the network's executives, I discovered that Showtime has a policy of showing only R-rated movies, and nothing rated NC-17. Even though it doesn't have to, it has sent all of its most controversial movies to the Motion Picture Association of America to be rated, and recut them slightly to avoid an NC-17 rating. I asked Jerry Offsay if that meant the British version of Queer As Folk could never be shown on his network.

"I think if I'd taken out five or ten seconds here or there, you could have got back to an R." He said it was "possible" that he would take the new Queer As Folk to the MPAA to be rated to placate cable operators who distribute Showtime. But he insisted it would still be "the sexiest, edgiest series to premiere on any network in America."

One thing that's working in favor of the creative freedom of the producers is the network's eagerness to cause a sensation. "We're going for it in every way," Showtime's CEO, Matt Blank, told me. "It's going to be hot." At a time when the competition for television viewers has never been fiercer, Showtime is doing everything it can think of to make sure its latest offering won't go unnoticed. Already this year it has co-sponsored gay-pride events in a dozen cities around the country, passing out thousands of handheld fans promoting the show and tastefully emblazoned with the words HUNG, BOTTOM, TOP, DISCO WHORE, and BAD BOY.

With this self-consciously provocative marketing campaign, Showtime, which gained attention and viewers when it aired the controversial Lolita in 1998, is hoping to do it again. "Our objective is to get a real inside buzz in the gay community," said Blank. "And then I think as we move out to the straight community, the greatest thing we have going for us is curiosity."

Blank admits the show is bound to offend both gays and straights. "There's a chance that everyone will be upset with us," he said, not sounding too displeased with the prospect. But Viacom, Showtime's corporate parent, should be used to a little controversy by now. The company's other hot-button offering this fall is the new Paramount television talk show featuring Dr. Laura.