It was that title: Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. So in-your-face it even made some of us blush. And the premise: a makeover show where five, super-out gay men — with expertise in fashion, grooming, food, décor, and culture — whip a straight man into metrosexual shape.

The concept was audacious enough to inflame the Religious Right, yet stereotypical enough to offend some in the LGBT community. What crackpot television exec was going to touch this thing? A sleepy, ratings-starved, film and arts channel called Bravo figured it had nothing to lose and on July 15, 2003 Queer Eye for the Straight Guy debuted - and proceeded to take the pop-culture landscape by storm.

Queer Eye’s popularity was so enormous that its mere existence increased Bravo’s average ratings share by an unheard of factor of 10 almost overnight. The show’s five gay stars were feted like rock icons, with sit-downs on Oprah, Jay Leno and a Barbara Walters special. They appeared on the covers of Entertainment Weekly and Vanity Fair, and the following year they won an Emmy.

As Bravo begins airing the final season of Queer Eye, three of its stars – Ted Allen the food and wine guy, Kyan Douglas the grooming guy, and Jai Rodriguez the culture guy – gave us an exclusive interview. The conversation focused on the impact of Queer Eye, how the show has opened minds, empowered gay men, and transformed the five stars at its center.

AE: People talk a lot about how Queer Eye was a part of a cultural moment that that changed how gay people are viewed in the society. You've talked about receiving hundreds of letters from gay kids. I’m wondering if you could give more examples that you saw personally of how the show changed society?
Kyan Douglas: I remember meeting a lot of young sophisticated thirty-something people that were sort of naturally into the show and kind of with it. But they would say, ‘my grandmother watches the show’ or ‘my Republican grandfather watches the show.’ And I knew that we had some sort of impact on a part of society that just normally wouldn’t have been exposed to gay people at all. And that was so, so wonderful.

AE: Did those kinds of people, who maybe normally wouldn’t be acquainted with out gay people, come up to you or write letters? What kind of contact or feedback did you get from that set of people?
KD: What I can speak to directly is just the number of straight guys that have come up to me when I’ve been on vacation or out anywhere, and said “Hey, thank you. I learned a lot from you.” And these are guys from all walks of life. Burly or tough guys. All races.

I recently just re-located to LA, and there were two Haitian guys that were part of my cross country move. And when they got to to my house and they knew who I was. And it was like – are you kidding me? And they were really cool with me. It’s just those sort of interactions that happen periodically with folks that you wouldn’t assume would know about the show or be interested in the show, or like the show.

AE: And from the letters and feedback, could you tell me a little bit about how you feel it’s changed the way gay people see themselves?
Jai Rodriguez: I think that we were the first program that featured an all-gay cast … as far as a series goes. But when I go out, and when I travel, I do find that when people come up to me, especially gay people, they have this, it’s almost like a gratitude.

I had a young man come up to me who said, “You know, I have a very religious family” – and I also grew up very religious, and I think he knew that from an interview – but he said, “My parents, who don’t like gay people at all, love your program.” And it buffered the situation when he came out, because at that point they were having five gay men that they adored in their living room every Tuesday night at 10. So it was easy for him to then say to them 'I’m gay.' …

Now you see a lot more gay people in the public eye. … A completely diverse group of men that are all very different things. And not all of them are like the five of us, where they’re doing hair or doing someone’s home. There are professional sports players coming out, it’s kind of opened the door for…

AE: The Neil Patrick Harris and TR Knight examples.
JR: Right, yeah.

Ted Allen: I just want to echo what the guys have said. But also I think that Jai touched on something that‘s important.

We’re a group of guys who were just being ourselves on this wacky, goofy show. And it’s a funny group. The gay movement is so full of really hard-working dedicated activist types, who at times can probably seem a little strident and shrill to an audience that’s not interested in hearing those messages. We were just giving you an entertainment program that was funny to a lot of different people, and also had a lot of useful information in it. And that allowed five gay guys to come into a lot of living rooms that would never have been receptive to us before. At the same time we were still fearlessly being exactly who we are. And I think that has a very profound, subversive impact.

JR: None of us were trying to be political. When we first started, it was just a show. It was entertainment, and it was a job. And we were legitimately working. And when there was this sudden push of “You guys are at the forefront of this movement” and we were getting all these political questions, and we’re like “Huh?” Like we we’re in this movement that we weren’t necessarily prepared for.

KD: I just wanted to add a real specific comment to that question. Last week I was at a dinner party and there was a guy in the room who was 20. He said “When I was younger” and I wanted to choke him [laughs]. He meant that when he was 16, 17, the show had just come out. And he said that he was very lonely at the time. And he would sort of just sit in his room and watch TV and Queer Eye was on. And that was the first time he really saw that there were other gay people that he could relate to. … For this guy, the fact that there were very clearly five out gay men [on television] in some way that impacted how he saw himself, and that he wasn’t alone. And that’s a story I heard four or five days ago.

TA: I should also add that we were profoundly influential on the Halloween costumes of 2003.