For One Anti-Gay Woman, 30 Days Is Not Time Enough

“The whole idea of the show was to create a [reality] show where we actually do deal with reality,” Spurlock says. “We were pitching the show to networks and all the big networks said no. One network executive said the show was much too smart for television. Another guy says, ‘You know, our viewers don’t want to deal with reality and real world issues. Television is a place for them to escape.’ One person finally said to me when I was pitching the show, he said, ‘Hold on a second. Who wins in this show?’ And I said, ‘You do, by watching every week.’ He said, ‘Morgan, thanks for coming in. I’ll see you later.’”

Morgan Spurlock

Photo credit: Ethan Miller/Getty Images

After seeing his show roundly rejected by the four big commercial networks, Spurlock and his producing partners turned to FX.

“They just loved it,” he says. “They really try and create stuff that’s smart and challenging and engaging, and I couldn’t ask for a better network to have this show on.”

In 18 episodes over its three seasons, the show has taken on gay issues twice, now and in the first season, “Straight Man in a Gay World,” when a staunch heterosexual goes to live with a gay guy in San Francisco. That episode won the GLAAD Award for Outstanding Reality Series.

“We try and take the ideas from our show right out of the headlines,” Spurlock says. “Right now there are people who are excited and happy in California because they’ve made gay marriage a reality there, and then there’s people all over the country who are like, ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t believe this is happening.’ So for me the timing of this is incredible, this gay parenting episode that we made.”

FX says they’re happy with the show’s performance, which draws about 2.4 million weekly viewers. As for Dennis Patrick, he says that he and his partner think the producers of the show definitely acted in good faith. “They were really good at the beginning of reassuring us that ‘We’re not going to pull any Jerry Springer surprises on you. We just want to push you together and see how this unfolds,’” he says. “And I really felt like they did this. I never felt like they were trying to create something simply because it would look good on camera.”

Regarding the finished episode product, Patrick says, “I think for the most part – I’m not sure how Kati feels – but I think for the most part it’s a pretty fair representation of what we think and what happened.”

Photo credit: Paul Warner/FOX

The most interesting scene may be one toward the end of the episode when, after repeatedly coming to loggerheads on the issue of same-sex adoption, Dennis confesses to Kati that, despite liking her personally, he doesn’t feel that he can consider her a friend, not until she changes her beliefs on his family.

“It’s such a powerful scene,” Spurlock says. “It’s incredible.”

Photo credit: FX

But having the scene captured on video made Dennis Patrick uncomfortable. “I’m like, ‘Why did they end it that way?’” he says. “I’m telling Kati that, since she doesn’t agree with us, I can’t be her friend. But it’s more than that. What doesn’t really come out in the show was that she was planning on going back and being an advocate against gay and lesbian foster care and adoption. And when I told her, ‘I spend so much time trying to open doors for kids in foster care who are waiting for a permanent family, and I just couldn’t be friends with someone who was going to be trying to shut down those same doors.’ And so that’s kind of where I was coming from at the end. I said I can be nice to you, but I can’t be your friend. This is just too important to me.”