Showtime orders new series with gay content

(Robert Greenblatt; Photo credit: Getty Images/Frederick M. Brown)

During Friday’s Television Critics Association conference in Los Angeles, Robert Greenblatt, President of Entertainment for Showtime announced the cable network was ordering two pilots to series, both with significant gay content.

The first announced was the tentatively titled thirty minute dark comedy Nurse Jackie, starring The Sopranos’ Edie Falco as an iconoclastic, opinionated, self-medicating nurse in New York City.

The show also features Haaz Sleiman playing Maurice, a gay Muslim who is one of Jackie’s co-workers and best friends. Regarding the role of Maurice, Greenblatt told AfterElton.com, “He’s a great character. He’s one of the six main characters … a fellow male nurse and is a really good friend of Edie’s character, Jackie.”

According to Greenblatt, the first season will consist of twelve episodes and viewers will have to wait until at least the second episode to learn more about Maurice as the pilot is devoted to setting up the show and introducing Falco as Nurse Jackie. However, a clip shown before Greenblatt spoke at the TCA showed Jackie and Maurice sharing a quiet moment discussing a traumatic event that had occurred earlier during the day.

When asked if Maurice was originally written as a gay Muslim character – something still of a novelty for American television – or was something the network suggested, Greenblatt said, “He was a gay Muslim character [from the start]. We had to find an actor to play that, but it’s not the largest talent pool. We found Haaz Sleiman. He’s a terrific actor.”

Haaz Sleiman

(Photo credit: Getty Images/Andrew H. Walker)

The Lebanese-born Sleiman has had roles on 24, ER, Veronica Mars and most recently had a major part in The Visitor, an independent film starring Richard Jenkins (Six Feet Under). However, gay viewers might also recognize Sleiman from Maurice Jamal’s The Ski Trip where he had a small part as Tyson, the muscle-bound date of one of the lead characters.

When Nurse Jackie debuts (reportedly in the first half of 2009) the character of Maurice will likely be the only gay character of Middle Eastern descent currently on the air and one of the few to have ever been portrayed on television. Past Middle Eastern characters include Kenny (Rami Malek) from The War at Home, Vince Taylor (Anthony Azizi) from Commander in Chief, and Salim (Omid Abtahi) from Sleeper Cell (which also aired on Showtime).

Greenblatt also announced that The United States of Tara, starring Toni Collette, had been ordered to series. Based on an idea by Steven Spielberg and written by Academy Award-winning writer Diablo Cody, the comedy features Collette as Tara, a suburban mother suffering from dissociative identity disorder (more commonly known as multiple personality disorder). Her various personalities include a rebellious teen girl, a biker, and others that impact in a variety of ways both her husband (John Corbett) as well as her children including out gay teen Marshall.

Greenblatt told AfterElton.com that Marshall will be played by fifteen-year-old Keir Gilchrist and is “an interesting character because the family is very open to [his being gay]. [He’s] just another character in the family and they are all very matter of fact about it.”

Greenblatt wasn’t certain, but believed the character of Marshall is fourteen-years-old. Given the possible negative reaction some viewers might have to a young gay teen, will USoT deal forthrightly with the topic or will gay viewers be left to deduce Marshall’s gayness? “It’s pretty clear in the pilot [he’s gay],” said Greenblatt. “It’s really kind of cool what they are doing because it’s just very matter of fact and some of [Tara’s] alternate personalities treat him differently and aren’t as tolerant of him as the rest of the family.”