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Gay Game Show Mania
by Joel Dossi, March 29, 2005

When Hollywood Squares host Peter Marshall asked the question, “In the Wizard of Oz, the Lion wanted courage and the Tin Man wanted a heart. What did the Scarecrow want?” the center square answered, “He wanted the Tin Man to notice him.”

While many celebrities played the center square throughout the game show’s history, most fans firmly insist that the man who replied to that question--Paul Lynde, the “original center square” from the 1970s--is the one worth remembering.

But Lynde wasn’t the only gay (albeit closeted) celebrity to grace ‘70s daytime television. What game-show fan can forget The Match Game’s suggestive T-shirts worn by panelist Fannie Flagg, who later went on to write Fried Green Tomatoes, or Charles Nelson Reilly’s sissy personality and caustic put-downs?

Today, reality shows reign as king, and they regularly feature out gay characters. In 1992, the first reality show to gain a national audience was The Real World, with gay participant Norman Korpi. Then Survivor’s Richard Hatch, a self-confessed "fat naked fag," burst onto the scene, with Amazing Race winners Reichen Lehmkuhl and Chip Arndt close behind.

But television executives are quick to notice that even though the ratings for reality TV is extremely high, straight-laced, syndicated game shows like Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy routinely rake in 13 million viewers each episode. So, in a move to capture some of reality TV’s “liberal viewers”, some television executives are “going retro,” transforming America’s favorite game-show concepts into openly queer-friendly shows.

Take for example, the well-publicized casting call for gay panelists for a remake of a game show from the ‘50s. “It’s not To Tell the Truth,” explains Andy Hirsch, who serves as the program’s casting producer. “But it’s very similar.”

The openly gay television veteran of 20 years stands firm in not divulging the name of the old TV show, or the network that is bankrolling the program’s pilot episode. “It’s a SECRET!” Hirsch says, changing his vocal inflection. “And it’s for a CABLE NETWORK that features GAME SHOWS.”

Hirsch is in the process of replacing that unnamed TV show’s panel of B-list celebrities with Queer Eye-style guys.

“But we’re probably going to cast a straight, male host,” confides Hirsch. “(The network) wants the focus to be on the panel, and to have an interaction with a guy who’s really comfortable with his own sexuality, but not gay. That should make a really interesting play on each other that will work well.”

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