It was 2003, the summer of gay love. That June, the Supreme Court decided in Lawrence v. Texas that it was un-American to lock up gays for making love. That July, Bravo launched a TV show that would lead to something of a cultural revolution in the acceptance of gay men: Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. And later that same month, we got our very own gay dating show, also on Bravo: Boy Meets Boy.

For the first time, gay men also were given the opportunity — in the tradition of The Dating Game, The Bachelor, The Bachelorette and Joe Millionaire — to have their mating habits exploited in pursuit of corporate profit.

But what happened to Season 2 of Boy Meets Boy? At the time, Boy Meets Boy was Bravo's third highest rating show in its history; so why did it never return for a second season?

Boy Meets Boy may have been lightweight. And yes, it could be frustratingly G-rated; the contestants had to sign contracts promising no sex. Nonetheless, it was exciting to see actual gay men on TV — not straight actors or closeted gay ones — hugging each other, dancing with each other, romantically interested in each other, all while plotting to ensnare the affections of the show's sleek if slightly wooden protagonist, James Getzlaff.

And then there was Andra, James' trusty gal-pal, who provided brief but top-notch drama. Who can forget her histrionic, Oscar-worthy, Joan Crawford-meets-Susan Lucci meltdown when it was revealed that half the guys being proffered up for Getzlaff were actually straight?

That's right. Half those “gay” guys hugging on each other were — unbeknownst to James, Andra or the other gay men on the show — actually heterosexual. This was the twist of Boy Meets Boy, which was presented as social experiment but was actually a ploy to draw straight viewers.

A twist like that, once revealed, cannot be effectively recreated — and that is often given as the reason for why Boy Meets Boy never returned. But that begs the question: Since when has something like that ever stopped Hollywood from finding a way to make a buck?

In an interview with Doug Ross, Boy Meets Boy's creator, Ross said that even today, people still talk about the show. “Every gay person I've ever met has seen the show,” he said. “In the gay community, at the very least, it was ubiquitous.”

Though Ross freely admitted that the twist was a way to bring in a broader straight audience, he also believed that “the idea of the show was of course to show that in the end — gay or straight — we're all pretty much alike.”

So why no second season? Was it due, in part, to political concerns? Ross acknowledged, “Well there was of course strong negative reaction from the religious right” when the show debuted. He recalled a particularly heinous “What's next? Boy meets sheep?” comment from the president of one of those far-right, homophobic organizations.

But Ross said that he doubts that specific fears over boycotts or political campaigns were the reason that Bravo did not order a second season. The political backlash was too limited to have such an impact. In fact, Ross believes that a second season of Boy Meets Boy still might not be out of the question.

“We've been talking off and on [with Bravo] about a second season for a couple years,” Ross said. He has a new “twist” and an entire Season 2 premise all lined up — one that folks at Bravo have off-handedly told him sounds “fun.”

“They loved the [original] show, and it rated extremely well for them,” he said. In fact, on Bravo at the time, ratings for Boy Meets Boy's finale had only been surpassed by Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and the Barbra Streisand and Robin Williams episodes of Inside the Actor's Studio. So why would a well-rated, affordably produced show — apparently with a new twist all lined up — still not have been greenlit for a second round?

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