Ask the Flying Monkey (August 11, 2008)

Have a question about gay male entertainment? Ask the Monkey!

Q: Will MTV ever bring back the late night guilty pleasure show Undressed? It was heavily gay-inclusive, undoubtedly giving it a large gay following. Seems like a sure-fire DVD hit, what with all the now-famous celebrities who first appeared there. MTV should create a “Classic MTV” channel with all these old shows like Undressed that are just sitting collecting dust in their vaults. They're sitting on a potential gold mine.--Dane, Los Angeles

A: Ah, Undressed! This MTV soap opera about teens and twentysomething definitely broke ground, and not just because it frequently featured its handsome cast, well, undressed; it was perhaps the first TV show ever to treat its gay characters almost exactly like its straight ones, with frank and intimate same-sex storylines. It debuted in 1999 and ran for six seasons. Why was it so incredibly pro-gay? Much of the credit must go to out MTV President Brian Graden, who actually instructed the producers of the show to have 1/3 of its storylines be gay-related. Pretty cool, huh?

Undressed alums clockwise from top left: Brandon Routh, Bret Harrison,
Darryl Stephens, Michael Urie, Marc Blucas

The show cast only unknown actors, but as you say, many have since gone to big careers, including Superman Brandon Routh, The Reaper’s Bret Harrison, Jay Hernandez, Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Marc Blucas, Chad Michael Murray, Peter Paige, Noah’s Arc’s Darryl Stephens, and Ugly Betty’s Michael Urie.

There are currently no plans to release the series on DVD, but MTV (which owns Logo, which owns AfterElton.com) had the same idea you did, so they recently started an online Undressed channel, MTV Undressed TV. Currently, only the first season is available, but they’re updating twice a week and will eventually have all six seasons available for free.

Q: What can you tell me about out singer-songwriter Sam Sparro? I saw a video of his (“Black and Gold”) and my gaydar went crazy. He’s apparently an Australian that the British have made into a star. Why haven’t I read about him on AfterElton? -- Afhickman

Sam Sparro

A: We’re giv'n her all she's got, Captain, an' we canna give her no more!

Truthfully, your gaydar is working correctly, but the tireless legion of workers here at the vast AfterElton.com complex (an underground facility that’s a cross between the five-level underground laboratory in The Andromeda Strain and Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory) just haven’t gotten around to profiling him yet (though we have written briefly about Sparro before).

Though Sparro has been compared to Mika, Sam trucks no Mika-like caginess regarding his sexuality. "I've always thought, 'This is me, I'm happy with myself,' and so that's what I'm here to project,” Sam told Britain’s Guardian newspaper. “So that gay teenagers don't have to get the sh** kicked out of them in school and think that they're a horrible person. It's easier to be an 'out' pop star today. Morrissey never came out, and Neil Tennant left it very, very late, whereas Jake Shears was open from the start."

Sam has seen both ups and downs, getting beat up in school and being fearful about how his parents would react to his coming out. "I thought it was going to be the worst thing in the world and they were never going to talk to me again,” he says. “I really worried that they were going to disown me. But I should have trusted them a bit more and known that they're better than that. I'm really close to both of my parents, and they're really supportive and they love my boyfriend. I've been with him for two years."

Next Page! Madison Hildebrand goes Risky Business in his tighty-whities!