Ask the Flying Monkey: Will There Be a Third “Another Gay Movie”?

This week: Will There Be a Third Another Gay Movie? How great is Martha Plimpton? Was Quantum Leap controversial? What was up with the effeminate villain on The Powerpuff Girls?

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Q: I’m excited by the new show Raising Hope, mostly because it stars Martha Plimpton, who I think has never gotten her due, and also because it’s created by Greg Garcia, who was responsible for the fantastic My Name is Earl (which also never got its due!). Are my expectations too high? Is there anything gay in it? – Ryan, Albuquerque, NM

Martha Plimpton

A: Interestingly, Martha Plimpton once sat with her back up against mine in a restaurant booth, along with then-boyfriend, the late River Phoenix, and also Keanu Reeves, who were both just as popular as they could possibly be. It’s the only time I’ve ever been a gushing fan, but since her head was two feet from mine, I couldn’t resist telling her how great I thought she was. I suspect she was used to River and Keanu getting all the attention, not her, so I think I kinda made her day by totally ignoring them and raving about her. But she was just as nice as could possibly be (as were the others, really), chatting with me and my friends about the area and her latest movie.

Not surprisingly, Plimpton is great in Raising Hope, which I’ve seen (it’s also a terrific show). But as of right now, there’s nothing gay in it – not unless you could a gloriously demented Cloris Leachman. And Gregg Binkley, the straight actor who played My Name is Earl’s Gay Kenny, is back too.

“I’m sure we’ll do something [gay] eventually,” creator Greg Garcia tells AfterElton.com

Speaking of My Name is Earl, we couldn’t help asking him about the show’s great gay sensibility, which managed to make a ton of gay jokes without ever being offensive. But Garcia says that he got a really angry letter after the pilot, which introduced Gay Kenny, calling the show homophobic.

“I was really damaged by that, because that was the exact opposite of what I was going for,” Garcia says. “And I called [the letter-writer] up, and he was still really upset. But I ended up winning a GLAAD Award [for the episode], and I thought, ‘Okay, I’m not crazy.’”

As for the incredible “The Gangs of Camden County” My Name is Earl episode pictured above (where it’s unexpectedly revealed that the heads of two opposing gangs are gay and in love with each other), Garcia says, “Whatever subject matter you’re doing, you don’t want to do just the easy [obvious] thing, what’s just expected. You try to find a way to do those jokes, but make them clever. And the more clever they are, the less risk you have of insulting somebody, because they’ll go, ‘Oh, that’s a clever way to look at it.’”

For the record, that wacky, life-at-the-margins, My Name is Earl sensibility is very much a part of Raising Hope.

Garcia says, “In any type of character I do, whether they’re from a lower economic class or what have you, I want people to think, ‘Okay, we’re laughing with these people, not at them. And I think that’s an important thing at the end of the day, because I want my shows to be kind at the end of the day. It’s not mean-spirited. I think you can get laughs without doing that.”

Raising Hope premieres Tuesday, September 21^st at 9 PM/8 C on Fox. (My personal fear? The show is just too good for this world, especially on network TV.)

The cast of Raising Hope

Next Page! How Quantum Leap landed in gay controversy.