Best. Gay. Week. Ever. (March 13, 2009)

Jonathan Slavin has had recurring roles on Summerland, Andy Richter Controls The Universe, and Inconceivable, and is a series regular on the new show Better Off Ted, premiering next week on ABC. We asked him about his new role, about being an out actor in Hollywood, and for this edition of BEST.GAY.WEEK.EVER! we wanted to hear about his thoughts about remaking one of the great kids camp classics of the 70's.

Jonathan Slavin

AfterElton.com: Do you actually have a campy side?
Jonathan Slavin: Sure, absolutely! Those iconic ladies are just as iconic to me as they are to any of our people.

AE: You're appearing in the upcoming Race To Witch Mountain, the re-imagining of that campy 70's kids classic Escape to Witch Mountain.
JS: Yeah, I just saw it (the original) the other day, and had completely forgotten how much I loved it as a kid. The marionette scene, with them dancing with the puppets? Are you kidding me with that? Heaven!

AE: What's your role in the new version?
JS: I play Gallagher, a rabid sci-fi fan who worships the Carla Gugino character. But I don't know how campy it's going to be, it looks like it's going to be more action. But certainly the original is amazing. And that sequel!

AE: That leads me to my next question, because since we're talking about camp, is there anything in the new version that approaches the camp of Bette Davis in Return From Witch Mountain?
JS: Oh come on! Nothing in the history of time is going to come close to equaling the camp of Bette Davis in Return From Witch Mountain. And those kids were in those crazy 70's clothes, that little girl with that unfortunate mini-skirt/jumpsuit and those big clunky brown shoes through the entire thing. Amazing!

AE: You really remember the movie well, don't you?
JS: Oh, well ... no. I don't know what you're talking about. [Laughs] Okay, I might have seen it ... a couple of times. The recently showed it as a double feature, and I remembered how much my brother and sister and I loved it when we were kids, and I though that maybe my nieces and nephews would like the Witch Mountain that I grew up with.

* Watch for the rest of our interview with the funny and outspoken Jonathan upcoming on AfterElton.com!

Some final thoughts on camp:

Susan Sontag: "The whole point of Camp is to dethrone the serious. Camp is playful, anti-serious. More precisely, Camp involves a new, more complex relation to "the serious." One can be serious about the frivolous, frivolous about the serious."

Nomi Malone: "It doesn't suck".

Snicks: "I know it when I see it" 

Next page! Shooting arrows at this week's TV.