Showtime looking at The Beard, a series about a gay baseball player

In what would be a refreshing change of pace from gay personal assistants (Entourage, Ugly Betty), guys who don't know they are gay (Help Me Help You, The Class) or guys who are gay, then aren't, or maybe they are, who can tell and who really cares (The Shield, Rescue Me) word is out that Showtime is looking at a series about a gay baseball player. It's called The Beard, a reference to the fact that the player has to hide his sexuality by pretending to be in a relationship with a woman.

A source told Daily Variety that The Beard is "...a comedy of errors, strikes and runs. It has its slapsticky moments and its sweet comedy moments."

Not only is this a refreshing change of pace from so many typical gay characters on television, but it's also a good sign it is being produced by David Collins and Michael Williams, the gay couple who founded "Scout Productions" which brought us Queer Eye For the Straight Guy. Maria Maggenti (Puccini for Beginners, The Incredibly True Story of Two Girls in Love) is set to write the half-hour comedy and former baseball player Billy Bean who came out in 1999 will act as a consultant.

It's about time there is a show about a gay man set in the world of sports. As Beane, John Amaechi, Esera Tualo, and other gay athletes prove, gay men are found in all walks of life, but even now television far too often casts us as hairdressers, gay best friends, and interior decorators. Nothing wrong with those professions mind you, but I, for one, am sick of seeing them!

I wish I'd heard about this while at the Television Critics Association so I could've cornered some Showtime suits to get details, but I'm still excited to see a series like this in development. There is no work on casting yet, but I'd love to see Wilmer Valderrama or Luke MacFarlane. With this and the Canadian film Breakfast with Scot, we're one movie away from a full-fledged trend! Maybe The Dreyfus Affair will finally get made into a movie!