Interview with "Greek" creator Patrick Sean Smith

Smith (center) with the cast of Greek

AE: When I spoke to ABC Family president Paul Lee back during the first season, he emphasized that ABC Family is trying to redefine the word family for a new generation of people with different attitudes. There are probably some people who would look at Greek and say, “How dare they say this is a family show?” or “How dare this kind of thing be on a family network? There’s gay characters, there’s premarital sex, there’s drinking.”

What kind of message do you hope people come away with, or what do you think this new family is all about?
SS: It’s definitely about different people coming together with different points of view, but still kind of keeping that family connection. The Kappa Taus are a family. The Omega Chis are a family. The Zeta Betas are a family. They’re all people with deep, deep bonds and appreciation and affection and connection that doesn’t exist, I guess, in their minds for some people in the traditional sense. But I feel like ABC Family is kind of bucking tradition and looking to the future for those contemporary storylines. Blood family is one thing, but I think friendship family is just as valid and just as important . . .

AE: Definitely. In the third episode, Calvin and Rusty’s Baptist roommate, Dale, get put together, which is a fun pairing. I was shocked to see a college show aimed at 18-24 year olds, discussing the ex-gay movement, and even scripture. There was a lot in there. Did you have any special concerns or considerations with that topic?
SS: I think the most important thing we wanted to do in that episode is to show that we weren’t going to change anybody’s minds in an hour. For everything that Calvin was trying to do, and for everything that Dale was trying to do, they were trying to turn each other around. And a lot of the time, that’s impossible.

At the end of the day, Dale was having as much luck turning Calvin into a heterosexual man as much as Calvin was turning Dale into an open-minded, kind of forward thinker, given his upbringing and given his being a product of the Baptist Bible belt. So I think for us the most important thing we were trying to say with the episode is that respect each other’s opinions and be tolerant of that.

AE: I like that Calvin finally acknowledged the Confederate flag at the end of the episode.
SS: It was a long overdue acknowledgement.

AE: So growing up in Texas, did you know a lot of Dales? Is he a character that you were familiar with personally?
SS: I did. It’s easy to dismiss people when you get into issues of religion. I think a lot of my good friends have that religious point of view, but have grown to not solely base all of their knowledge and information on that. It’s easy to dismiss a Bible thumper, but as someone who has grown up among so many, and knows how wonderful they are, it’s a stereotype and putting labels on them just as much as labeling me as a gay man, or labeling an African-American as an African-American. It’s too simple and there’s a lot more going on there.

AE: Was there any concern from the network about having a gay character?
SS: Not for one second.

AE: Regarding intercutting between Calvin’s frat discussing his situation with the way that Heath’s brothers could not care less about his being gay: It seemed to be making an interesting point about how people can hide homophobic attitudes behind institutions. Is that a point that might return later in the season in terms of the institution of college and the fraternities and homophobia within them?
SS: I think perhaps, I mean for us those two scenes were mostly speaking to how evolved this new generation of millenials are towards the issue of homosexuality. It lived in their culture. As somebody who grew up in the 80s or 90s, I never really had that much exposure to anybody living a gay lifestyle, and when I did it felt kind of like “Martian” almost.

I think there’s been so much through reality television and through other shows like Dawson’s Creek where they’ve dealt with it already. So I kind of feel like it’s more avoiding the melodramatic angsty route that seems to be from the past and embracing this new era of enlightenment and young people where I think it’s part experience and part just not really seeing what the big deal is.

AE: The network, aside from this show and the gay character, they’re also getting a lot of positive response about having shows with teen relationships and interracial relationships and things that other networks weren’t doing. Was Calvin specifically conceived as a man of color, or was he just written as a character and the right actor walked in?
SS: The latter. I knew what qualities I wanted to have and we read a lot of people and Paul just had that charm and that kind of levity and also it was clear with him there’s a lot of thinking going on, so that was some of the qualities I was looking for initially when we were casting the pilot and we opened all the characters up across the board and just found the best actors for the roles.

AE: In terms of your personal experience, being out in Hollywood, being a writer, being a producer, creator, what’s the experience been like for you? I know you’re pretty early in your career; you’re a young one like me — wink, wink — so how have things been so far and have you seen any shifts in terms of the years that you’ve been there?
SS: Um, you think of these amazing questions that I haven’t really thought of. I think coming from Texas and given my coming out process, from kind of small-town Texas to living in a big city where it’s a little more open-minded, I feel that my sexuality and my life experience, my life story is something that I feel comfortable exploring in my work.

I don’t feel any shame or any need to hide being gay or not to explore it. And that I appreciate the opportunity that I have had to work with such great mentors who are gay men who allow that part of their life to come into their work and be a part of what their voice is. That’s been the most wonderful thing and I hope everybody has the same opportunity, but I consider myself lucky to have had it.