News, Reviews & Commentary on Gay and Bisexual Men in Entertainment and the Media

Max Mutchnick

Alan Tudyk cast as the gay lead of the new Mutchnick/Kohan pilot

 

Michael got the good news (in our opinion, anyway) late last night that Firefly and Death at a Funeral star Alan Tudyk has been cast as the gay lead in the new pilot that Mutchnick/Kohan (the guys behind Will & Grace) are producing for ABC. We're excited because Tudyk is a great comic actor and isn't afraid of taking risks (as his extended comic nude scene in Funeral can attest).

Another plus to Tudyk's casting, purely from a visibility perspective, is that he's got an enormous built-in fanbase of folks who might not otherwise be inclined to tune into a gay/straight buddy comedy: sci-fi geeks. 

Now let's hope that the rest of the cast fills out as well and that the pilot is a slam-dunk, and that we see the series on our sets this fall, eh? For an idea of just how insanely popular this guy is with the sci-fi set, check out the video after the break of his and co-star Summer Glau's appearance at a sci-fi convention. It's pretty awesome.

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Television series creators discuss the hurdles they face in writing gay characters.
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Nielsen ask how viewers feel about "homosexual sexual activity" and more!

AfterElton.com Snapshot: The stuff that mattered this week

As we go into the weekend, here's a handy shortlist of the biggest stories of the week on AfterElton.com. And to get you into a playful mood, each Friday's final post will feature a pic up top that desperately needs captioning. Each week we'll pick our fave suggestion from the comments and run it in the following week's post. Have fun!

Finally, last we asked you to caption this photo and promised we would pick the best answer to post today. And the winner is...

"You'll never guess what's in the Secret Sauce"

Congratulations to Moviedearest! Be sure to drop your caption ideas for this week's picture in the comments, and have a great weekend!

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The Will Truman and Jack McFarland creator discusses his new “gay” show.

ABC orders new gay-inclusive pilot from Will & Grace creators Mutchnick & Kohan

It was announced today that a comedy pilot from Will & Grace creators David Kohan and Max Mutchnick has been greenlit by ABC. The as-yet-untitled show tells the story of two friends and writing partners - one straight, one gay - who navigate love and work with one another's help and support. We reported on a similar (but apparently unrelated) pilot that the duo had developed last year, but there aren't many details out yet about this one. (90210 vet Brian Austin Green played the gay character in the previous project, which was ordered by CBS.)

In a stroke of serendipity, AfterElton.com contributor James Hillis recently interviewed Max Mutchnick for a piece he's doing on gay television characters, and asked him a few questions about the project.

The two chatted before the strike was resolved and the pilot was ordered, but here's what Mutchnick had to say at the time:

Max Mutchnick: I'm happy to say that I have another pilot in the pipeline at Warner Bros right now that hopefully we will take out and sell to one of the networks when the strike is over, and it is another gay story. And I'm very excited about it. 
 
AfterElton: What would you do differently with the gay characters now almost ten years later, then you did starting out on Will & Grace?
MM: I want to be past the story.
 
AE: You don't want it to be about that? You don't want it to be about the gay jokes?
MM: I'll make as many gay jokes as I make in a given night. That's the barometer that I'll use. I don't want to make it the drive. ... In this show with the gay characters that are on ... I want to believe that we are past it. That the gay angle is not the hook.  The relationship is the hook. And it happens to be a gay man and a straight man who are best friends. And I want the relationship to be more interesting to people than I want the fact that one of them is gay. But by the way, I think that the thing that people were interested in with Will & Grace was that relationship also. ...
 
AE: Will the gay guy have as fully-developed a romantic life as the straight guy?
MM: Yes. (The gay character) is in the thick of a very serious relationship in the pilot.

We'll be all over this one, needless to say.

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