A Candid Conversation with "Queer as Folk" Executive Producer Daniel Lipman май 2005

[moveforever]

хочу выложить еще пару интервью-статей Коулипов (Дэна Липмана), хотя может имело бы смысл и три-четыре)), но пусть пока эти, может, помимо прочего, какая-то информация в них пригодится едущим на кон, в плане задавания или не задавания каких-то вопросов актерам

оба интервью вышли после окончания съемок, в 2005-ом году и дают представление о... об идеях, сценаристах, о пятом сезоне и тд

первое тут будет, оно, я думаю, сейчас совсем малоизвестное, но достаточно интересное (второе выложу в отдельной теме)

с mediavillage.com

Wednesday, May 11th 2005
Showtime's Gay & Lesbian Drama "Queer as Folk" Takes on the Current Political Climate in its Final Season

A Candid Conversation with "Queer as Folk" Executive Producer Daniel Lipman

The Showtime series "Queer as Folk," an adults-only drama about a group of gayl men and women in Pittsburgh, PA, that has been a signature franchise for the network since 2000, will begin its fifth and final season Sunday May 22 at 10 p.m. ET. Daniel Lipman, who with his production partner and co-executive producer Ron Cowen adapted it from the British miniseries of the same name, recently talked with Jack Myers Entertainment Report about the history of the show, its place in the rise of adult series programming on cable and the importance of reflecting real-life issues in its storylines. Although Lipman is pleased that "Queer as Folk" broke new ground in American television, he is concerned about recent changes in the country's political climate -- changes, he says, that will impact the lives of the characters on the series by the time it draws to a close. An edited transcript of the interview follows.

JMER: Was it your decision or the network's to end the show?

Lipman: It was our decision. From the very beginning we knew we only wanted to go five years. We went six and one-half years on our previous series [the NBC drama] "Sisters" [1991-96]. I always felt we should have stopped one year earlier. There comes a point when you really feel you've told all the stories you can tell and you start repeating yourself. We've all heard stories about networks calling and saying, "You're cancelled." We plotted our show so it would end after five seasons and retain its integrity and its non-political correctness. We didn't want people to get immune to it, to pat it on the head like a warm fuzzy puppy.

JMER: The graphic sexual content of the show was considered highly controversial at the time of its premiere.

Lipman: This particular show came out of the box like a burning hot comet. Nothing like it had ever been done before. We want it to go out that way, too. We have been constantly challenging the audience and keeping viewers on the edge. That's not easy to do. People have gotten used to what was shocking at the beginning five years ago.


JMER: Did anyone in the cast ever balk at something you asked them to say or do?

Lipman: Sometimes. Look, our actors were required to do things that actors have never been required to do, especially Gale Harold. [Harold plays the sexually insatiable advertising executive Brian Kinney.] Any actor will do almost anything once, maybe twice. But for almost five years to have that kind of sexual activity in a role -- I still marvel at how he is able to invest himself in it. His character is a very sexual being. That's part of who he is. I know there were times when Gale probably didn't feel like doing certain things, but he was so brilliant. I don't know how we could have done the show with anyone else.

JMER: How will you bring it to a close?

Lipman: If you had asked me last year after our season finale what the end of the series would be, my answer would have been a lot different than what it became. We've always felt this mandate to reflect what's happening in the gay community, and last year at this time [gay people were getting married in Massachusetts and San Francisco]. On the show [last season], the characters Michael and Ben got married. It seemed like a real step forward for gay rights. Then the election of 2004 occurred and we're living in this so-called conservative time in our country and there are bills that are being passed I think in eight or nine states now that forbid gay marriage and also gay adoption and the sharing of health benefits. It's a very precarious time for gay people, not like it was when we first premiered.

I never thought that someone like Mr. Bush would go on television in the rose garden and start talking about God and making marriage something religious when it certainly didn't begin that way, and try to amend the Constitution, which is supposed to protect citizens of this country, not deny citizens of this country rights. So we had to reflect this in the show. It does get political toward the end. We do leave our characters in a kind of precarious state. We felt we had to reflect what was going on so when people watch this 25, 20 or 10 years from now they'll say, "That's what was happening in the gay community." It's a little frightening at this point. Except for "The L Word" [the Showtime drama about lesbians] I don't think there are any other shows that ever will reflect this. I can't even imagine "Queer as Folk" being done today. If somebody brought it up they would say, "No, we donâ?™t want to do that." Even at a pay cable network.

JMER: Why is that?

Lipman: Given the climate and the current situation with the FCC, I don't know if [we would be allowed] to do the things that we have been able to do -- unbridled, unapologetic and uncensored. I don't know if that time is ever going to come again, especially when it comes to gay sexual expression and gay sexual identity. I don't know if the networks would ever do that, but you never know. They're never going to come out and say it. It is always going to be couched, so you're never really sure. This whole thing with the FCC… once the broadcast networks begin to play ball with them then they'll go after cable.

JMER: Is that the sense in the creative community, that the FCC will eventually target basic and pay cable?


Lipman: I'm only one individual. It's hard to answer for everyone. But my instinct is that people do feel that way. It's a very insidious thing. Once someone gives in to them for whatever reason, then they'll go deeper and deeper. I think the idea is to [go after] cable and, ultimately, pay cable.

JMER: The timing of this show was very fortuitous. You were part of a renaissance in pay cable series programming for adults that hadn't really taken off until "The Sopranos" debuted on HBO in 1999.

Lipman: We're very, very lucky. "The Sopranos" placed the bar to challenge the other networks. I remember after we did "Sisters" there was a whole spate of teen dramas. Pay cable became the place where people who had experience but weren't writing about teens would go to try to do something adult. It hadn't been considered the favored place to go to do a series, but it really exploded.

JMER: There was a good deal of controversy surrounding the premiere of your NBC series "Sisters" in 1991. Something about orgasms…

Lipman: In many ways "Sisters" was the precursor to "Desperate Housewives." It was about four women. They had kinky lives. In the first scene of the first show they were in a sauna talking about orgasms. It was so tame! At a Television Critics Association press conference before the show premiered [one critic] shot up her arm and said, "I watched the sauna scene. I couldn't believe it! They talked about orgasms!" For the entire 50 minute [press conference] that was all we talked about. NBC cut the scene. The show aired on Saturday. We got a call on Thursday saying they were cutting it. On Friday [series star] Swoosie Kurtz went on the "Tonight Show" and they showed the scene. The next night the show went to black for a few seconds [where the scene had been]. It didn't make any sense. It was all because of the controversy at the TCA. We're no strangers to controversy.

@темы: CowLip, CowLip 2005, интервью

Comments

[Von Dutch]

Вполне корректное интервью, не в пример прошлому!

Lipman: Given the climate and the current situation with the FCC, I don't know if [we would be allowed] to do the things that we have been able to do -- unbridled, unapologetic and uncensored. I don't know if that time is ever going to come again, especially when it comes to gay sexual expression and gay sexual identity. I don't know if the networks would ever do that, but you never know. They're never going to come out and say it. It is always going to be couched, so you're never really sure. This whole thing with the FCC… once the broadcast networks begin to play ball with them then they'll go after cable.

Интересная точка зрения. Раньше можно было позволить больше, чем сейчас, я правильно понимаю? И чем-то перекликается с Рэндиной позицией, что Квир - это продукт своего времени.