"There was no maliciousness about this," Ross said of his show. Three days later Schmitz drove to Amedure's home and killed him with a shotgun blast. "This had a completely different trajectory than 'Jenny Jones,' " he said, referring to the never-aired episode of the syndicated show in which a heterosexual guest named Jonathan Schmitz agreed to appear to find out about a secret admirer, only to learn during taping that the admirer was a gay man, Scott Amedure. Ross also acknowledged that there was "anger" but says he has no concerns about this turning into another "Jenny Jones" tragedy because of the pains they took to select the participants and because "it was intended to be very good-natured." He had to sit down and think about the people he had selected to go home and to stay it caused him to reevaluate everything that had transpired." When producers finally did tell the leading man that some of his guys were straight, he was stunned, Ross said.
#Gay dating show casting series
Unlike other prime-time dating series - Fox's "Joe Millionaire" and ABC's "The Bachelor" come to mind - the contestants on "Boy Meets Boy" were forbidden to do anything more intimate than kiss in order to protect the identity of the heteros, Ross said.īut when pressed on how that rule was enforced, Ross acknowledged, "We weren't there all the time, so perhaps things went on after the cameras went home and to bed." One junior camera person remained on the night shift, however, he added, "and as far as we were told, there was no improper behavior displayed." "It was interesting to see them try to assimilate."Īssimilation did not extend to doing more than kissing, we were assured after asking if the leading man had been as rigorous in researching potential mates as had been, say, Trista of "The Bachelorette."
Still, Ross acknowledged, some affected more "gay mannerisms" than others. Straight contestants were told "be yourself - change your story." We did not want them to act gay," he said. "Specifically we were looking for people who in their general persona would be able to obscure their sexual identity. Several straight candidates were deemed unsuitable for "a variety of reasons," Ross said. "The overarching goal of the series is to examine what it is like in a gay world where the straight guys are the ones in the closet," said Ross, who also produced the well-received documentary series "Gay Wedding" that ran on Bravo last summer. They were guys who were "willing to take this challenge and do it on television but who also wanted to walk a mile in a gay man's shoes. The producers sought hetero men who were "interested in exploring the same issues we were," Ross said, including "pushing the boundaries of what is normally considered straight and gay, to tear down stereotypes and blur the lines of commonly held beliefs." They ended up casting straight men with important people in their lives - a relative, a college roommate, etc. Straight contestants were told that it was a reality game show and that they would be given more information later. Gay contestants on the show, which has already been shot, were all cast under the pretense of it being a gay dating series.
#Gay dating show casting tv
Should he pick a straight guy, the straight guy wins a cash prize because, executive producer Doug Ross told The TV Column, "to get them to do this on television you have to dangle more than a sociological experiment and exploring.
If the leading man picks a gay man to be his mate, he wins a cash prize and a vacation with his guy of choice.
Only when he has winnowed the pool considerably does he learn that some of the guys are heterosexual. The six-episode series, shot over eight days in Palm Springs, Calif., features a gay man who thinks he's getting the chance to pick a mate from among 15 gay contestants. No, it's not the never-aired episode of "The Jenny Jones Show," it's "Boy Meets Boy," a dating reality series coming to Bravo cable network this summer. Imagine a TV dating show in which a gay guy has the hots for another gay guy, only the producers have fooled him and it turns out the other guy is straight.