I've been at this for a while
June 07, 2007

It's hard to believe sometimes that my first writing gig was a gay-themed soap opera produced out of Fairfax, Virginia.

In 1992.

Well before Queer as Folk, Will & Grace, technically even before Melrose Place , a bunch of us produced 31 episodes of an all Gay soap for very little money, on (what now is) antiquated technology (Hi-8 and linear editing systems,) distributed it in a dozen cities around the United States, and did it all in the heart of perhaps the most homophobic state in the union, Virginia.

I love that.

The show was called "Inside / Outside the Beltway" (or just "IOB") and, in grand soap fashion, followed the intertwining lives of four "families," an established gay male couple, a lesbian couple, a female bisexual news anchor and a college kid just coming to terms with being gay.

For five years, their lives intersected and intersex-ed, as they dealt with every issue possible, from HIV diagnoses to Coming Out to having your deep-cover Witness Protection generated identity exposed by a vengeful Cuban Drug Lord who's marked you for death (hey, it was a soap.)

I love that.

Since then, with every other gay show I've watched on TV , I've always found myself going "We did that...and that... and that... Oh, and THAT too" to every premise, idea and situation Hollywood spun its gay characters through. Masters of Writing like Russell T. Davies (Queer as Folk, Doctor Who) may have done it better... and damn, can that SOB write... but we did it first.

I love that, too.

I spoke with Dennis, the creator, exec, and prime mover and shaker of the series, a few weeks back and talked him into doing a short doc about IOB. It's the kind of subject film festivals love, and also a little piece of gay history that might get overlooked. I think the show deserves it's footnote in history.

While the bigger shows had a bigger impact, programs like IOB kept folks afloat until the big guns sounded.

And I love that the most.

Posted by Jody at June 7, 2007 08:53 AM

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