ABSTRACT
Television viewers had their first glimpse of a homosexual in 1977 with the pioneering sitcom Soap. Two decades later, a new generation of Americans were given a somewhat broader look at gay men, beginning in 1998, through the two male characters featured on Will & Grace. Two years after that, pay-cable subscribers had the chance to meet several more men who lived and loved-or at least lusted-in the world created by Queer as Folk. Despite this continuum of groundbreaking shows, in 2003 a basic-cable channel crossed yet another threshold by exposing TV viewers to an entirely new category of gay men:
The real thing. Indeed, the in-the-flesh quintet on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy
displayed such a stunning mixture of charm, wit, and good taste that they created a whirlwind of public attention that turned the Bravo series into a media sensation. The Los Angeles Times praised the program for making “this year’s biggest splash” in all of television, and an Entertainment Weekly cover headline screamed “Outrageous Breakout Hit!”1
