All in the Family by John W. Stiles Now that the racy and touching British series Queer As Folk has crossed over to America, expect to add eight new best friends to your family

In an effort to live up to their new "No Limits" nickname, Showtime (the cable TV premium service) debuts Queer As Folk this month. Based on the wildly successful British series of the same name, Queer As Folk opens with a two-hour pilot on Sunday, December 3, 10 p.m., followed by one-hour episodes for the next 20 Sundays. Showtime is throwing their entire publicity machine into promoting Queer to its target audience (that is to say, us), with cable TV ads, radio spots, direct mail campaigns to over a million gay and lesbian households, Pride event booths, posters and billboards, even "Coming Out" parties at clubs across the country (Houston’s was Nov. 15).

All this hoopla is likely unnecessary if the first seven hours are any indication of the quality of this series. Exceptional writing and compelling acting virtually insures the series "hit" status. Queer As Folk is an uncompromising look at the lives and loves of an often strangely interconnected group of gay men and lesbians living in Pittsburgh. Although the direction is occasionally heavy-handed (two characters are seen sitting atop a wall, the straight girl with an apple, the young gay man with a banana), and the jump cuts and zooms approach air-sickness intensity, the story and characters prevail.

The ensemble cast includes Talk Soup’s Hal Sparks as Michael, an assistant manager at the local Big Q Mart; Peter Paige (one of only two openly gay actors in the cast) as Emmett, Michael’s roommate, the raging queen; Gale Harold as Brian, a successful ad exec with an insatiable sexual appetite and "to die for" looks; Scott Lowell as Ted, the quiet accountant desperate for love; and Randy Harrison (the only other out actor) as Justin, a 17-year-old in search of his first romantic encounter. Their lesbian counterparts are Michelle Clunie and Thea Gill as Melanie and Lindsay, new parents of baby Gus, fathered by Brian. Most of the cast comes from the stage, although Michelle Clunie and Hal Sparks may be familiar from television and film. Michael’s too-proud mom is played by Sharon Gless, Emmy Award winner for Cagney and Lacey.

Queer As Folk does not pull any punches; the language and the sex are graphic. No effort at attracting a mainstream audience here, the show’s producers are targeting the gay and lesbian community and do not feel the need to "cross over" to maximize ratings. The themes are mature but not exclusively so. Growing up, fear of growing old, taking responsibility for your life, and caring for others are universal themes couched in the gay and lesbian milieu and without shame. Emmett, for example, is not covering his pain, he unabashedly loves being a queen. Teenager Justin knows he is gay–questioning his orientation would never occur to him. Brian is about sex and readily admits it.

Queer As Folk holds a significant advantage over stage and screen efforts to honestly portray the gay and lesbian lifestyle. In a two-hour film or stage play, a significant percentage of the time must be spent introducing and developing characters. Audience identification with the characters must be accomplished quickly to leave as much time as possible for thematic development. In a 22-hour series, though, a far greater percentage of the time can be spent on the stories. Audiences come to identify with and even trust the characters to go places that the characters in a two-hour film cannot go. NYPD Blue, ER, and The Practice are examples of television series free to take their audiences places no audience would go without the sense of identification and trust built up over time. Queer As Folk will accomplish this for the gay and lesbian community.

For more info, see the Queer As Folk website queer.sho.com, which will premiere the night of the first show. To subscribe to Showtime, call 1-800-Coming-Out (1-800-266-4646).

When John W. Stiles isn't writing for us or his website http://www.johnwstiles.com, he serves the capitalist machine as a useful and productive cog facilitating the subjugation of the middle and lower classes.