Title/Topic:    Really Gay TV
Source:         SF Bar Area Reporter 10/21
Contributer:    Jeffrey Herwatt
Date:                   08:28 PM Yesterday


The following was copied without permission from the San Francisco Bay Area
Reporter 10/21/93
=================================================

Really Gay TV

by Paul Bollwinkel

If you like your TV about, for, and by openly gay people -- and you don't live
in Manhattan where there's gay cable every night of the week -- the pickings
are pretty slim. The locally produced - _Lavender_Lounge_ just began a new
season with an hour long recap of this June's Gay Freedom Day Parade down -
Market Street. Despite technical problems, including fuzzy video and lousy
sound, the show captures several moments that you probably missed along the
parade route. Host Mark Kliem is helped immeasurably by local comics Gail Hand
and Amy Boyd. This episode was a great relief after surfing past two seasons
worth of exhibitionistic dancers in their underwear.

Tricks, out of LA, takes the Love Connection/Studs formula and lets gay men
have a crack at the lowest of lowbrow TV genres. Four guys, all young and
attractive, go out with each other, then report back to host David Van Chancy,
who leads them through embarrassing accounts of their dates. Van Chancy mugs
and cackles way out of proportion to anything that's happening on the set. In
between game segments, just in case the audience is getting bored, disco
dancers jump around on a platform behind the contestants.

You can't blame Tricks for imitating those fascinating, trashy, hetero dating
shows. Humor that comes from ordinary people simply letting loose and gabbing
is endlessly watchable, and if you forget how inane Van Chancy's questions are,
the four guys, who are appropriately nervous and surprisingly low-key, display
moments of genuine feeling and wit. You'll never see that on Studs.

Finally, Network Q, the monthly video subscription service, has just celebrated
its first anniversary. Now hasted by the engaging David Surber (Q's producer),
the September issue showed tremendous improvement over last year's shows. Set
in Seattle during the Northwest Gay and Lesbian Summer Sports Festival,
segments included Coverage of Angels in America, the efforts of Washington
state gays to ward off Lon Mabon (the Oregon homophobe behind Measure 9), and
an interview with gay author Martin Duberman. Network Q deserves a spot on the
cable dial. (Note: Check your local listings for the times and channels of
these shows.)

-- Paul Bollwinkel