Queer as Folk

From Wikipedia:

Queer as Folk is an American and Canadian television series co-production, produced by Showtime and Temple Street Productions which was based on the British series of the same name created by Russell T Davies. This North American version of Queer as Folk used various Canadian directors known for their independent film work (including Bruce McDonald, David Wellington, Kelly Makin, John Greyson, Jeremy Podeswa and Michael DeCarlo) as well as famed Australian director Russell Mulcahy (Highlander) who directed the pilot episode. The head writers were Ron Cowen and Daniel Lipman who were also the executive producers of the series along with former Warner Bros. Television president Tony Jonas. Other writers in the later seasons included Michael MacLennan, Efrem Seeger, Brad Fraser, Del Shores, and Shawn Postoff.

The series follows the lives of five gay men living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Brian, Justin, Michael, Emmett, Ted; a lesbian couple, Lindsay and Melanie; and Michael's mother Debbie. Another main character, Ben, was added in the second season. Due to tax incentives, the series was filmed in Canada, with frequent location filming in Toronto's Church and Wellesley gay village.

The show was noted for its somewhat frank depiction of gay life, as well as its vivid sex scenes. A disclaimer, "Queer as Folk is a celebration of the lives and passions of a group of gay friends. It is not meant to reflect all of gay society" appeared after each episode on Showtime in the U.S. but this disclaimer was not broadcast on Showcase in Canada (instead, the standard Showcase disclaimer "This program contains nudity, sexuality and coarse language — viewer discretion is advised" was broadcast before each airing and after each commercial).

The title comes from an expression originating in the North of England, "there's nowt so queer as folk", meaning "there's nothing as strange as people (Folk)".

The show drew strong ratings for both Showtime and Canada's Showcase. In fact, in Canada, the series had such high ratings that by the end of the fifth season Showcase had to air the show in an hour and ten minute time block to accommodate all the ads without cutting any scenes. This was not a problem for Showtime, since that service is commercial-free and no ads were ever broadcast during a QAF telecast.

The series ran for five seasons (2000 to 2005 on Showtime and 2001 to 2005 on Showcase). It was believed by fans that the show could have run for another year (most of the cast originally had six year contracts but according to one rumor the contracts were re-negotiated to five years after the first season).[citation needed]

However, Showtime was concerned about the rising production costs due to the strength of the Canadian Dollar. Some of the cast, however, felt that Showtime didn't want to be known as a "gay only" network so they cancelled the show. Publicly, at least, Ron Cowen and Daniel Lipman both stated that they didn't feel there were really any further stories that they could tell. Randy Harrison (Justin) was reported as saying that had the series gone into a sixth season, he would not have been part of it.

Canada's Showcase, which was making a great deal of money from the advertising demand, did briefly consider producing a sixth season, but as Showtime owned much of the rights to the series and funded much of the budget, Showcase decided against it.

Another U.S. cable channel owned by Viacom, Logo, began broadcasting edited, commercially sponsored episodes of QAF on September 21, 2006.

As of January 9, 2008, Showcase began offering the Canadian version of the Queer as Folk episodes on their website. These Canadian versions differ from the Showtime and DVD versions in that they have breaks within the episodes (where commercials would have been inserted) and make references to "Showcase" and "Temple Street Productions presents" instead of "Showtime presents". Unlike the Season 1 DVDs, episodes 101 and 102 are presented separately and episode 102 is the rare extended version of the episode, created for broadcast during reruns of the first season and not seen since 2002. The first seven episodes were posted on January 9 and one additional episode will be posted each week until all 56 episodes from Seasons 1, 2 and 3 are online by December 15, 2008.

Created by Russell T Davies and developed for American television by Ron Cowen and Daniel Lipman

Starring

Gale Harold

Randy Harrison

Hal Sparks

Robert Gant

Michelle Clunie

Thea Gill

Scott Lowell

Peter Paige

Sharon Gless

Opening theme Seasons 1-3:

"Spunk" by Greek Buck

Seasons 4-5:

"Cue the Pulse to Begin" by Burnside Project

Country of origin Canada

United States

Language(s) English

No. of seasons 5

No. of episodes 83 (List of episodes)

Production

Running time 44 to 58 minutes

Broadcast

Original channel Showtime

Showcase

Original run December 3, 2000 (2000-12-03) – August 7, 2005