aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South

Friday, April 13, 2007

1983 Fierstein: on Torch Song, Letterman & La Cage

In the early eighties I was a segment producer for one of the first gay television shows on cable, OUR TIME with Vito Russo. I reminisced about it here a couple years ago:

Our office was in the turreted northwest tower of the municipal building and we came out of WNYC (TV, sold off by Rudy Giuliani in 1997). It was great fun. I so wanted a gay network then, and confidently foresaw the day that it would come about.

Alas, now that it’s here (and it is here on my rural Georgia cable system, though I don’t subscribe) I’ve stopped wanting it.

In fact, in 1983 I talked with one of Torch Song’s producers, John Glines, about starting the gay network I envisioned (he wasn’t interested, theater was his thing). And today we’ve got two and I still don’t want one. And still don’t subscribe. But with word of Harvey’s new show I went digging up in the attic. And this is what I came down with: