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Interview With Tom Campbell

Aired August 04, 2003 - 14:43   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: It appears audiences and advertisers alike can't get enough of "the Fab Five," Bravo's gay fashion team. "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" is grabbing the highest ever ratings for the cable network. It's also attracting a long list of product placement deals for the all-male makeover show, everything from designer jeans to grooming ads.
Bravo's parent company is sitting up and taking notice. Plans are in the works now for a second "Queer Eye" special to air on NBC featuring the Fab Five giving Jay Leno a makeover.

Television seems to come a long way since ABC canceled "Ellen." What's all the buzz about? Joining us from Los Angles, Tom Campbell, he's the producer behind an all-male dating show, reality TV, I guess you could say, "Boy Meets Boy." Tom, great to have you.

TOM CAMPBELL, PRODUCER, "BOY MEETS BOY": Good to be here, thank you.

PHILLIPS: Well first let's talk about the buzz. I mean what's happening here? Huge ratings, more shows. It's going gangbusters.

CAMPBELL: Well I think the show you're mentioning, "Boy Meets Boy, which is our show on Bravo, Tuesdays at 9:00, and "Queer as Folk," I think they're good shows, first and foremost. I think they're well produced, I think they are good story telling and they happen to be told from a gay perspective which right now seems to be interesting a lot of people.

PHILLIPS: Why? Why is that, Tom?

CAMPBELL: Maybe -- I definitely gays on television while, you know, there's been progress made over the years, notably "Will & Grace" on NBC, it's something we don't see a lot of in a lot of different circumstances when, in fact, gay people are everywhere. We work with them and we're born into heterosexual families and go to heterosexual schools. And it's nice to see television starting to reflect more having us gay people integrated into the television life as well.

PHILLIPS: Now, you're producer, co-creator "Boy Meets Boy." Tell me how you came up with this idea but even more so, tell me how you pitched it. What gave you the confidence that it was going to happen?

CAMPBELL: Well we're very lucky that we deal with Bravo and NBC, which owns Bravo. Last year before NBC bought Bravo our company did a show called "Gay Weddings" which was a straight-forward documentary that followed two gay couples, two lesbian couples on the way to the altar, so to speak. And that did very well for Bravo.

And when NBC bought them they thought it might be interesting to do a gay dating show, which was very bold of them. So they actually came to us and pitched us the idea and then we came to them of the concept of "Boy Meets Boy."

PHILLIPS: Tom, is this exploitation or is this breaking stereotypes?

CAMPBELL: You know, I think it's more of latter, it's breaking stereotypes. I think, you know with our show "Boy Meets Boy" there's a twist where some of the suitors are straight. And one of the reasons we did that was to create a situation where in a social experiment that only be done on a reality show, have straight people experience what it's like to live in the closet.

So we sort of have two shows going on at the same time, a straight-forward dating show with gay men and also the sort of social experiment. And I think in our case, we hopefully, and I think when people watch, that they see we do a lot to break stereotypes.

PHILLIPS: And the ratings have been so successful. Do you think it's a curiosity that's leading to this or do you think that just finally OK? It's all becoming accepted as a part of-this is realistic, folks. It's normal society.

CAMPBELL: I think it's realistic but I do think television goes in trends and I think definitely there's a lot of curiosity and buzz around gay programming. But as gay people are in everyday life I'd like to see even when the trend is gone that we've made steps forward in terms of integrating gay people as part of the mainstream in television.

PHILLIPS: So where are the lesbian shows? Aren't lesbians lovable, too?

CAMPBELL: We've got one to pitch if anybody wants it. Call us.

PHILLIPS: Really? Well tell us what it is.

CAMPBELL: Well, I don't know.

PHILLIPS: All right, it's top secret right now.

CAMPBELL: We don't think a lesbian show would be interesting as "Boy Meets Boy." You know there's a lot of people to please, but we'd be happy to produce lesbian programs.

PHILLIPS: So, Tom, this gay network that was in the works, it failed, it kind of fizzled out. Is Bravo going to sort of become the gay network, do you think?

CAMPBELL: I don't work for Bravo, but NBC and Bravo have both been very supportive of gay programming. Again, I don't think it needs to be a gay channel. The fact that we have a strong presence and hopefully if gay shows continue to perform, television is a business at the end of the day and I think we'll continue to see more gay programming.

PHILLIPS: All right, tome, quickly, yes or no: are we going to see this trend in film? Are you going to pitch a movie?

CAMPBELL: We have some movies to pitch too, we'd love that.

PHILLIPS: All right. You're going to come back and update us, right?

CAMPBELL: Very good. I'd love to.

PHILLIPS: All right, Tom Campbell, thanks so much. Producer, "Boy Meets Boy," Evolution Studios, appreciate your time.

CAMPBELL: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired August 4, 2003 - 14:43   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: It appears audiences and advertisers alike can't get enough of "the Fab Five," Bravo's gay fashion team. "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" is grabbing the highest ever ratings for the cable network. It's also attracting a long list of product placement deals for the all-male makeover show, everything from designer jeans to grooming ads.
Bravo's parent company is sitting up and taking notice. Plans are in the works now for a second "Queer Eye" special to air on NBC featuring the Fab Five giving Jay Leno a makeover.

Television seems to come a long way since ABC canceled "Ellen." What's all the buzz about? Joining us from Los Angles, Tom Campbell, he's the producer behind an all-male dating show, reality TV, I guess you could say, "Boy Meets Boy." Tom, great to have you.

TOM CAMPBELL, PRODUCER, "BOY MEETS BOY": Good to be here, thank you.

PHILLIPS: Well first let's talk about the buzz. I mean what's happening here? Huge ratings, more shows. It's going gangbusters.

CAMPBELL: Well I think the show you're mentioning, "Boy Meets Boy, which is our show on Bravo, Tuesdays at 9:00, and "Queer as Folk," I think they're good shows, first and foremost. I think they're well produced, I think they are good story telling and they happen to be told from a gay perspective which right now seems to be interesting a lot of people.

PHILLIPS: Why? Why is that, Tom?

CAMPBELL: Maybe -- I definitely gays on television while, you know, there's been progress made over the years, notably "Will & Grace" on NBC, it's something we don't see a lot of in a lot of different circumstances when, in fact, gay people are everywhere. We work with them and we're born into heterosexual families and go to heterosexual schools. And it's nice to see television starting to reflect more having us gay people integrated into the television life as well.

PHILLIPS: Now, you're producer, co-creator "Boy Meets Boy." Tell me how you came up with this idea but even more so, tell me how you pitched it. What gave you the confidence that it was going to happen?

CAMPBELL: Well we're very lucky that we deal with Bravo and NBC, which owns Bravo. Last year before NBC bought Bravo our company did a show called "Gay Weddings" which was a straight-forward documentary that followed two gay couples, two lesbian couples on the way to the altar, so to speak. And that did very well for Bravo.

And when NBC bought them they thought it might be interesting to do a gay dating show, which was very bold of them. So they actually came to us and pitched us the idea and then we came to them of the concept of "Boy Meets Boy."

PHILLIPS: Tom, is this exploitation or is this breaking stereotypes?

CAMPBELL: You know, I think it's more of latter, it's breaking stereotypes. I think, you know with our show "Boy Meets Boy" there's a twist where some of the suitors are straight. And one of the reasons we did that was to create a situation where in a social experiment that only be done on a reality show, have straight people experience what it's like to live in the closet.

So we sort of have two shows going on at the same time, a straight-forward dating show with gay men and also the sort of social experiment. And I think in our case, we hopefully, and I think when people watch, that they see we do a lot to break stereotypes.

PHILLIPS: And the ratings have been so successful. Do you think it's a curiosity that's leading to this or do you think that just finally OK? It's all becoming accepted as a part of-this is realistic, folks. It's normal society.

CAMPBELL: I think it's realistic but I do think television goes in trends and I think definitely there's a lot of curiosity and buzz around gay programming. But as gay people are in everyday life I'd like to see even when the trend is gone that we've made steps forward in terms of integrating gay people as part of the mainstream in television.

PHILLIPS: So where are the lesbian shows? Aren't lesbians lovable, too?

CAMPBELL: We've got one to pitch if anybody wants it. Call us.

PHILLIPS: Really? Well tell us what it is.

CAMPBELL: Well, I don't know.

PHILLIPS: All right, it's top secret right now.

CAMPBELL: We don't think a lesbian show would be interesting as "Boy Meets Boy." You know there's a lot of people to please, but we'd be happy to produce lesbian programs.

PHILLIPS: So, Tom, this gay network that was in the works, it failed, it kind of fizzled out. Is Bravo going to sort of become the gay network, do you think?

CAMPBELL: I don't work for Bravo, but NBC and Bravo have both been very supportive of gay programming. Again, I don't think it needs to be a gay channel. The fact that we have a strong presence and hopefully if gay shows continue to perform, television is a business at the end of the day and I think we'll continue to see more gay programming.

PHILLIPS: All right, tome, quickly, yes or no: are we going to see this trend in film? Are you going to pitch a movie?

CAMPBELL: We have some movies to pitch too, we'd love that.

PHILLIPS: All right. You're going to come back and update us, right?

CAMPBELL: Very good. I'd love to.

PHILLIPS: All right, Tom Campbell, thanks so much. Producer, "Boy Meets Boy," Evolution Studios, appreciate your time.

CAMPBELL: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com