Meredith Baxter, the Frank DeCaro Show Interview

For those of you who missed Meredith Baxter in her radio exclusive interview on The Frank DeCaro Show this morning, here are a few clips from the interview:

Elyse Keaton, Lesbian Mom

This morning on The Frank DeCaro Show, on Sirius XM OutQ Radio, fabulous Family Ties star Meredith Baxter stopped by, to make the announcement that she is indeed a lesbian.

Baxter says that although she's an extremely private person, she decided to make the announcement in order to help the community, in order to put a friendly face on the lesbian label and to do her part hopefully to convince voters not to continue to take away our rights.

The 62-year-old actress, famous for her TV roles from Bridget Loves Bernie (which, Baxter playfully suggested at Frank's prompting, could now be "Bridget Loves Bernice") and Family in the '70s through, of course, '80s iconic series Family Ties, had pre-taped an appearance for NBC's Today, which aired earlier this morning -- but had recorded her interview with Frank even before that, making Sirius XM her first stop in breaking the news.

Congratulations, Meredith -- we loved you back then, and love you now -- if possible, even more. And now it all makes sense -- no wonder Elyse was such a beautiful, understanding mom!

(Catch a replay of the interview during Frank's 3rd hour today, at 1:15 PM Eastern/10:15 AM Pacific, as well as during the 10PM Eastern rerun of the entire show tonight.)

Today in TV History: Will & Grace

On this date in 1998, Will & Grace debuted on NBC.

The first network comedy created with a gay lead character, Will & Grace took the mantle from Ellen, the ABC sitcom which had broadcast its final episode just months earlier. Ellen DeGeneres' title character Ellen Morgan had famously come out the year before, in 1997's codenamed "The Puppy Episode," and spent her fifth and final season on the air in a midlife search for lesbian love and acceptance. Now, in the fall of 1998, the road had been paved through primetime for two new iconic gay regular characters: Will Truman, a somewhat conservative gay lawyer, and Jack McFarland, his much more flamboyant actor friend and confidant.

Over the course of its eight seasons, Will & Grace would go on to win 16 Emmys, including awards for each of its four lead actors -- a feat previously accomplished only by All In the Family and The Golden Girls. Back in July, I attended a panel at the Television Critics Association conference in Los Angeles for W&G star Debra Messing's new series The Starter Wife, which premieres on the USA Network on Friday, October 10. Is there any hope, I asked her, for a Will-and-Grace-and-Jack-and-Karen reunion? "I
would be game," Messing said. But, she noted, "it's a little tricky because the finale
played with time, and they showed what happened 25 years
ahead. So it's a little difficult to see how that
would be possible."

When I interviewed her for my book, Will & Grace: Fabulously Uncensored (see photo below), I remembered Messing rhapsodizing about how much she misses living in New York City. It sounded at the time like she planned to head back East the moment Will & Grace took its final curtain call. But The Starter Wife miniseries was shot in Australia, and now the series version will be headquartered in L.A. So, I asked her, what happened?

"You know, life unfolds the way it's going to unfold. This was here, and so [New York] will just be postponed for a little bit," the actress explained. "I do still want to get back on stage, and I can't fathom the future without envisioning spending a significant amount of time in New York, because it really does feel like my home," she added. And so while now, at the time of the tenth anniversary of this hilarious show's debut, it sounds like there may never be another gathering of Will & Grace's four groundbreaking gays and gals, at least there will probably be a time in the near future when real-life New York City will get its Grace back.





At the Barnes & Noble Union Square, New York for a signing of my book, Will & Grace: Fabulously Uncensored, September 2004.

Photo by Scott Kahn.

And Now, a Word from...

Lauren Lee Smith
Actor, CBS' CSI

After the departure late last season of Jorja Fox, CSI’s Las Vegas forensic investigations team was down one member – not to mention one lesbian icon. Enter Lauren Lee Smith, the chameleon-like actress who starting in her teenage years in Canada quickly landed a series of ever-more-impressive roles in such shows as MTV’s 2gether, CBS’ Christy miniseries, and the syndicated sci-fi show Mutant X (opposite my fave, Victor Webster!)

In a few short years, Smith became the girlfriend of a boy band member, a Smoky Mountain schoolteacher, a mutant, a Russian stripper spy (on the Canadian procedural series Intelligence) – and most importantly, a chef named Lara Perkins, the love interest for tennis player Dana Fairbanks on Showtime’s The L Word. Recently, I had the chance to interview Lauren about her new role on CSI, where she debuts as CSI-2 Riley Adams in this season’s second episode, airing Thursday, October 16. And of course, along the way, I couldn’t help but ask her what it had been like to become one our icons on Showtime’s groundbreaking gay show.

Must-Hear TV: Back in 2004, you had already found success in quite a few TV shows and in Canadian independent film. What had interested you in joining The L Word?

Lauren Lee Smith: The L Word had a huge appeal to me at the time, because it was something that hadn’t been done before. It was bringing to mainstream television a TV series based on the lives of lesbians. And I just thought that it was an important project, and I thought that all of the people involved I really admired. We had such an amazing group of directors for every episode, and the producers and writing team and all of the actors. Getting to work with Pam Grier and Jennifer Beals was amazing, and the list just goes on and on.

MHTV: You were very young [23 or 24] when you started on the show. Had you ever done love scenes before? Particularly same-sex scenes?

LLS: That was the first time that I did a same-sex scene, yes. Everyone always says, “Oh, is it nervewracking?” And I have to say, it was much easier. Girls look out for each other.

MHTV: But does it make you self-conscious?

LLS: I don’t really have many hang-ups about that.

MHTV: Your generation has fewer hang-ups about the whole issue of sex in general.

LLS: It’s true, I think. Really, I’ve never been a fan of gratuitous nudity or sex scenes, and I pride myself in never having had to fall into that category. But I do find it somewhat ridiculous when you’re doing a love scene, and it’s very unrealistic. So I have no problems doing love scenes as long as there’s a realistic aspect.

MHTV: Even though you’ve got 30 crew members staring at you.

LLS: You know, you put that out of your brain. You have to, otherwise you become very self-conscious, and it’s not real at that point.

MHTV: Did anybody advise you against playing a lesbian when you went into that show, and have you found that you get stereotyped?

LLS: No one advised me not to take it. Everyone was very supportive about the project when they heard about it. There were certainly several more offers after I did The L Word to play lesbian characters, but I don’t think that was necessarily because of me. I think it was because The L Word opened it up a little bit to have more of these characters. So I found that there were more and more characters coming out who were gay. Which is a great thing, I have to say.

CSI

Season 9

Thursday, October 9
9 PM Eastern
CBS