Like I Was the Star (Ep 397 - Kevin/Reality TV)

My guest this week was present for some of the earliest days of what we now recognize as reality TV — he helped produce Gay Riviera, a 2001 Bravo series about queer dating. Kevin Haddad never expected to find himself behind the scenes of a series that helped developed the rules of reality television — a few months earlier, he was a waiter at a family restaurant in Connecticut, and before he knew it he was staying out all night at New York’s hottest nightclubs and possibly getting picked up by a mobster. We’ll have that conversation in a minute. First — hey, are you interested in the history of gay characters on sitcoms, from Bewitched to The Golden Girls to Modern Family? And how, hidden in those characters, is the real-life story of queer liberation? Well I’ve got a book coming out on exactly that topic next year! I’ll be revealing the title and cover later this month in my newsletter — head over to gaysitcoms.com to subscribe to the newsletter and be the first to get all the details. Also, big thanks to everyone who supports The Sewers of Paris on Patreon! Patrons get hours of exclusive bonus videos about pop culture history, stickers and stuff in the mail, and shoutouts in YouTube videos.