Straight talk
A candid conversation with 'Queer Eye' creator David Collins, BSC '89
By Mary Alice Casey
Amy Jo Uncapher Cosgrove was an instant fan of the Fab Five.
"I was just doubled over. I was screaming," she recalls. "I thought it was the most fantastic thing I had ever seen."
As a friend and former college roommate of "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" creator and executive producer David Collins, BSC '89, Cosgrove got an early introduction to the Fab Five when she previewed the show's pilot. Her reaction has since been validated by millions of viewers who tune in each week as Ted, Jai, Kyan, Carson and Thom walk another straight man through the intricacies of cuisine, culture, grooming, fashion and interior design.
 | | The Fab Five (left to right Carson, Thom, Kyan, Ted and Jai) work their magic. |
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Since it arrived in July 2003, the hour-long "make-better" show has spawned a huge following for Bravo and parent NBC, a best-selling book, a soundtrack and, Collins is happy to note, conversation.
"From the pilot, we knew it was good," he says. "But we had absolutely no idea that it would go on the journey it's had."
Through-the-roof ratings are great, but Collins says some of the most gratifying feedback has come from gay viewers and their families. Many say the show has given them common ground.
"It's opened a lot of doors of communication," he says. "People have embraced conversation."
Collins and others also are pleased to hear dialogue among the masses.
"I think it's just brilliant," says Cosgrove, who lives outside Kansas City, Kan. "I want to be friends with the Fab Five. It struck a chord with females everywhere. And I love that it's really demystified homosexuals to straight men. With the Fab Five fawning and doting over straight men, they (the straight men) let down their guard. Some of that homophobia has been dispersed."
Collins, talking on this day from his L.A. office, has a telephone in one hand and a sub sandwich in the other. On another day you might catch him in his New York office. Or his Boston office. Still, the 36-year-old Collins, originally from Cincinnati, is gracious and accommodating. He's also handsome, balding, friendly, energetic, quick to laugh and gay.
"It's never been a political thing for me," says Collins, who came out in college. "I've never been a flag-waving gay man."
What he does promote unabashedly is Scout Productions Inc., a film and TV production company he started with life partner Michael Williams and friend Dorothy Aufiero in 1994.
 | | David Collins participates in an alumni panel discussion, "Pop Culture: Pushing the Envelope," during the College of Communication's 36th annual Communication Week in spring 2004. Photo by Denise Mangen |
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"It was important to us to love the material that we were doing," Collins says. "'Important stories well-told' has always been the motto."
Those stories appear on the small screen ("Queer Eye" and "Knock First," an ABC Family teen room makeover show created and produced by Collins, for instance) and on the big screen (including "Fog of War," winner of the 2004 Academy Award for feature documentary, produced by Williams).
Collins' first role in the business was as a production assistant for "Little Man Tate," Jodie Foster's 1991 directorial debut. In a classic case of right place/right time, he was volunteering at the Cincinnati Film Commission office six months out of college when Foster and producer Peggy Rajski visited the Queen City while scouting locations. He was tapped to drive them to the airport.
"(Peggy) turned to me and said, 'David, you don't have to be a production assistant.' What she was saying was, 'Grab those reins and take them anywhere you want. Don't get good at being a production assistant because you'll never do anything else.'"
Good advice, well-heeded.
Mary Alice Casey is editor of Ohio Today.
Related Links
Listen to an interview conducted by National Public Radio with David Collins the day "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" premiered.
