Buffy The Vampire Slayer

"The animation is awesome." That’s the highest of compliments coming from my partner, Christopher, who’s been making a living as an animator for nearly 20 years, from the California Raisins to Stuart Little 2. But he’s not talking about Finding Nemo-tonight we’re watching a preview copy of Totally Gay, an hour-long VH1 special that debuts Monday, August 18.

I don’t want to spoil the fun of the several animated sequences for you, but suffice it to say that one involves George Michael and a couple of cops, while another features Anne Heche and a flying saucer.

Totally Gay is totally fun. It’s a primer on the progress of gay images in popular culture in the past 13 years or so, with nods to the 1980s and earlier times and brief acknowledgement of our political battles and enemies. Mostly it’s a swirling frappé of same-sex kisses, suggestive ads, very-special sitcom snippets, and gay celebrities and icons-a teasing trailer for the Gay ’90s that reminds you of all the gay moments you may have forgotten, or would like to. For lesbian and gay viewers-especially Advocate and Advocate.com readers-there’s no new information, but the super-kinetic presentation and snappy sound bites shake it up in fresh ways. After all, what past documentary has managed to connect Bill Clinton, women who love Queer as Folk, and the marketing behind Tatu?

The filmmakers-director Wash West, working with the crackerjack crew at World of Wonder, Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato’s production company-did an amazing number of interviews with celebrities, from Buffy’s Amber Benson to Abercrombie & Fitch’s Carlson twins to Mariel Hemingway (who still rocks). Some of my favorites were the unstoppably sexy Gina Gershon (one sequence is devoted to Showgirls and Bound), the infectiously cheerful Melissa Etheridge (nothing dampens this woman’s sheer joy in living), and, of course, the reliably irreverent John Waters, who gets the last word.

And then there’s me. Yes, I’m not an unbiased reviewer of this documentary, because I’m in it, looking serious and talking earnestly about teenage lesbians and ’80s gym culture and gay men who marry women. I’m not my favorite interview subject. I spent much of my second viewing of the preview tape-I was too busy cringing the first time through to pay close attention-trying to decide whether any of the other interview subjects were less dynamic than I was. I picked one, to make myself feel better, but I’ll withhold the name. (You know who you are.)

It’s fine. I don’t have the gentle, regal authority of Judy Wieder, my boss and the corporate editorial director here at LPI Media, the company that publishes The Advocate, who’s also interviewed in Totally Gay. But I think I sound pretty much like I know what I’m talking about, and that’s what matters. I’ll certainly understand if Chad Allen gets more fan letters than I do.

Between my yapping and Judy’s wise observations and a couple dozen Advocate covers that flash on screen, Totally Gay is also Totally Advocate, which does make me happy. Most of those covers (Madonna, Kurt Cobain, that NFL football) were done before I joined the staff in 1999, but I do believe in the cultural importance of the magazine of which I have been lucky enough to inherit the reins, and seeing what was accomplished before my time reminds me just how high the bar is for future achievements. I always expect The Advocate to be held to the highest standards in tracking gays and lesbians in culture and society, and that’s a good thing.

But enough about me. If you’re still reading, you’re hoping for more information to decide whether to set your TiVo to download Totally Gay or not. My totally biased recommendation is, Absolutely. If you’re worried that you’re smarter than the show, that it’s all old news to a savvy homo such as yourself, here’s my suggestion: Use the show to test your QIQ. Watch Totally on videotape or TiVo so you can pause and rewind and see how many of the countless unlabeled film clips you and your friends can identify. I got maybe half of them, if that many. I’m sure a creative party host could create a drinking game around this idea (a shot of Absolut every time Madonna is mentioned? a sour Altoids for every Eminem cameo?).

In the end, I’m not sure what Totally Gay meant to be about or to telegraph to the nongay VH1 audience. I’m not sure the filmmakers really have a message, other than "gays are the bomb!" It’s like a Behind the Music special on fast-forward, with fewer drug addicts and more sex. It’s a flurry of factoids and famous faces that takes "gays in popular culture" off the op-ed pages and into the colorful, cut-and-paste realm of Us Weekly. In that sense, it’s the ultimate in mainstreaming. If we’re nonthreatening enough to turn into a hyperspeed, celebrity-studded VH1 special, then maybe we are the normal.

Whether "normal" is a good thing, we can leave to the op-ed pages.

Steele is editor in chief of The Advocate.