BY Jon Marcus
I made “Hunting Season” because I wanted to watch a show that spoke to my life and the lives of my friends, and I had never seen a show that captured the gay New York that I know and love.
Having lived and dated in New York all through my twenties, I felt like opportunities overwhelmed me: an abundance of hot, smart men, stellar nightlife, amazing restaurants, scientifically engineered cocktails, total freedom and a knowing, insider feeling as I went about the city with the gay decoder ring from the Cracker Jack box. With all of these boys packing into little Manhattan, the whole island turns into a bit of a fishbowl. You get pressed daily up against so many other people, and, well, all that friction can’t help but turn you on. An innocent trip to the theater or a museum leads right to eye-fucking or “accidental” touching, or a late-night dog-walk results in numbers being traded.
Having grown up in Ohio, moving to New York when I was 22 was a revelation. Everything I thought I knew about the world turned upside down; everyone was gay, it seemed, or willing to try. Famous people drank with us, everyone was very liberal, pot and coke were ubiquitous, and being a foreigner meant you were probably HOT. My new life, it seemed, would shock middle America to its red-state core. Why was there such a disconnect between my experience and what I saw of the world when I turned on the TV?
I wanted to make a show that brought a taste of this other reality to people who weren’t living it. Perhaps we Manhattan gays could be an inspiration to the rest of the country, living in an amazing fantasy world that was actually our reality. If people could see our lives, would they love us or hate us?
I could not have made this show while I was living it though. Somewhere along the way, I grew out of my twenties and still hadn’t found what I was looking for. Could it be that all of these choices had made it harder for me to decide anything? The wonderland of New York City has its dark side, and the comedy of the series comes from having a little bit of distance on the season in my life where I was hunting for it all.
Not every gay man in New York lives the life I describe. I have a lot of friends who stay up late only to finish a novel they can’t put down or have sex once every two years. But my first job is to entertain, and I hope you will watch “Hunting Season” and appreciate the honesty and humor that comes from the real-life experiences of the people I know and love.
