Logo, The New American Network For Gays and Lesbians

The producer heading up the launch of a new network for American gays, Brian Graden, 42, is one of the busiest and most creative executives in American television. As a hip celebrity producer responsible for programming on MTV, VH1, and CMT, he’s living far from his rural roots, but he’s enjoying every minute. Graden grew up in the small town of Hillsboro, Illinois, and attended Oral Roberts University, where he played keyboard in weekend gigs with his college band the Ozones. After he earned an MBA from Harvard University, he sought an internship working in the television industry. He put on his best suit and went to an interview with powerhouse TV executive Stephen Chao, who quizzed him intensely about what television shows he watched, what music he listened to, and what movies he saw—then Chao said he’d hire Graden as long as he never wore a tie again. From that internship his career grew steadily, until one day he met Trey Parker and Matt Stone. The three took a germ of an idea and developed it into "South Park," and the rest is television history.

In 1997, Graden joined the ranks at MTV and served as executive producer of a string of popular hits including "The Osbournes," "Jackass," "Pimp My Ride," and "The Newlyweds." He has worked to put over 200 programs on the air, and works to assemble teams at MTV Networks that are in touch with the lifestyles of the audiences that are made up of people they’re trying to reach. Graden has succeeded in overseeing an array of networks that appeal to fans of pop music, hip hop, rap, and country music, despite the fact that the genres are wildly different, as are the fans. "It's one of those things that's increasingly gratifying, to see an executive who truly approaches television from a creative point of view without ignoring the business of all of it," says television producer Michael Davies. According to Graden, "My parents are finally proud of what I do because they watch CMT. Before, I don’t think they understood what I do every day."

Despite his numerous successes, Logo may be the biggest challenge of Graden’s career, who is a gay man himself. Logo has been in the works for several years, but will be launched in a limited area, initially only about 10 million homes with digital cable. Two pay-per-view networks designed for gay audiences, Here and Q, are already serving the gay community, but Logo will be made available with regular cable packages in homes that do not specifically order it. "I don't envy his position," says Paul Colichman, founder of Here, a channel that broadcasts edgy gay-oriented material to about 45 million homes. "He's got competing constituencies," Colichman adds. "He's got advertisers who are fearful of offending anyone because they're going after mass groups of people. At the same time, he's got to create a service that is compelling to the gay and lesbian audience who wants to watch it. It kind of depends on their appetite for gay lite."

Graden has said that he believes his job is to serve his target audience and not worry about cultural critics looming over his shoulder, but and he doesn’t intend to be bullied. "We've said from early on that the standards for Logo will be that of a general entertainment network. The assumption that I would have to push certain standards to tell my story instead of yours I don't get, because they're all human stories." An example of the fine line Graden is walking comes with his decision to remake a Canadian series called "My Fabulous Gay Wedding," which portrayed a couple’s plans for a commitment ceremony. The Logo remake is called "First Comes Love." A Logo spokesman said that the title wasn’t changed to avoid controversy and criticism, but rather to better define a show about relationships. The network is also working on a series called "Noah’s Arc," about a homosexual black man and his friends in Los Angeles, as well as a stand-up comedy series called "Wisecrack" and a reality series about opening a gay bar.

Graden says that the programming on Logo will be different from the narrowly focused programming of other networks targeted toward specific groups of people. For example, watching MTV for any length of time makes it clear that MTV’s target audience is 21-year olds. Black Entertainment Television (BET) is obviously more interested in attracting young black viewers than they are black viewers of any age. Graden says his network will appeal to a much broader target group of viewers. "We're talking to an audience that has already felt that it has been excluded from the media tapestry for many years," Graden said. "It didn't feel right to create a channel where some people would feel further excluded." One of his aims is to reflect the gay community’s diversity, so the programming will include movies such as "Kissing Jessica Stein" and "Philadelphia," along with documentaries showing the experiences of a 22-year old Latino homosexual, or a lesbian couple that has been together for many years. "It is important and powerful that you have both gay and lesbian voices directly in the conversation for the product you're trying to create because you're trying to serve an audience," Graden says. "We don't want any of our channels to look like a corporate man was handing down what he thinks an audience would like."