Behind the camera.

WILL & GRACE ISN'T THE ONLY PROGRAM TO BENEFIT FROM A GAY HAND AT THE HELM, THE ADVOCA TETALKS TO THREE OF TV'S MOST POWERFUL GAY PRODUCERS

Eddie October

Executive producer, The Roseanne Show

"She doesn't mince words; she doesn't fuck around," says lanky, boyish executive producer Eddie October about his new boss, Roseanne, whose eponymous syndicated TV talk show debuts across America and in 32 foreign countries on September 14. "She doesn't say, 'Oh, I love your idea, but maybe we should...' She says, `I don't want to do that!' I think straight guys find that very emasculating, very threatening. They take it as her being this shrew. I just don't have that reaction to her."

If October has no interest in taming his star, it's because he understands that she's a uniquely talented talk-show natural. "She has what a lot of hosts don't have: She cares. She wants to know. There's just something about her that's very cool. And certainly she's one of the gay diva icons out there, so there's that connection."

In her inimitable fashion, Roseanne retorts, "Eddie is a great guy. Even if he weren't a homo, I would hire him!" But had she expressed interest in him as early as the winter of 1997, October's sexual orientation may well have remained a mystery.

"I was out for a little bit in my 20s, then kind of went back in the closet," says the 38-year-old producer, who was born and raised outside Washington, D.C., and moved to Los Angeles at 17 to pursue a career in television. "I never went too far out there in terms of trying to create some image for myself. I just kept it private and didn't deal with it."

Not surprisingly, it worked. Landing his first industry job at 20 as a production assistant on the 1980 Academy Awards presentation, he rose slowly but surely, amassing producing credits that include Showtime's It's Garry Shandling's Show and a slew of comedy specials for HBO. His turn toward the talk-show arena occurred in 1994 via NBC's Later With Greg Kinnear. "I like Greg a lot," says October, adding that when he was finally ready to again go public about being gay, Kinnear was one of the first to know. "He had just taken the part of the gay artist in As Good as It Gets. I remember saying to him, `If you need to do research on the part, I can help you out. And by the way, I'm not an artist.'"

Spelling out the reasoning behind his coming-out encore, October simply says, "I want a family. None of this means anything unless I can be happy."

David Crane 

Executive producer, Friends

"I spend my time running back and forth between the three shows," says David Crane, 41, executive producer with Marta Kauffman and Kevin Bright of Friends, Veronica's Closet, and the team's latest offering, Jesse, starring Christina Applegate (Married... With Children) as a single mom in Buffalo, N.Y. "It's crazy, and I miss being on all or them full-time, but that's just the reality of taking on more."

Born and raised in Philadelphia, Crane hooked up with Kauffman while attending Brandeis University. They collaborated with composer (and Kauffman's husband) Michael Skloff on many musicals, including the stage version of the movie Arthur. Eventually landing in Hollywood in the late '80s, the duo created and produced HBO's Dream On, where they began their association with Bright. Then came the Friends fairy tale.

While Crane concedes that there are no queer characters on Jesse, he is more than willing to give a sneak preview of what gay and lesbian fans can expect on the trio's other two sitcoms this season.

No, Joey and Chandler will not come out on Friends. "We've had an extraordinary amount of fun with the conceit that these are two [straight] guys who are so close, they often act as if they're a couple," Crane says. "I'm sure one could do a very wonderful, funny show about a gay couple. That's not what we're doing on Friends." As for Ross's ex-wife, Carol, and her lover, Susan, Crane promises we'll see more of the pair this season. "When there's a good Carol-and-Susan story, we bring them in. We certainly love the characters."

Over at Veronica's Closet, sexually unclassifiable Josh "will continue to ride his little roller coaster. The more confused he gets, the more fun it becomes. Will he ultimately come out? I don't want to commit to that. But you know, like so many of our friends, I can only hope that at the end of the day he's happy with whatever he chooses to be."

While Crane--who has lived for a decade with comedy writer Jeffrey Klarik (Dream On, Mad About You, The Naked Truth)--wholeheartedly applauds Ellen DeGeneres's groundbreaking efforts, he sees his own role in a different light: "As someone who is gay, I certainly feel it's my responsibility to make sure that we don't do anything that's offensive or stereotypical or makes a negative impact .... But I don't approach my job on a daily basis with the secret agenda of `more gays on TV.'"

Paris Barclay

Supervising producer, NYPD Blue

"I would love to win an Emmy," says first-time double nominee Paris Barclay, acknowledged in one category for producing all 22 segments of NYPD Blue's 1997-1998 season and honored in another for directing the second part of the emotionally exhausting "Lost Israel" episode of ABC's hit cop drama. "It's a dream that not every kid has--but that certainly every homosexual has."

Whether or not this Harvard-educated Chicago Heights, Ill., native leaves the September 13 gala with statuette in hand, he has already ascended one illustrious podium this year as the recipient of the Marianne Williamson Founders Award. The award was presented to him in July by the Los Angeles-based Project Angel Food in recognition of his vast volunteerism on behalf of the agency, which prepares and delivers meals daily to more than 900 Angelenos living with AIDS. "It was a huge motherfucking deal," Barclay says of the tribute. "Probably the highest point of my life.... I get a ton more out of doing that kind of pro bono work than I do out of [NYPD Blue]."

With the sixth-season opener of NYPD Blue rapidly approaching, Barclay is now knee-deep in scripts and shooting schedules. Yet the "incredibly single" 42-year-old is already trying to set up a feature project to direct during his 1999 hiatus from the show. "One is a film I wrote called In a New York Minute, about a black man living with AIDS who tries to set his sister up with his doctor. It's a romantic comedy with AIDS. That's been a hard sell."

Another possibility may be a long-overdue adaptation of Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart, to which Aviator Films, the production company of actor Anthony Edwards (whom Barclay has previously directed on ER), holds the rights. "I am sick of all these straight guys getting all the gay roles," says the producer-director, who would prefer to cast the star part of Ned Weeks with an actor who is gay--openly or otherwise.

Concealing his own sexual orientation was never an option for Barclay, who has node: sire to work with Hollywood homophobes. "It's better to be out," he says. "The people who hate you will not call. The people who don't care will call because of your talent and your work. And the people who want you because you're gay will be all over you."

Vaillancourt is a freelance entertainment writer based in Los Angeles.