MTV's soap dish.

The creative team behind Spyder Games, MTV's first daily serial, talks about porn, catfights, and steaming up basic cable

Say you're an MTV fan, and one day you're watching Carson Daly reveal the number 1 video on Total Request Live; it's Blink 182 or whoever's in Destiny's Child this week being as naked as possible. No surprise there. However, something strange happens after the credits roll: Two humpy raven-haired studs appear on your screen and start making out on a restaurant table, bare-chested, while the Amanda Ghost song "Filthy Mind" wails in the background. You sit, riveted, and think, What millennium is this anyway?

Welcome to the gay-inclusive world of MTV's Spyder Games, a 65-episode soap opera that started airing weekdays in early June (check local listings). The studs in question are Ivan Carlisle, a closeted gay brainiac--who has just married his college sweetheart, Julie, in order to please his domineering, homophobic father--and Francisco Torres, a Cuban-born banker and recovering drug addict. Though the restaurant ravishing occurs only in Ivan's overactive imagination (Francisco is straight and hot for Ivan's supervixen sister, Natalia), home viewers will get to see all the action--in living, heaving color.

"You're not gonna see this kind of man-to-man action on As the World Turns," promises Christian McLaughlin, 33, the out author of the popular gay-themed novels Glamourpuss and Sex Toys of the Gods, who created the show with his longtime writing partner, Valerie Ahern. "This is pretty eye-popping stuff, and MTV has been great about letting us have outrageous sex scenes."

When it's suggested that perhaps the footage would be right at home at the beginning of an X-rated Falcon video pack, the Maine-born, Texas-raised writer laughs and says, "Ivan actually has some Falcon packs hidden under his bed. He's partial to Out of Athens 1 and 2, and, of course, he never misses an issue of Freshmen."

Naturally, this being soapland, Ivan's not the only off-the-chart foxy Spyder Games player who has a stash of secrets. Someone, after all, is behind the episode 1 murder of the family patriarch, videogame mogul Boris Carlisle. Who could have done it? Practically everyone, and the show's creators are not about to drag their feet when it comes to doling out clues. "It's very fast-paced," boasts McLaughlin, who with partner Ahern spent over a decade working on sitcoms such as Married ... With Children and Clueless. "I want the show to be like a crack habit. I want teens, adults, nuns, elementary school teachers, everyone, programming the TiVos and racing home to watch."

He's hoping the gay crowd will tune in as well. And if the struggles of Ivan the Adorable aren't enough to keep you hooked, then the show's self-reflective Scream-like humor and appearances by John Waters alum Mink Stole and Go-Go Jane Wiedlin should do the trick. "In terms of gay issues, I never want it to be like an after-school special," says McLaughlin, "but a lot of young kids who are gay or think they might be will really be watching [Ivan] closely. Hopefully, people will identify with him and go through that struggle with him." Asked when viewers are going to be treated to some girl-on-girl plot developments, McLaughlin rubs his hands together and says, "I definitely want to bring lesbianism into the mix, maybe in season 2. A lot of people on the crew have expressed interest in seeing that."

With that, the soapmaster leaps from his office chair and commences a whirlwind tour of what he calls the show's crown jewel, the Carlisle mansion set. "That couch is great for a catfight," he explains, pointing to a sleek gray chaise lounge, "because you want something to throw somebody against when you're throttling them." Continuing on, McLaughlin rounds a corner to the show's psychedelic coffeehouse set, where several of the photogenic cast are relaxing between scenes. "This is Byron Field, who plays Ivan. He's so talented and wonderful and frequently undressed."

"For a while it seemed like every day I was coming in with my clothes off," laughs Field, a Los Angeles native whose previous gigs include commercials and small-theater productions in his hometown. "My first day, the first scene, I'm in bed getting down and dirty with my wife. So much for easing into it." Though the actor is straight in real life, he's having a ball playing the first regular gay soap character. "There's a lot in Ivan I can relate to," he says, "like a sense of wanting to belong, coming to terms with yourself, and knowing that it's OK to be who you are. I relish being able to open up a script and see what's next."

What's next for the Spyder Games team remains to be seen. McLaughlin is hoping audiences will get, caught up in the show's web and that MTV will pick it up for a second season. If that happens, he'd love to have Stevie Nicks sing the theme song and Enrique Iglesias pop by for a cameo. Otherwise, there's not much about his dream world he'd change. "I've loved soaps since I was 7 years old," says McLaughlin. "I had the chicken pox and I watched Morgan Fairchild get sent to women's prison on Search for Tomorrow. I became a women's prison fan and a soap fart in one fell swoop."

Search for Tomorrow took place in the mythical Henderson; where, geographically speaking, is Spyder Games set? "The town is called Fort Kent, but it's not anywhere specifically," says McLaughlin. "Actually, Fort Kent is a real town in Maine that my more is from, and they're going to freak out when they sec how dirty the show is."

Hensley is the author of Misadventures in the (213).