Read About Vermont's 'Queen Dad' in the HuffPo — and Watch His Sitcom Pilot
A homophobic young man meets his father for the first time ... and Dad is in drag. That's the premise of "Queen Dad," a web-series pilot shot in the Burlington area with a local cast and crew. It stars Sëan Moran (pictured left) as the dad — a regular-dude plumber and bisexual drag performer. Matt Parisi (right), a familiar face from local theater productions like The Moreau Horrors, is his incredulous offspring.
"Queen Dad" is the brainchild of business and writing partners Moran, who lives in Shelburne, and Kansas-based Don Bledsoe. Both come to the project from careers in the entertainment industry: Moran danced in the movie Grease and seems to have appeared on every '90s TV show, from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" to "Nash Bridges" to "ER." (Check out his IMDB page.) More recently, he was in Flags of Our Fathers and The Devil's Rejects.
Moran and Bledsoe are running an $8000 Indiegogo campaign for partial funding of their first season (they say they've already negotiated a deal for half the required funds) and hope to sell "Queen Dad" to a network. Bledsoe says the remaining five episodes of the season will also be shot in the Queen City area, and they're paying the cast and crew.
Network TV has welcomed more gay-friendly comedy in recent years — could "Queen Dad" have a chance at the big time? Watch the pilot here and judge for yourself.
And read an interview with Moran in the Huffington Post, where he talks about running the show by GLAAD, challenging stereotypes (even in Vermont!) and wearing 6-inch stilettos.
