Noah's Arc | |
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![]() DVD box cover | |
Genre | Comedy drama |
Created by | Patrik-Ian Polk |
Starring | Darryl Stephens Rodney Chester Christian Vincent Doug Spearman |
Opening theme | "Remember the Love" by Adriana Evans |
Country of origin | United States |
No. of seasons | 2 |
No. of episodes | 17 (plus unaired pilot) (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Running time | 23 minutes |
Original release | |
Network | Logo |
Release | October 19, 2005 – October 4, 2006 |
Related | |
Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom |
Noah's Arc is an American cable television comedy-drama series that aired for two seasons on the Logo network from October 19, 2005 to October 4, 2006. The show centered on the lives of four African-American gay friends who share personal and professional experiences while living in Los Angeles. [1]
After its cancellation, a film was produced entitled Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom , which was released theatrically in 2008.
Originally, the show focused around friends Noah Nicholson, Alex Kirby, Ricky Davis, and Chance Counter. Noah is a financially struggling screenwriter who eventually lands a job as a Hollywood film writer, a job that was originally belonged to his boyfriend Wade Robinson. Alex is a HIV counselor and the sassy friend of the group. Ricky is the owner of clothing boutique and the closest friend of Noah. Chance is a college professor. Wade who eventually becomes Noah's boyfriend struggles with his sexual identity as well as the acceptance by Noah's friends. The group endures many social issues throughout the series including same sex dating, same-sex marriage, same-sex parenthood, HIV and AIDS awareness, infidelity, promiscuity, homophobia, and gay bashing.
By season two, Noah and Wade's intimate relationship ends with Noah having a new boyfriend and moving into new home. Alex opens his own HIV clinic with the help of his friends. Ricky enters into a brief relationship with a doctor who is HIV positive but Ricky has his reservations about being intimate. Chance is now a married man who is adapting to married life.
The idea for Noah's Arc originated in 2003 when Patrik-Ian Polk attended a Los Angeles Black gay pride club event. The experience inspired Ian-Polk to write the series that was centered around the lives of Black gay men. The original one-hour pilot was produced independently and released as a web series in 2004, and to assist in funding each episode, the show was originally envisioned as a DVD subscription series. [2] After the web series was well received, the series was picked up by Logo TV as a half-hour series. [2] [3] During production of the pilot episode, Rodney Chester – who portrays Alex in the show – used his own truck as a makeshift hair, make-up and dressing room. After the pilot episode was well received at film festivals and independent screenings, the series was picked up by MTV-affiliated cable network Logo as a half-hour series. The pilot, "My One Temptation", was re-written and re-shot as a two-part premiere episode, [2] and Noah's Arc became LOGO's first scripted series. [3]
Executive producer Dave Mace served as the series' showrunner, with Patrik-Ian Polk and Carol Ann Shine as series' co-executive producers. Pamela Post, Noreen Halpern, Eileen Opatut, and John Morayniss also served as executive producers for the second season.
Casting for the lead characters of Noah's Arc occurred in early 2003. Pamela Azmi-Andrew was the casting director as Polk sat in on the auditions. For the title lead role, Noah Nicholson, actors Darryl Stephens and Christian Vincent were being considered. Stephens, who originally auditioned for the role of Ricky Davis, was cast as Noah Nicholson. Vincent was later recast as Noah's best friend Ricky Davis.
Rodney Chester was cast as Alex Kirby. Chester maintained a friendship with Polk when he appeared in Polk's independent film Punks , which adapts several elements into the television series. Doug Spearman and Jensen Atwood would later be cast for their respective roles. By mid-2003, a cast was put together for the filming of the pilot episode. Shortly after the release of the pilot episode, Polk wrote and directed another in-depth episode for the characters. Shaun T. Fitness, who was originally cast as Trey Iverson in the pilot episode, was replaced by Gregory Keith in the series. Carlos Tineco, who was originally cast as a random guy whom Ricky has sex with, was cast for the recurring role Junito. The character of Junito was originally a go-go dancer before being rewritten as a doctor and later recast with Wilson Cruz assuming the role in the series. Jurnee Crapps, who played the role of Kenya McEntire, was replaced by Sahara Davis in season two.
Season one was filmed in Los Angeles, while season two was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
On July 5, 2020, nearly fourteen years after the show ended, the cast reunited for Noah's Arc: The 'Rona Chronicles, an hour-long special aired on YouTube and Facebook. Produced during and based around the COVID-19 pandemic, The 'Rona Chronicles was produced as a virtual reunion, with the actors (and therefore their characters) interacting virtually via Skype. The reunion, which benefited charity, was followed by a live Q&A moderated by Queer Eye 's Karamo Brown. [4]
Noah's Arc was the first scripted television series to center a group of black gay men. [4]
Season one consists of nine episodes, while season two has eight episodes. The unaired pilot is available on the season one DVD box set.
Season | Episodes | First aired | Last aired | |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 9 | October 19, 2005 | December 7, 2005 | |
2 | 8 | August 6, 2006 | October 4, 2006 |
Noah's Arc aired on Logo in the United States. The show became Logo's highest-rated show during its run. Despite the positive feedback from viewership, the show was not renewed for a third season and was later canceled. In the summer of 2008, BET's spin-off cable television channel BET J briefly broadcast the entire series in rotation. In October 2008, the movie Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom was released which picks up after series' cliffhanger finale.
In March 2019, Logo TV began streaming the entire series on their YouTube channel. [5] The episodes were removed from their YouTube channel in September 2019. The series streams on Apple TV (with a subscription). [6] Outside of Logo platform, the series can be found on electronic sell-through platforms such as iTunes [7] [8] and Amazon Prime Video. [9]
Soundtrack albums for each of the first two seasons were released by Tommy Boy Records. The season one soundtrack was released on March 24, 2006, and features music by such artists as Joshua Radin, Gordon Chambers, Me'shell Ndegéocello, Patrik-Ian Polk, Mary Ann Tatum, and Adriana Evans.
The soundtrack for season two was released on December 15, 2007, featuring the likes of Anthony David, Bedroom Walls, Raz-B, Patrik-Ian Polk, Mike Anthony, and Solange Knowles.
Wilson Cruz is an American actor known for playing Rickie Vasquez on My So-Called Life, Dr. Hugh Culber on Star Trek: Discovery, and the recurring character Junito on Noah's Arc. As a gay man of Afro-Puerto Rican ancestry, he has served as an advocate for gay youth, especially gay minorities.
Robert Earl Buckley is an American actor, known for his roles as Kirby Atwood on the NBC dramedy series Lipstick Jungle, Clay Evans on The CW drama series One Tree Hill, Brian Leonard on the ABC horror-drama series 666 Park Avenue, Major Lillywhite on The CW dramedy series iZombie, and Evan Kincaid on the Hallmark Channel drama series Chesapeake Shores.
Darryl Stephens is an American actor and author. He is best known for playing Noah Nicholson on the television dramedy Noah's Arc.
Patrik-Ian Polk is an American director, screenwriter, and producer. Polk, who is gay, is noted for his films and theatre work that explore the experiences and stories of African-American LGBT people. In 2016, Polk was included in the Los Angeles Times Diverse 100 list, which described him as "the man bringing black gay stories to screens large and small".
Punks is a 2000 film produced by Babyface, directed by Patrik-Ian Polk, and starring Rockmond Dunbar, Seth Gilliam, Renoly Santiago, Jazzmun, and Dwight Ewell.
Jensen Atwood is an American actor from South Central, Los Angeles. Atwood is best known for roles in television productions such as Oprah Winfrey Presents: Their Eyes Were Watching God, Noah's Arc, and Dante's Cove.
Rodney Chester is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Alex Kirby on the Logo sitcom Noah's Arc.
Life's Too Short is a British mockumentary sitcom, created and written by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant and starring Warwick Davis, about "the life of a showbiz dwarf." Davis plays a fictionalised version of himself, and both Gervais and Merchant appear in supporting roles as themselves. The show began airing on BBC Two on 10 November 2011. Premium cable channel HBO, which co-produced the series with the BBC, has the US rights and aired the series from 19 February 2012.
John R. Gordon is a British writer. His work – novels, plays, screenplays and biography - deals with the intersections of race, sexuality and class. With Rikki Beadle-Blair he founded and runs queer-of-colour-centric indie press Team Angelica. Although he was a "white person from a white suburb", according to Gordon, in the 1980s he became deeply interested in black cultural figures such as James Baldwin, Malcolm X and Frantz Fanon, and they have influenced his work ever since.
Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom, is a 2008 American romantic comedy-drama film based on the LOGO television series Noah's Arc. It was released on October 24, 2008, in select theaters and video on demand. The film is MPAA rated R in the U.S. for "sexual content and language."
Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom is a music soundtrack to the motion picture of the same name starring Darryl Stephens and Jensen Atwood. It was released on October 21, 2008, by Tommy Boy Records. The soundtrack features artists such as Michelle Williams, Bob Sinclar, Roy Young, Phoebe Snow, Patrik-Ian Polk, Nikki Jane and Adriana Evans.
Gimme Sugar is a lesbian reality show that follows a group of five lesbian or bisexual women who launch and promote a ladies club night in Los Angeles. Six 30-minute episodes aired in the summer of 2008 on digital cable channel Logo, followed by a six episode second summer — Gimme Sugar Miami — in 2009. While references to a third season can be found, it never aired. Alongside the series, Logo published seventy two bonus clips that covered a variety of lifestyle topics that comprised fashion, cooking, dancing, and exercise.
Noah's Arc: The Short Film is a 2004 short film written, directed and produced by Patrik-Ian Polk. The film became the foundation of the LOGO television series Noah's Arc. The cast features Darryl Stephens, Rodney Chester, Christian Vincent, Doug Spearman, Jensen Atwood, Jonathan Julian and Carlos Tinoco. All cast members of the short film eventually starred in the television series except for Tinoco.
1 Girl 5 Gays, sometimes abbreviated as 1g5g, was a Canadian talk show that premiered on October 14, 2009, on MTV Canada. In October 2010, gay-interest sister network Logo in the US picked up the program, and started airing it in the United States. Aliya Jasmine Sovani was the host for the first three seasons and part of the fourth. Lauren Collins, known for her role as Paige Michalchuk on Degrassi, replaced Sovani as the host.
Alex Eugene Newell is an American actor and singer. They are known for their role as Unique Adams on the Fox musical series Glee and Mo on Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist. Newell also starred as Asaka in the Broadway revival of Once on This Island at the Circle in the Square Theatre in 2018. For their role in Shucked, they won the 2023 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical. They and J. Harrison Ghee were the first openly non-binary actors to be nominated for and win a Tony Award.
The Skinny is a 2012 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Patrik-Ian Polk, the creator of the Logo television series, Noah's Arc. It was released on April 6, 2012, in select theaters.
Cheetah In August is an American drama television series created by Anthony Bawn for Vimeo On Demand that debuted on August 25, 2015. The series was renewed for a second season.
The 32nd GLAAD Media Awards is the 2021 annual presentation of the GLAAD Media Awards, presented by GLAAD honoring the 2020 media season. It was held on April 8, 2021. The awards honor films, television shows, video games, musicians and works of journalism that fairly, accurately and inclusively represent the LGBT community and issues relevant to the community. GLAAD announced the 198 nominees split across 28 categories on January 28, 2021 on TikTok. A new category was created for Children's Programming, honoring televised works aired for younger children. The winners were announced in a virtual ceremony hosted by Niecy Nash. The show featured performances from Chika, Rebecca Black and Nash's wife Jessica Betts.