Friends or more than friends? (l-r: James Lesure, Danny Masterson, Michael Cassidy, Steve Brand)

(photos: Turner)

The TBS sitcom Men At Work isn’t necessarily the gayest of sitcoms out there, but the show about four male friends dealing with life and love while working together at a magazine called “Full Steam” (which, hello, sounds pretty gay to me) features a storyline in tonight’s episode that shows how far we’ve come from the ‘special gay episode’ that was once a staple in sitcoms.

In tonight’s episode, Tyler (played by Michael Cassidy) has a new friend who his buddies/co-workers – Milo (Danny Masterson), Neal (Adam Busch) and Gibbs (James Lesure) – suspect may want more from Tyler than he realizes. However, instead of making the David Bennett character (played by Steve Brand) a predator, the guys, who all happen to be straight, blame Tyler for leading the guy on, something they call ‘straight-baiting.’

TheBacklot grabbed some time to talk to Cassidy about the storyline as well as how it was to work with Lance Bass, who guests as himself in the episode, ironically not in the gay-centric storyline, but the other story in the episode.

TheBacklot: So Tyler has a new friend in this episode, right? What can you tell me?

Michael Cassidy: Tyler has a new friend who is a very wealthy and powerful guy with lots of toys like boats and helicopters and trips and he and Tyler hang out together and do a bunch of stuff. Tyler really likes to do all the fun stuff they do together and doesn’t really pick up on what his friends think is a motive behind the rich guy’s intentions.

Lance Bass (center) aids in a proposal. (With Meredith Hagner & Adam Busch)

How do the other guys respond to this friendship? Are the envious?

I think Gibbs and Milo and Neal, most of their response to Tyler’s new friend is based on what they perceive about Tyler’s character, which is that he’s not very perceptive and doesn’t always pick up on cues and stuff like that. They think that David Bennett, the rich guy, is after Tyler for more than just friendship.

Tell me what ‘straight-baiting’ is and how it becomes part of the episode.

On our show, ‘straight baiting’…his friends basically tell Tyler that he’s leading David on and that he thinks that Tyler is gay or at least thinks that Tyler would be interested in hooking up with him because Tyler spends so much time with him. Tyler’s friends call it ‘straight baiting’ because he’s leading his friend on even though he is straight.

The Men At Work cast: Masterson, Busch, Cassidy and Lesure.

In the past, a gay character coming into a series for an episode often ended up in a story about how everyone reacted to someone gay in their presence. In this episode, there is no judgment whatsoever, which is a nice shift.

That’s exactly right and it’s super cool. I’m definitely sensitive to that. I feel like we find a way to laugh about straight guys’ more naïve responses to gay guys in this episode as opposed to whether or not being gay is okay. The joke is definitely on the straight guys in this episode.

This also comes up in the episode, but I have straight friends who have admitted to liking it when a gay guy finds them attractive. Just for the sake of an ego boost.

Absolutely! I definitely am aware of what gay guys think of me. [laughs] I’m not oblivious to it, that’s for sure. And I have some gay friends that I definitely talked to when we did this episode and we sort of find out what is in it for David at the end of the episode and we find out that he has another plan, which we reveal at the end.

Just doing the episode, did it spark some conversation between you and your fellow actors about how gay and straight guys relate?

Well, for me, I didn’t want it to be the dumb guy who didn’t realize it or that gay guys are predatory. I was sensitive to that and that’s what we talked about. As far as I know, we all have gay friends and there are gay people that work on the show but did we talk about it specifically? In some ways, our show is a pretty accepting place so I don’t know that it raised any more conversations than it normally would have anyway.

With Lance Bass in the episode, can you say whether or not you were an N Sync fan?

Absolutely! I don’t think I’ll ever get away from the N Sync imprint that’s on me! I was super stoked to see him and he’s such a sweet guy. He’s very funny in the episode and he just walked in and nailed it. Playing yourself is really hard but Lance was really good and straight-away told the jokes.

Cassidy (l) starred with Adam Fleming in the Dare short in Boys Life 5

Is the dynamic of the guys on the show changing at all moving into this third season?

What I’ll say is that it is going to change because Milo makes a career change this season and that changes our relationship to each other and Neal has always been the one in a relationship and now he’s trying to take that to the next level so conversations about marriage change the way we relate to each other.

Have you played a gay role in the past?

I did a short film called Dare when I was 21 that got a lot of play in gay film festivals and it’s on YouTube. It’s part of Boys Life 5. It eventually became a feature film (both directed by Adam Salky), which I wasn’t involved with that, but I played a straight guy who has a one-night experience with a gay guy. I played the part that Zach Gilford played in the feature. I went to some of the film festivals like Outfest with that film. So that’s my gay cred right there! [laughs]

Men At Work airs Wednesdays at 10pm on TBS.