The brainchild of LA-based writer-actor-director Leon Accord, the West Hollywood gay comedy series Old Dogs & New Tricks follows the sexual and emotional adventures of a quartet of handsome, successful gay men who navigate the challenges (and pleasures) of being over 50 amidst the youth-obsessed culture of West Hollywood. Accord stars as Nathan, an over-achieving talent agent whose gang of guy pals includes washed-up pop star and online hook-up king Brad (Curt Bonnem), hunky fitness trainer Al (Jeffrey Patrick Olson) and gay-married former TV star Ross (played by the salt-and-pepper handsome David Pevsner — the real-life veteran character actor recognizable from his innumerable TV appearances). The show’s tongue-in-cheek tagline asks, “Does (sex) life end for gay men as they approach 50?” And then sets out to definitively dispel such a notion. The show’s urban ensemble of best-friends scenario prompted Soap Opera Digest to dub the series: “Sex & The City meets Queer as Folk.”
Old Dogs & New Tricks: Seasons 1 & 2 is this week’s WolfeOnDemand.com Movie of the Week. Watch the trailer above and rent or download it directly from WolfeOnDemand.com now.
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WolfeOnDemand.com is the new LGBT digital movie platform from LGBT specialty distributor Wolfe Video. The service showcases more than one hundred titles — features and documentaries — including popular favorites and hits like Keep The Lights On, Undertow, Gayby, Were the World Mine and many more. Most titles are available in Auto-HD™ and are priced at US $3.99 to rent and US $14.99 to download. Most of the films are available worldwide and are all also available on DVD directly from WolfeVideo.com for US viewers.
PeterNZ
Awful, embarrassing, cringe-worthy. That about sums it up.
AuntieChrist
Gay sex life doesn’t end at 50 unless you are smoking hot or rich it ends around 40-45… especially in west Hollywood… You can buy anything if you have enough money.
balehead
No gay minorities again……Cue the surprise…
the other Greg
It probably helps not to be too caught up in “gay culture” when young. Later if you’re not stuck in a gay ghetto like West Hollywood, you’re not as intimidated & you don’t just assume it’s all over.
@AuntieChrist: “Smoking hot”??? – lol, really? – no – just manage to avoid the 50 pound potbelly that apparently most over-50 guys believe is inevitable. It’s not.
A good attitude helps too.
Of course… if an over-50 guy is FAT, and has a bitchy attitude, and is basically a chicken hawk too… yes, he’d better be rich!
balehead
At any age…Gay is life is over when you look over….
Kangol
As diverse as LA is, as diverse as this country is, why must these shows constantly act as if no people of color exist or that everything centers around….
mlbumiller
1. According to the 2010 Census, West Hollywood’s racial composition is predominantly Caucasian (84.2%). Latinos represent 10.5%; Asians represent 5.4% and African-Americans constitute 3.2% of the population respectively. One of the unique aspects of West Hollywood is the significant number of residents who are Russian-speaking or approximately 13.6%. According to the 2007-11 American Community Survey 5 Year Estimates, there are 10,429 foreign born residents in the City of West Hollywood
2. This is written by a gay white guy born and raised in Ohio. He is going to write about what he knows.
3. Why not first confront writers and producers that are in the position to give you what you want. Here are a couple:
*****Paris Barclay What He Does: Executive Producer/Director How You Know Him: Sons of Anarchy, Glee, In Treatment, Cold Case, NYPD Blue, ER
*****Patrik-Ian Polk What He Does: Producer/Writer/Director
How You Know Him: Noah’s Arc, The Skinny (film)
Stache1
@AuntieChrist: “unless you are smoking hot or rich” Isn’t that the premise of the show. Were not exactly talking about middle class here. Not even something that unusual. Older rich guys surrounded by younger but poorer guys. Yeah, some real cutting edge stuff there.
Stache1
However, I’ll probably still watch it;)
viveutvivas
@Kangol, yes, and why must these shows act as if nothing exists outside of three or four cities’gay theme parks?
BrandoPolo
@mlbumiller: 1. So in other words, West Hollywood is not all white. A show about WeHo can reflect that, if it so chooses.
2. It’s a problem if the only thing a white person living in L.A. in 2013 “knows” is other white people. I don’t know what him being gay and Ohio has to do with it as, again, not all gays are white and not all Ohians are white.
3. Why not confront white gay men who think the gay community’s embrace of Jim Crow is acceptable?
Tackle
@BrandoPolo: Ecactly!!
viveutvivas
@BrandoPolo, not just the gay community. The country still embraces the miscegenation taboo. When was the last time a black-white interracial couple appeared in any sitcom? I don’t think it has happened since the 70s.
Queerty, you have added scripts/ads that crash my browser.
BrandoPolo
@viveutvivas: So true, but I would think gays would know better. Instead, too many in the gay community in that many gays wear self-segregation as a badge of honor — that’s not okay. Some straight people still harbor deep bigotry, but at least they have the temerity to be embarrassed when its pointed out. The gay attitude seems to be “Yeah, I am, so what?”
On straight dating apps and websites, you don’t see guys and girls emblazoning WHITES ONLY and ASIANS KEEP OUT and the less common BLACKS ONLY, and then get defensive when its pointed out that this labeling is Jim Crow revisited. People can and should date whomever they want, but at least *attempt* to hide your stereotyping, sheesh.
But our media and culturally conditioned attraction patterns are not nearly as strange as letting segregation creep into every relationship. I don’t know a straight white male under 35 living in California that does not have at least one intimate black friend — from college, from work, from growing up, from just living in the modern era.
The are 30-year-old self-described gay dudes in WeHo and Chelsea who don’t know and don’t spend time with anybody that is not white (or white-tino) — and don’t give it a second thought. That’s just bizarre for a New Yorker or Angelino in 2013 A.D.
I think the gay community should be demonstrating to heteros what inclusiveness looks like, not mimicking their worst tendencies.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Stache1
@BrandoPolo: Sweety segregating ourselves I know isn’t exactly noble but it’s just something that’s always been. The gay community also segregates on age, body size, masculine, etc..
I know it sounds shallow but I think we find others that are in our attraction range or interest. When you’re younger that interest is usually directly or indirectly around sex in some way.
As I’ve gotten older though it’s changed to include allot of others not just based on sex.
Windsor519
Constantly, in any dialogue about gay male relationships, any potential ‘negative’ (being over a certain age) must be replaced with ‘but he’s a successful so-and-so, or he lives in this $2 million condo, or looks like this or is a trainer or has two doctorate degrees…’ – why the hell can’t we just ‘be’? Wasn’t coming out about no more lying and pretending to be someone we’re not? What happens when the very people who we are supposed to navigate friendships, sex and relationships judge and reject us based on a very unrealistic list of criteria regarding what it means to be ‘good enough’ to be seen with them? Gay men today have such a stick up their asses and think they’re better than anyone else and thus deserve the best, despite the fact we only make up 2-6% of the male population. The majority of our interaction has moved online which has allowed us to be even nastier and more rejecting, leaving an enormous number of us realizing we aren’t ever going to meet anyone. You try for years and years and continue to end up with these men missing basic social skills. Gay marriage won’t mean anything to the vast majority to those of us who can’t even get off the ground when it comes to meeting another healthy, mutually interested gay man who doesn’t disappear into thin air after two weeks or is always seeking someone better…we really need lessons on how to treat and respect other gay men rather than celebrating these marriages that will mostly benefit divorce lawyers who will make millions from our failed relationship rather than the gay community benefitting from seeing committed relationships. By and large, we don’t know how. That, or we secretly believe we are too good for everyone else and will hold out until ‘someone good enough’ shows up. It’s not a racial issue. It’s an issue of classism, elitism and extreme narcissism and self-importance.
the other Greg
@Windsor519: “The majority of our interaction has moved online…”
And your “solution,” as always, is to lecture people online, hoping everyone will read your words of wisdom and eventually convert to your point of view. Yeah, that’s so practical! On that happy utopian day, it’ll be finally safe for you to go outside?
“meeting another healthy [!?], mutually interested gay man…” Taking a rough guess at translation: you reject anyone HIV+ and undetectable who is honest about it. Dude, maybe some people can be that picky. But you can’t.
The reason you don’t have a relationship is – as you’ve admitted several times previously – you are fat. You seem to be under the impression that typing burns off a lot of calories? If you don’t want to do anything serious about it, find a “chubby chaser” site and quit blaming “gay culture” for all your problems.
If you don’t have any social skills, speak for yourself (though I get it – I’m a withdrawn & socially-anxious guy), but that’s not a generational trait caused by computers. More of a “chicken-and-egg” thing. The reason you don’t have any social skills is… you spend all your time typing online and you hardly ever go outside.
“…committed relationships. By and large, we don’t know how.”
F U. Plenty of us know how, and do it. Maybe some of your dates pick up on the fact that you’re a self-hating homophobe.
And as a few posters have alluded… Do you have any non-sexual gay friends? How seriously do you take THEM?
viveutvivas
Wow Greg, why don’t you really go for the jugular next time?
There is some truth to what he said, and I experience that as someone who is lean and gets frequent compliments about my body. If I remember correctly, you have been partnered for a while, which kind of disqualifies you from being take too seriously on the issue of what gay dating has become in latter years. Of course I have my faults to blame, which you have discussed at length with me before and will surely bring up again. And maybe gay culture today is just perfect and accepting and beyond any criticism. But it kind of brings to mind those faith healers who blame the uncured patient for just not believing hard enough.
BrandoPolo
@Stache1: No, honey. Self-segregation is not something that “we” do, it’s something that people like “you” do. I don’t do it. And I’ve noticed that straight white males don’t do it as much as gays (maybe because many hetero dudes play sports growing up and athletic teams teams are an efficient vehicle for integration?). What is it about so many gay white males that they think it’s okie dokie to spend their lives in a lily white Jim Crow bubble?
And no, nobody has friends who are all age 22, or who all weigh 195 pounds, so the comparison to age and body type does not work — and even it did, it would not make racial segregation okay.
But like you hinted: perhaps most white gay men of certain generations are just vapid, shallow, superficial, and sketchy. And if that’s what these television shows are reflecting, intelligent folks should support better shows.
the other Greg
@viveutvivas: “Windsor519” has been pulling this self-hating homophobia cr@p for years. Sorry, I get tired of him sh*tting on every article about marriage or dating or relationships, etc. etc. etc., always whining about the same stuff and obviously never doing anything differently in his personal life, for years and years and years.
Gay culture sucked in the ’70s, it sucked in the ’80s, it sucked in the ’90s. A lot of gay men got out the typewriter paper and white-out (look it up) and wrote plaintive letters to the Advocate to bitch about how awful gay culture was.
But fortunately, everybody read their plaintive laments, took heed, and changed their/our evil awful ways, which is how we ended up with our modern, “perfect” gay culture!
Yes, that’s sarcasm, in response to your *reductio ad absurdum*, but… apparently that’s what “windsor” and you expect to happen?
It’s fine if you want to complain about gay culture, and about the awfulness of technology, online dating, and Grindr. (Although, why not leave that to old fogeys like me? Funny that we have so many “young fogey” Luddites nowadays, typing away online.)
It’s just not obvious how complaints like that actually help your situation. When I suggested some real-life things you might try differently, in your supposedly “small” town (a place I know very well), you seemed literally not to have even heard of any of them.
the other Greg
@viveutvivas: (after the turkey has calmed me down!…)
Look at it this way: when you befriend a new gay guy (sexually or non-sexually), do you at least (a) try to relate to him as a unique individual? Or (b) do you immediately, suspiciously regard him as a fucked-up cog of a fucked-up “gay culture”?
windsor/Jonathan’s attitude is always (b). Maybe the problem is not the other several million gay men in the world? Maybe the problem is him?
The oddest thing about windsor/Jonathan is, he has admitted in the past that he lives (or used to) in, of all places… Duluth, Minnesota!
I have nothing against Duluth (I’ve been there) but really, how much “gay culture” could it possibly even have to comment upon?
And unless he spent a long weekend in Winnipeg once, on what “data” is he basing his sweeping, insulting generalizations about gay life?
Good grief. You yourself, vivuetvivas, have complained about how dull you think Providence is. Maybe if you rented an igloo in Duluth for awhile – try mid-February, ha ha – you might return to Rhode Island with renewed appreciation?
viveutvivas
@Greg, okay, maybe the big American cities have friendlier and less cliquish gay communities than the small dull places. I can just write what I know. I am half South African, and when I am in Johannesburg I find that even the more attractive guys give me the time of day, I get flirted with and people introduce themselves to me, whereas here even generally unattractive guys walk around with a chip on their shoulder and their nose in the air, afraid of giving you eye contact (then later make a pest of themselves running after you in the baths). I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not outgoing and have a hard time approaching people, but I had never had the experience elsewhere that you would go alone to a gay bar in a friendly mood and nobody would talk to you for two hours, whereas here it is the rule, not the exception. American gays here are quite autistic and they shun strangers outside their clique. Different cultures I guess. I really need to be in a friendlier culture or I am going to kill myself, so I’ll probably move back to S.A. eventually.
It is not just me. I have spoken in the past couple of years with several sane, handsome, well-adjusted people who had moved to either New York City or cities in New England, ran into this wall, and got very depressed as a result. iI spend a lot of time in Toronto, and Bostonians have a terrible reputation in Canada for being this way. I don’t know if it is a Northeast thing or an American thing. I don’t deny that some people do eventually find good social circles around here, but think probably a majority of gay men are either on antidepressants or abuse substances because of this hostile environment. Even my psychiatrist has mentioned to me that she found the Providence gay community very “unkind.” Her expression not mine.
the other Greg
@viveutvivas: It’s not just you. It definitely IS a Northeast thing. I almost hate to admit this because my bf is a native and this area suits me pretty well. But I can’t disagree with you, except it’s not an “American” thing, just a Northeast thing.
If you’ve never been to Chicago you might check it out, it’s a lot more friendly than here! In fact if I remember right, you’ve said you like being on top, so you might do well in most of the Midwest. 🙂 (except Duluth, lol.) I appreciate your opening up with me – you’ve brought up a lot to think about, & maybe we’ll discuss more in a future thread.
BrandoPolo
@the other Greg: West Hollywood gays are the exact same way, and WeHo is definitely not in the Northeast. #justsayin
the other Greg
@BrandoPolo: Ha! I believe you. I’ve only been to WeHo once but I believe you.
But I think we need to be careful NOT to consider it a “gay” thing… to imply that “all gays are that way” (as windsor relentlessly does), which is at its heart, self-hating homophobia.
viveutvivas
@BrandoPolo, @the other Greg, I do think that gay men are more prone to this kind of behavior than straight people, though. They try to make up for the wounds of never having fit into the in-crowd in high school by forming their own A-list in the gay community from which they can then exclude people.
BrandoPolo
@viveutvivas: Hmmm…interesting theory.