The Roku Channel is streaming the pilot
for an all-lesbian makeover comedy show titled Butch Pal for the
Straight Gal.
Ally Johnson told LGBTQ glossy The
Advocate that she came up with the idea for the show while
watching Netflix's Queer Eye.
“[It] wasn’t a pandemic project,
but it was definitely a project that came out of having way too much
time on my hands,” Johnson
said. “I had just been fired from my job at a radio station,
and I started watching the new Queer Eye reboot while crying
over my Fruit Loops. Then I thought to myself, ‘why has a female
version of this show never existed? What would it be like? Would it
just be a bunch of lesbians telling straight women to adopt a pit
bull and go hiking?’ Then I thought, ‘that’s exactly what it
would be, and that’s awesome.’”
Johnson – who wrote and stars in the
show – raised funding for her idea on Kickstarter.
“What I didn’t anticipate was how
many people were dying for a show like this to exist. Queer women are
vastly underrepresented in the industry, especially in the comedy
genre, and we were able to raise $30,000 just by crowdfunding the
IDEA of Butch Pal. Then, of course, we actually had to make
it,” said Johnson.
The show models after Queer Eye
in that it also focuses on the same five categories of cooking,
fashion, culture, grooming and design. Instead of the Fab Five, the
show features the Fierce Five, who are Leslie (played by Mav Viola),
Rei (Johnson), Moana (Teresa Lee), Teagan (Lauren Flans), and Sam
(Mandahla Rose). Comedian Dot-Marie Jones plays Aunt Paula.
Johnson added that a full season of
Butch Pal could be in the offing.
“If the pilot performs well on The
Roku Channel there is a strong possibility that more episodes come
your way in the future,” Johnson said. “We want that, our fans
want that, and I’m pretty sure if I talked to God she’d want that
too. So, go watch it & go tell your friends! (even the straight
ones). Put it this way, there are worse things you can do with 34
minutes of your life.”
The Roku Channel is available for free
with ads on Roku devices and on
the web.