Actor John Michael Higgins isn't afraid to say he plays gay for pay in cabler TV Land's new sitcom Happily Divorced.

In the highly-anticipated comedy, Higgins plays Peter, the ex-husband of florist Fran (played by Fran Drescher) who announced he's gay after eighteen years of marriage.

The series is based on Drescher's own life. In 1999, Drescher divorced her husband of 21 years, openly gay Hollywood producer Peter Marc Jacobson, whom she met in high school.

In an interview with the New York Magazine blog Vulture, Higgins, who has played gay characters before, says “gay pays.”

When asked, “Do you and your wife ever get a kick out of how you've played all these gay or ambiguously gay characters – in Best in Show, Raising the Bar, this?” Higgins responds: “Oh, she's used to it! The way we say it in our household, 'Gay pays!' I can't tell you why I keep getting asked to play gay characters, but I never really considered 'gay' as an adjective, as a playable thing. Maybe it's an element of the character, but it just describes a preference.”

Drescher and Jacobson created the long-running CBS sitcom The Nanny, and have reunited to co-produce Happily Divorced, which also stars Rita Moreno (Oz), Tichina Arnold (Everybody Hates Chris) and Valente Rodriguez (George Lopez).