Noah's Arc (TV series): Difference between revisions

Noah's Arc
DVD box cover
Created by	Patrik-Ian Polk
Starring	Darryl Stephens Rodney Chester Christian Vincent Doug Spearman Jensen Atwood Gregory Kieth Jonathan Julian Wilson Cruz
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 (2005-10-19) – October 4, 2006 (2006-10-04)

Noah's Arc is an American cable television dramedy. The series, which predominantly features gay black and Latino characters, focused on many socially relevant issues, including same sex dating, same-sex marriage, same-sex parenthood, HIV and AIDS awareness, infidelity, promiscuity, homophobia, and gay bashing. It ran from October 19, 2005, to October 4, 2006. After its cancellation, a film was produced entitled Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom, which was released theatrically in 2008.

The show revolves around the lives of four black gay friends living in Los Angeles.^[1] It premiered in October 2005 on the Logo cable-television network, quickly becoming the network's most popular program. Season one was filmed in Los Angeles, while season two was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Based in part on Patrik-Ian Polk's 2000 independent film Punks, Noah's Arc rose from humble beginnings. The original one-hour pilot was produced independently in 2004, and to assist in funding each episode, the show was originally envisioned as a DVD subscription series.^[2] During the filming 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] The opening credits theme song is "Remember The Love" (Samba Mix) by Adriana Evans.

Noah's Arc was Logo's highest-rated original series; however, shortly after the season two cliffhanger finale aired, it was announced that the series had been canceled. In the summer of 2008, BET's spin-off cable television channel BET J broadcast the entire series. The show's creator, Patrik-Ian Polk, announced the broadcast schedule via MySpace.

In March 2019, Logo TV began streaming the entire series on their YouTube channel.^[4]

In July 2020, Patrick-Ian Polk released an online episode commemorating the show's 15-year anniversary entitled Noah’s Arc: The ‘Rona Chronicles. After the episode aired, Polk and members of the original cast sat with Karamo Brown for a live Q&A session.^[5]

• Darryl Stephens as Noah Nicholson, a screenwriter
• Rodney Chester as Alex Kirby, an HIV/AIDS educator
• Christian Vincent as Ricky Davis, a promiscuous boutique owner
• Doug Spearman as Chance Counter, an economics professor
• Jensen Atwood as Wade Robinson, a screenwriter who comes out after falling for Noah
• Gregory Kieth as Trey Iverson, Alex's live-in boyfriend (recurring season 1, main season 2)
• Jonathan Julian as Eddie McIntyre, Chance's husband (recurring season 1, main season 2)

• Wilson Cruz as Junito Vargas, a doctor and Ricky's love interest
• Jennia Fredrique as Brandy King, a development executive at Paramount Pictures and Noah's boss
• Merwin Mondesir as Dre, Wade's love interest after his and Noah's breakup
• Jeremy Batiste as Raphael, an employee at Ricky's store
• Jason Steed as Baby Gat (Curtis), a closeted garage music artist from the United Kingdom who pursues Noah
• Keith Hamilton Cobb as Quincy Abraham, a noted LGBTQ+ activist who dates Noah
• Benjamin Patterson as Guy, a doctor at Cedars-Sinai who is also a friend of Trey and Wade
• Dwen Curry as Romeo, a fashion designer
• Catero Colbert as T-Money, a gangster who pursues Chance
• Jurnee Crapps (season 1) and Sahara Davis (season 2) as Kenya McIntyre, Eddie's daughter and Chance's stepdaughter

A feature film follow-up, Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom, was produced by Logo Films and released in 2008. Directed by Patrik-Ian Polk and written by Polk and John R. Gordon, the film featured the main cast from the show with Gary LeRoi Gray as Brandon, who is both one of Chance's college students and one of Ricky's hookups.^[6]

Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom opened in theaters in limited release on October 24, 2008. It entered the chart at number thirty-four with an opening weekend gross of $151,337. It had a per-screen average of over $30,000, reaching second place on the top per screen average rankings list for that weekend. It narrowly missed the number-one slot, which was taken by the Clint Eastwood film Changeling. The film earned a total domestic gross of $532,878 during its theatrical run.^[7]

On July 5, 2020, twelve 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.^[8]

Noah's Arc was the first scripted series to center a group of Black gay men. As of 2020, it still holds that distinction.^[8]

Season one consists of nine episodes, while season two has eight episodes. The unaired pilot is available on the season one DVD box set.

• Official website
• Noah's Arc at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com show
• Noah's Arc at epguides.com