3Way (www.3waytv.tv )
As its tag line tells you 3Way is “the hottest lesbian comedy not on TV”.  Creator Maeve Quinlan took some time out, and learnt to use her Blackberry just in time to give me these awesome answers. Thanks Maeve, you were a star!

Could you describe the show in your own words?

A sort of modern day “Three’s Company” with a twist, where a straight girl (Siobhan) who is in a search of a new beginning following a divorce to vintage C-List action star, a stalled Soap Opera career and a dead dog starts over and takes comfort in moving in her lesbian best friend (Roxie) who in turn moves in her new girlfriend (Andrea), not to mention having the added daily company and couch-crashing of Roxie’s ex-girlfriend (Geri).
Finding herself a fish out of water under her own roof, Siobhan tries to balance her new single life, and her new “friends” not necessarily in that order.

Was the need to have a number of out actress on board important?

Personally, I just wanted the best actresses for the part, period. Gay, straight, whatever…to me this show is beyond JUST being a lesbian show. I have never seen it as JUST a lesbian show from its conception. I see it as a FUNNY show, that has three lesbian characters at the core of it…and if we can give an audience that in the “mainstream media”, be it television, internet or whatever but not JUST sexuality definitive, then I can only assume the message of acceptance will fully do what we want it to do in the first place. So, that’s what I love about this show and what I’m hearing from people…there is something in this show for everybody, hence the fascination of the idea to me in the first place, and what a wonderful world it would be if we could all live as one without labels. So no, I was most interested in finding the best actresses for the part who were willing to trust us and take a chance in jumping on board this new frontier with us (a scripted internet series) who were collaborative, funny, and a blast to work with, and that exactly describes Maile Flanagan, Cathy Shim and Jill Bennett. This cast has been magic in a bottle from the first day. The chemistry, the improvisational skills of these girls and the added benefit of their friendship is something I can’t really describe. Nancylee has a saying, “Do what you love with the people you love” and her motto certainly describes this experience. But, to get back to your question…I would say this…does having out actresses Jill Bennett and Maile Flanagan’s lesbian fan base help the series? Hell yes!  But it’s what they have done with these parts that makes this series great, not their sexuality. Case in point Cathy Shim.  Hilarious and straight, playing a lesbian. Gosh was she a find. Maile had suggested her, she knew Cathy’s work from Reno 911 and our great casting director G. Charles Wright made it happen. I will be forever in debt to him for that. And I will forever be in debt to this cast for jumping on board. I learn and grow from them daily.

How does the writing work for the show. Are most things improvised based on a plot, or are most things written?

The Episodes themselves are scripted and the writing process follows the same procedure of a television sitcom writing.The Confessionals on the other hand, are kind of a rip on reality shows, and are completely improvised where the characters talk straight to camera sort of a “one on one” confessional with the audience, spilling stories about  themselves and the other girls.  The idea for the Confessional part of our show came from Nancylee…just an utterly brilliant idea, so smart. She was so right about her idea of this feature for our show for so many reasons…the first now being the audience’s love of them but from its conception it was going to hopefully further in so many ways the experience of the show by helping you to further know these character.s Webisodes or web series in general are on average 7-10 mins so this was a genius way to get all the backstory and character development to the audience in a fun and different way hopefully helping them enjoy the experience of the episodes even more. The Confessionals are directed by the ever talented Paige Bernhardt with a topic of her choosing for us to improv off of with her hands on direction. Its awesome and scary and fun all at the same time, thank God for Paige who helps us every step of the way. We sometimes are privy to what the others are saying and mostly are not, and it is Paige who fills us in on  the subjects they have riffed on and in particular throws out great things for us to improv off of. God I love her. From there, I pull all the different legs of this footage together into one collective story and then I edit it along of course with our amazing editor John Higgins. That has been the most surprising fun for me on a post production level and yet the hardest work.

With the success of the L Word, has making this show been easier do you think?

Though I’m a big fan of the L Word, I don’t think one has anything to do with the other. In fact, the thought has never crossed my mind til this question and I think it’s a great one, so I’m glad you asked it.  I would say Angela Robinson’s GirlTrash if anything made making this show easier. She is an amazing woman, director and filmmaker and the fact she ventured on to the web with GirlTrash I think much more inspired or made a pathway for what we’re doing…being on the internet with a series that is about lesbians. I think if we were on television then I would have to say Will and Grace has made this show much easier to make and has been an inspiration to us as well as Three’s Company. Both series were groundbreaking for their time and for their generations. I hope we’re groundbreaking in our own little way. There certainly isn’t enough comedies that have three lesbians at the core out  there and if we make you laugh, whether your gay, straight, old, or young in these tough times…well then I will walk away very happy after this ride is done, knowing we’ve done our job.

If a large sum of money fell on your desk to get 3Way made for TV, how would that change the show?

Money and production go hand and hand and no producer would ever tell you a large sum of money falling on their desk is a bad thing. Up to this point we have done it all ourselves and have depended upon the faith of our actors and crew believing in us and wanting to be apart of this ride. I think our first thoughts would be how a large sum of money, like you have suggested, would help this hard working crew continue to do what they do best and in a second season bust this show out even more. And let me tell you this crew is top notch! We have 4 Emmy winners on this team and a crew who work on the likes Scrubs, 24, you name it.  Point being, we are very lucky and fortunate and could not have done any of this without this entire production team, so yes it would be great to reward them and the future of 3Way, not to mention reward our actors for their goodwill trust in us with some actual television dollars behind us in a second season. That being said, I would hope a jump to t.v. would not hinder the creative freedom we have had on the internet which is something you can’t put a price tag on and one of the benefits of staying exactly where we are and wait for the advertising dollars to come. I hope ever so soon as we would love nothing more than to bring you a second season.

What can we expect from season 2?

I think broadening out the girl’s lives more so you see them more at work, away from the house and I think the stakes will be raised in certain areas within the house. We will have a bit of a cliffhanger for our season finale that may set up 2nd Season to have a few more obstacles at home than just what we’ve seen thus far… which in the lives of these girls has been daily.
Expect to see Siobhan get a bit of a love life which will definitely tip the house on occasion upside down. Also, the response we have gotten regarding our two shows within the show “Young Doctors Who Cry” and “LadyCops” has been staggering so we will not disappoint…you can expect to see more of both in Season 2. Which also means a return of some of the cast of South of Nowhere as well as our wink to Niki and Nora with the return of the fabulous Christina Cox and Liz Vassey who soley because of Nancylee we have on board.  

What’s the most uplifting compliment you have received about the show?

The most uplifting…mmm…hard to pick one as they are all so cool in their own way. I’d say top of the list is ANY compliment we have received from a fan about our show particularly on our site and AfterEllen.com...if we are making you guys laugh then we couldn’t be more thrilled…seriously Siobhan! But on a one on one basis, last week I was stopped a few times on the streets of New York City for 3Way and most notably here in Hollywood at the Glaad Awards where Gabrielle Christian and I attended on behalf of South of Nowhere. I was shocked to find I was more recognized by fans for 3Way than the show I was there to represent. Also top of the list that comes to my mind is of course that my own mother thinks the show is HILARIOUS and is a huge fan, not to mention being obsessed with Maile Flanagan (but who isn’t? I stalk her daily myself). My mom is not computer savvy, so she depends upon me to show her our episodes when I fly home to visit. She is also by the way a South of Nowhere junkie, pretty cool for an 84 year old Irish Catholic hottie. But I may have just received my most uplifting compliment to date from my 16 year old nephew in Ireland who is a tough critic comedically, he is a fan of South Park, The Simpsons, Family Guy and a herd of UK and Irish shows we don’t get over here which are miles ahead of our wit on tv in the States. Anyhow, he said our show was “hilarious and epic” and he and all of his friends have it “favorited” on their list of ALL the great movies, music and shows. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say I think their two favorite actresses may not be the Irish ones (Maile and his Auntie Maeve) but the “smoking hot” Cathy Shim and Jill Bennett…just a thought. ;-)

In terms of lesbian representation on TV/Film/Online, what do you think have been the most significant changes?

I really feel I have seen a shift for the better in the last 5 years in particular. Is it where we want it to be? No. But I truly do see a significant change in the right direction. Maybe I’m completely off base being straight, but when I think where the representation was several years ago in the media and where it is now I can only get excited about how far we have come and where we are going. Online, without question AfterEllen.com and Sarah Warn have made a monumental impact and I couldn’t be prouder that they were recently named one the 50 Most Influential Websites. On that note but unrelated, Ellen DeGeneres’ impact goes without saying and the love America has for her and her talk show has helped mainstream lesbian and gay representation in my opinion greatly, and a major leap in the right direction from when she was on the cover of Time Magazine with a sitcom that ended up shortly thereafter being cancelled. Lastly, I think the LWord has had an enormous impact in so far as having a major network like HBO so strongly being a lesbian show…its been fantastic. That being said, when you go to pitch a show to a network with lesbians at the core you will most likely hear and I am bracing myself for it, “We already have a lesbian show”.  So that is why I am looking forward to the day when people get their heads out of their asses and stop labeling or limiting shows or careers or LIVES in general by the nature of their sexuality. I would only hope for a day where we all say “we” instead of “they” on all levels. And then and only then could I actually say there has been a significant change.

What is your motto in life?

Here is my collective motto that I honestly live by:
“People that nitpick about small petty stuff, are passive aggressive or perpetually negative, lay on any sort of guilt trip or blast their horn over someone cutting them off can seriously kiss my Irish ass!  Life is way too short, so don’t sweat the small stuff and instead live, love and laugh BIG, and above all, dance like nobody’s watching”.