In the early 1990s, I was living in West Hollywood, and completely immersed in the LGBT community. Media from the Straight World was suspect, if not homophobic than heteronormative, presenting men and women gazing at each other as the meaning of life. So we chose our television programs carefully. On Monday nights, it was Fresh Prince of Bel Air (Carleton, sigh!), Blossom (Joey Lawrence, sigh!), and Designing Women (drag queen inspiration Suzanne Sugarbaker). Certainly not Evening Shade (1990-94), with Burt Reynolds as a football coach (ugh!) in a small town (ugh!) in Arkansas (ugh!).
So when this photo of a shirtless, partying young man began appearing on all of the gay celebrity websites, we had no idea who he was.
The photos kept coming. We discovered that he was Jay R. Ferguson, who played Taylor, son of Burt Reynolds' character Wood. Wood? Really?
Generally he was swishing it up, as in this iconic photo: apparently saying "Hey, Girl!" in a classic twink outfit, a short top. a bare midriff, and jeans with a club bulge. Obviously gay!
In the days when television was entirely heterosexist or homophobic,when even the most flamboyant actor stayed in the closet or saw his career fade away, seeing "one of us" was amazing.
Unfortunately,the only way to conduct research was to buy a teen magazine -- and the Different Light bookstore on Santa Monica did not stock Tiger Beat.
The show ended, the photo stream ended, and we forgot about the obviously-gay Jay. .
For thirty years.
Until 2025, when The Real O'Neils (2016-2018) appeared on Hulu. A conservative Irish-Catholic family has to deal with a number of problems: Dad wants a divorce; the daughter is an atheist; the oldest son (Matthew Shively) has an eating disorder; the youngest son (Noah Galvin) is gay.
Yeah, I don't like "gay" being portrayed as a problem, either. But I like Noah Galvin.
And the hunky dad is played by...Jay R. Ferguson!
Three questions:
1. What has he been doing in the years since Evening Shade?
2. Any nude photos?
3. Is he really gay?
1. What has he been doing?
Jay's first project after Evening Shade was Higher Learning (1995), which is not a teen sex comedy: Omar Epps (left) stars as a student experiencing racism at Columbia University. But Jay did show us his butt (while sexing a girl).
And an under-the-covers erection, probably a prosthetic.
Next Jay moved into teen horror (Campfire Tales, 1997), sex comedy (Pink as the Day She Was Born, 1997), teen angst (Blue Ridge Falls, 1999), and dark secrets (The In Crowd, 2000), before finding his niche in television:
Glory Days (2001-02). Oddly, it's not about soldiers, it stars Eddie Cahill as a writer who dished the dirt on residents of his home town, and is surprised when he returns to find that they don't like him. Jay plays the sheriff.
Judging Amy (2003-4), which is not about a judge named Amy. A woman has problems with her mother, husband, and child. Jay plays a doctor.
In a 2005 episode of Medium, Allison realizes that her troubled half-brother Michael (Ryan Hurst) has a "secret." One assumes that it's being gay, but it's actually that he shares her gift of seeing the future. Jay plays his buddy. That's as close to a gay character as he gets.
Surface (2005-2006): Marine biologist Lake (Lake?): her "will they or won't they?" sparring partner, insurance salesman Rich (Jay), and a teenage boy (Carter Jenkins, left, recent photo) discover a "new and dangerous" species of marine life. This one actually looks interesting.
By the way, Carter, who went on to star in Shadow Diaries, has a j/o video (after the break).