Andy DehnartTim Gunn’s Bravo reality series has been renewed, he says. “I don’t know if Bravo has announced that we are doing another season, but we are,” Tim told The Chicago Tribune’s Maureen Ryan. The new season will be filmed “Around ‘Runway,’ before and after [the filming of Season 5]. Which almost killed me last year but we’re going to do it again,” he said. The show is now casting.
Its renewal is somewhat surprising; although everyone loves Tim Gunn, the show was pulled and held until it could air once Project Runway returned, and it wasn’t exactly well-received.
Interestingly, Tim didn’t really like the show either. “Bravo showed a couple episodes to three test audiences after the whole thing had been filmed. Never underestimate or trivialize how an audience feels about a show. Their critique of it was so superb and so right on that I was elated,” he said. “They want more education in the show. They want to learn more. … Going forward we’re going to have much more in the way of education and learning and I’m thrilled about that, because that’s what I do.”
Besides the nature of the series, he says that the production of the show was also problematic. “There’s nothing about it [Runway] that’s even remotely contrived. ‘Guide to Style’ was more what I think it would be like to do scripted television, but we didn’t have a script,” he said. The fakeness so irritated him that one day, when the director kept insisting upon reshoots, Tim freaked out. Here’s the hysterical story about his “diva moment”:
“So we have a new director, and it’s Episode 6. This new director calls out from the production room, ‘Um, could we do that again and see a little less of the book [Tim Gunn’s Guide to Style, which Tim gave to contestants at the end of the show]?’ So I said, ‘Yeah.’ We did it again. He says, ‘No, I’m still seeing too much of the book.’ I said, ‘Whats your issue with the book?’ And he said, ‘It just feels like a little too much self-promotion.’
I paused, and then I said, ‘Self-promotion? This show is based on this book.’ He said, ‘Well, I just want to see a little less of it.’ So we do it again, and he said, ‘No, I’m still seeing too much of the book.’ So I said, ‘I can take care of that.’
I take the book, I walk through the set that is my office, I walk into the dressing room, where there is a window, and I throw the book out the window. I come back to my place on the set, and I say, ‘You don’t have to worry about seeing the book again.’
The crew and everyone is slackjawed. So then I say, because I’m on a roll at this point, ‘Oh my gosh, I see more of those dreadful books on the bookshelf!’ So I go over, I gather all the books up, I walk through the set, through the dressing room and throw all of them out the window. Then I return to my place on the set. So that’s my one diva moment [laughs].”