Tim Gunn Is the Most Important Figure in Reality TV History

From Real Housewives and Survivors to Drag Racers and American Idols, the genre has added a lot to the pop culture tapestry of the past 20 years. They can be important and entertaining at the same time, like how Netflix’s Fab Five have become our cultural conscience. But TBH, a lot of us just tune in to see our faves spill the tea and stir the pot; Bravo’s a network that was built on spilling and stirring. But there is one reality TV figure that, as far as I’m concerned, stands apart from the drama queens and kooky contestants, acting as a guiding light for a community that was kept in the dark for too long. He’s someone that could only have existed in the reality-competition format, and I’m quite convinced that the genre’s entire existence–warts and all–is worth it simply because it brought him into our living rooms, minds, and hearts.

I’m talking about Tim Gunn. And for Gunn’s birthday today, I’m giving him the gushy, mushy gift of writing about just how much he means to me and, I’ll wager, a lot of other people who watched (and continue to rewatch) the first 16 seasons of Project Runway. Tim Gunn is the most important figure to ever appear in the entire reality TV genre, and I’m about to drop the knowledge on you, like the time Tim busted out deep historical knowledge to talk about Kelly’s Brooklyn Bridge dress.

Tim Gunn is the best reality TV has to offer because he is someone that could only have become an icon through this specific medium. You could imagine so many other reality stars clawing their way to fame using other means. Reality TV helped make Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood, but you could totally see them doing it on their own with those pipes of theirs. And come on–did Guy Fieri really need to win The Next Food Network Star in order to become a star? Look at him.

Gunn is an anomaly because even by reality TV standards, he shouldn’t work. He’s understated, calm, sensible, and even solemn. I saw Tim Gunn in person exactly one time: on a trip to Midtown Comics in 2006, I saw him standing in the window of Parsons (which was across the street from the comic shop), arms folded as he surveyed the streets below before turning and disappearing into the deep recesses of the school. He looked like fashion Batman.

Gunn would never have popped as an actor or performer, and it’s even hard to imagine him gaining fame as a talking head on fashion docs. Tim Gunn is a teacher, and his first impulse is always to help other people. That’s usually not reality TV’s gig!

Project Runway, a show that helped create the reality competition format alongside America’s Next Top Model, is the only way a guy like Tim Gunn could make sense on TV–and it worked.

A show about fashion design needed a mentor figure, and Gunn fit the bill. He exuded authority even in those early early seasons where Gunn rough around the edges, before he committed to his dignified uniform of a gorgeous double-breasted suit and ambitious shirt/tie power clashing. By letting him do on TV what he did IRL, Gunn shined. He could only have become a household name in this way. Thank god he did!

Then there’s what Gunn did on Project Runway for 16 seasons, which is nothing short of miraculous. Never in the genre of reality TV has a mentor/host/presenter cared as deeply and authentically as Tim Gunn. This is evidenced in the season finale of every season when Gunn does his final “gather round” and–without fail!–gets choked up while looking at the finalists and thinking about their journey. Every season he says they’re the best group of finalists in Project Runway history, and I believe that he believes it every single time.

Unlike the faces of other reality shows, Gunn really gets to know the competitors. Just compare Gunn’s work room walk-throughs to RuPaul’s on Drag Race, which have become more infrequent in recent seasons. Ru’s in the work room primarily to stir things up, usually to tell a queen what’s being said behind her back. Tim, on the other hand, is invested, either telling Season 13’s Alexander Knox that his mix of patterns resulted in the most heinous garment he’s ever seen, or completely losing his composure while talking to Season 8’s Kristin Simms about an awkwardly named party favor.

Unlike so much of what you see on reality TV, nothing Gunn says in the workroom feels coached by producers. And when he deviates even slightly from his normally composed demeanor, like when he pointedly did not hug Season 14 slacker Swapnil Shinde upon his exit, the moment feels major.

But the best thing about Gunn on Runway is how he continually championed underdogs and weirdos. Yeah, he’s reserved and professorial, but Gunn was the one who believed in contestants like Season 14’s self-taught rave-wear party queen Kelly Dempsey or Season 13’s Charketa Glover, the designer that brought hip urban glam to the finale. Listen, he heard Season 16 winner Kentaro say that he was inspired by a dead cat and didn’t even blink.

Look at the designers he saved from elimination after they got the cut: deaf designer Justin, Glover, luxury streetwear designer Edmond, the unjustly bullied Cornelius, and the Puerto Rican spitfire Margarita–who ended up serving quite possibly the best runway moment in the show’s history during her finale show.

Look how proud Tim is! This leads me to the big finale point: Tim was always a champion of representation and diversity because he himself is a sterling example of it. Gay elders do not have representation on TV and younger gay men (like myself) don’t have many role models of a certain age. The AIDS crisis took that from my community, killing almost an entire generation and robbing us of their stories.

And then there’s Tim Gunn, a man in his 60s who unashamedly presents as his dandy self, unquestionably queer in addition to all of his wisdom and empathy. Of course this is never an issue and it’s rarely addressed on the show itself; Project Runway was the gayest competition show on TV before Drag Race came along. He’s been remarkably candid in interviews, talking about his last serious relationship decades ago, chosen celibacy, and general asexuality, all of which makes him even more admirable. Just by existing, by being his white-haired, well-dressed self standing as confident as can be on TV, he showed for 16 seasons that there is a path forward for us.

To get very sentimental, I look at Tim Gunn and I see shades of the future I want (as well as so many suits I want). I want to be confident, I want to be a mentor, I want to embrace the eccentricities that set future generations apart from mine. That’s why Gunn is so important, and it’s why I’m looking forward to his return with Heidi Klum in the upcoming Amazon Original Making the Cut. Making an impact as a reality personality is easy to do, but to make that impact truly matter and inspire is a hard job. Tim Gunn made it work.

Stream Project Runway on Hulu