Gayest Episode Ever

“Jennifer: The Movie” (October 29, 1983) We’re celebrating both Halloween and week two of our celebration of Ann Jillian with an episode about how the 1983 NBC series Jennifer Slept Here is both so very weird and also a little gay boy’s fantasy — because it pairs an awkward boy with glamorous ghost, and that’s secretly what every little gay boy wishes he had to guide him through his awkward years. This is peak 80s, but also it has one of the best sitcom themes ever, regardless of decade. Watch Drew’s video of the 1982 Night of a Thousand Stars fashion show, which features Ann Jillian looking like her most Debbie Harry ever. Gawk in awe at: The opening to Mr. Smith The opening to Double Trouble The opening to Mr. Merlin The opening to Down to Earth The opening to Ann Jillian Ann as the Red Queen in the live action Alice in Wonderland + the very scary Jabberwocky scenes Listen to Drew’s new 80s music podcast, Deep Cuts and Superficial Wounds: Mixcloud •  iTunes •  Stitcher • Libsyn • Google Podcasts Shop f

“Gender Gap” (January 11, 1986) Heads up: Initially, at least, Drew thought the episode being discussed was more transphobic that most, but special guest Ashley Lauren Rogers pointed out the ways the one trans episode of It’s a Living isn't a total wash — and since Ashley happens to be the host of the Is It Transphobic? podcast, that counts for something. Whatever you think, this episode offers a glimpse at the proto-Golden Girls sitcom that Drew has been talking about for weeks and weeks, as well as the first part of a mini Ann Jillian festival that you won’t find on any other podcast ever. Listen to Ashley’s podcast Is It Transphobic?, especially the episodes on Nanette, Mrs. Doubtfire, The Lost Boys, Dallas Buyers Club and Silence of the Lambs. Also listen to Drew’s new 80s music podcast, which has both a third episode and a first episode, regardless of what Glen thinks. Shop for Gayest Episode Ever shirts, totes and more on our TeePublic page. Buy Glen’s movie, Being Frank. Support us on Patreon! Foll

“Pride and Prejudice” (January 6, 2017) The new One Day at a Time gets major points for focusing on a Latin family, for successfully re-inventing a Norman Lear classic and for giving us another reason to love Rita Moreno. Most important for this podcast’s purposes, however, is its nuanced handling of teenage Elena’s coming out. This week, Tony Rodriguez joins us to discuss how this story arc is more interesting for having put the spotlight not on Elena but on Penelope, her mom, who is liberal but is still having trouble accepting her daughter’s sexuality. Listen to Drew’s new 80s music podcast, Deep Cuts and Superficial Wounds: Mixcloud •  iTunes •  Stitcher • Libsyn • more to come! Listen to the episodes of Tony’s podcast featuring Gloria Calderon Kellet, Isabella Gomez and Ariela Barer. Watch the the episode of The Muppets Show that got Rita Moreno her first Emmy. Shop for Gayest Episode Ever shirts, totes and more on our TeePublic page. Buy Glen’s movie, Being Frank. Support us on Patreon! Follow: GE

“A Toe in the Water” (September 23, 1991) What is Designing Women minus Delta Burke and Jean Smart but plus Julia Duffy and Jan Hooks? An interesting beast that is different than the Suzanne/Charlene years, yeah, but still pretty damn interesting. This episode is a showcase for Duffy’s anti-Diane Chambers, Allison Sugarbaker, who only lasted a season but it wasn’t her fault? Jonathan Bradley Welch makes his second GEE turn to talk Sugarbakers and his new podcast with Stonewall Democrats. Listen to our previous Designing Women episodes, Julia Sugarbaker Plans a Gay Funeral and Suzanne Sugarbaker Accidentally Dates a Lesbian, as well as Jonathan’s first GEE episode, Roy Biggins Has a Big Gay Son. Check out Jonathan’s queer politics podcast, The Read Down: YouTube • Twitter • iTunes • Website Listen to Drew’s new 80s music podcast, Deep Cuts and Superficial Wounds: Mixcloud • iTunes • Stitcher • Libsyn • more to come! Read Rembert Browne’s Grantland article on Delta Burke’s exit from Designing Women. And read th

“Pop Secret” (June 23, 1993) The HBO sitcom Dream On got a rep for being both a more grown-up take on sitcoms... and also a showcase for boobs. But this show’s fourth-season gay episode lands pretty well today. It’s all about series protag Martin Tupper (Brian Benben) finding out his dad is gay and processing it more realistically than other characters on other sitcoms would. The Entertainment Weekly article “HBO’s ‘Dream On’ Is the Sauciest Show on Television,” which describes how the show came about and how the clips were selected. Watch What’s Allen Watching? and the allegedly excellent episode of The Hitchhiker starring Tom Skerritt. The Vulture interview with Denny Dillon in which she reveals that she was the first LGBT SNL cast member. Glen wrote Ninjago Decoded. WATCH IT! Shop for Gayest Episode Ever shirts, totes and more on our TeePublic page. Buy Glen’s movie, Being Frank. Support us on Patreon! Follow: GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Goog

“The One with Rachel's Big Kiss” (April 26, 2001) Welcome back Emelie Battaglia for another go-around with America’s favorite homophobic sitcom, Friends! This episode has “Chandler is gay” jokes aplenty, even if he’s about to marry Monica, but the focus is actually on Rachel, who encounters a college acquaintance (Winona Ryder) with whom she once shared a kiss. This episode features two more woman-on-woman kisses than the one where Carol and Susan get married — ahem — and Drew eagerly reveals that Regina Phalange’s name literally translates as “finger queen.” Ahem. Listen to our previous episodes: “Ross’s Lesbian Ex-Wife Gets Lesbian Married,” “Everyone Thinks Chandler Is Gay,” and for reasons that will become apparent if you listen to it, our episode about Living Single. Here’s the Guardian interview with David Schwimmer were pulls a real Ross, and here is Erika Alexander’s response. And here’s the news item that at least for 24 hours made people think Matthew Perry might be the next James Bond. Xuxa has

”The Boys in the Bar“ (January 27, 1983) If you’ve been listening to this podcast for a bit, you may be aware of the fact that Glen refuses to listen to it. Drew thinks this is too bad, because this really seems like the kind of podcast Glen would really enjoy. In celebration of Glen’s birthday month, Drew asked Sam Pancake and Tony Rodriguez to do a reading of one of the best episodes we’ve done: Episode 10, “Diane Chambers Is an LGBT Ally,” based on the Cheers episode “The Boys in the Bar,,” Drew’s only real instruction to Sam and Tony was “go nuts with it,” so this special episode will be weird as hell.  In case you want to listen to the original episode, do that here. And if you want to read the transcript that Sam and Tony were reading from, click here. And if you want to hire Sarah to transcribe something, do that here. Follow Sam on Twitter and listen to his podcast, Monday Afternoon Movie. Follow Tony on Twitter and listen to his podcast, Spanish Aquí Presents. Buy Gayest Episode Ever shirts, totes

“Mike’s Madonna Story” (November 5, 1985) Yep. We’re actually doing Growing Pains — specifically because of one scene in a first-season episode in which Kirk Cameron’s character tosses of the line “Maybe I’m gay.” It might seem small, but it’s crazy to consider the word “gay” even being spoken on this quintessential 80s family show, much less by a character played by a guy who’d shortly thereafter become a born-again Christianity and who’d eventually disclose some seriously homophobic views. Glen and Drew are joined in this episode by Dan Steadman, a writer and filmmaker who actually was friends with Kirk Cameron but, you know, isn’t anymore. Watch Dan’s movie Jesus People on Amazon Prime. Watch the Dateline NBC segment on Dan’s husband, Rodney Wilson. Read Dan’s Huffington Post article about Kirk Cameron and Victoria Jackson. Watch all of the movie Dance Til Dawn on YouTube. Buy Gayest Episode Ever shirts, totes and more on our TeePublic page. Buy Glen’s movie, Being Frank. Support us on Patreon! Follow: GEE

“Norm, Is That You?” (December 8, 1988) If we told you this episode features George Wendt’s character pretending to be gay, you’d probably imagine that Wendt would go really big with that performance. Most sitcoms would if a straight actor were playing a straight character playing a gay character, but Cheers doesn’t, and in fact this is an episode about gayness where it goes oddly not remarked upon — and not spoken about outright.  Listen to our previous Cheers episodes, Rebecca Howe Suffers From Gay Blindness and Diane Chambers Is an LGBT Ally. Here’s the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article in which it was conjectured that Cheers might replace Kirstie Alley with Joan Severance, playing Rebecca Howe’s sister. Watch the trailer for Norman… Is That You?, the 1973 Redd Foxx comedy that came out three years after his sitcom referenced the source material in “Lamont, Is That You?” The strangeness that is Pink Lady and Jeff. And yes, Spain remade Cheers. It has a Woody and a Coach existing at the same time. It’s weir

“Boys II Men II Women” (December 4, 1995) Twenty-five ago, long before he’d become a media mogul and the face of an international franchise, Rupaul made 1995 his most mainstream year yet. Not only did he have his mainstream debut in The Brady Bunch movie, but he also did one-off guest roles in a number of network sitcoms. But only In the House had him playing a drag queen who was an avowed heterosexual. Drew talked with In the House creator Winifred Hervey about her time on Golden Girls. Read his roundtable interview with her and other Golden Girls writers here. Here is the In the House episode that has Debbie Allen playing opposite her real-life sister, Phylicia Rashad. And here is an episode of Friday Night Videos that has Debbie and Phylicia hanging out — and Debbie referring to eldest daughter Saundra as “the older one.” Drew appeared on last week’s Sam Pancake Presents the Monday Afternoon Movie to discuss Don’t Go to Sleep, a made-for-TV oddity that features Ruth Gordon getting killed by an iguana and

Welcome to the first installment of the Shelley Longcast, the only podcast (that we know of) dedicated to the cinematic work of Shelley Long. You’re seeing this on the Gayest Episode Ever feed because it’s the the Patreon-exclusive bonus series we’ve launched and we decided you listeners might enjoy this first, more TV-related episode: The Brady Bunch Movie, a 1995 classic that we think this movie is really funny — and we think playing an iconic TV character such as Carol Brady was a daring choice for Shelley, who’d left TV to focus on film.  If you like this episode, the second installment of the Shelley Longcast, which focuses on Troop Beverly Hills, is live right now on Patreon. You only need to pledge $1 a month to hear that, all future installments of the Shelley Longcast and other bonus content. Also you’ll get every future GEE episode one week early. The amazing logo for The Shelley Longcast was designed by Jeff Hinchee. Give him money to make art!

“Brandi, You’re a Fine Girl” (November 16, 2000) Finally! It’s Gayest Episode Ever’s first trans episode. Glen and Drew decided to start with a 2000 episode of Just Shoot Me that features Jenny McCarthy as the childhood friend of David Spade’s character who rolls into town with some surprising news. It’s not great, largely because edgy humor does not age well, but more than anything else, this episode’s shortcomings demonstrate how the general conversation about trans folks has evolved in the past twenty years. TableCakes jill-of-a-trades Meika Grimm Is on hand to talk Just Shoot Me, Xena, Highlander and more.   Follow Meika on Twitter! And check out Flannel Bush Endeavors to find out what Meika can do for your business. And this is what an actual flannelbush looks like. Buy Sarah Wickham’s ”Pray the Gay to Stay” shirt. Watch the “A&E Biography” episode all about Nina Van Horn. And here are all the proposed Gargoyles spinoffs that Glen mentioned. Buy Gayest Episode Ever shirts, totes and more on our Tee

“Alice Gets a Pass” (September 29, 1976) Why on earth was this the second episode of this show? When a former football star-turned-movie actor comes into town, Linda Lavin’s Alice is happy to take him out on a date, but she and everyone else are surprised to learn that he’s gay. Of all the episodes we’ve discussed so far, this one more than others captures a very particular flavor of homophobia: it being masked as maternal concern about predatory men. John Forget, this one is for you! Listen to Talking Simpsons’ Cape Feare episode to hear the theory about why Linda Lavin deserved it. (This part starts around 34:20.) Buy Gayest Episode Ever shirts, totes and more on our TeePublic page. Buy Glen’s movie, Being Frank. Support us on Patreon! Follow: GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn • SoundCloud And yes, we do have an official website! And we even have episode transcripts courtesy of Sarah Neal. Our logo was d

“Eric’s Buddy” (December 6, 1998) Trigger warning: The episode we’re talking about doesn’t bring up sexual assault in any way, but because it’s That 70s Show, the subject comes up. Skip from the 25-minute mark to the 29-minute mark if you want to listen to the episode without that discussion. Debate among yourselves whether That 70’s Show qualifies as a classic sitcom, but you can’t say it wasn’t a successful show, running eight seasons and then forever in syndication. In its first season, the show featured Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a student who befriends Topher Grace’s character — and then kisses him. It may not fully stick the landing, but it at least deserves credit for featuring a boy-on-boy kiss in primetime well before Dawson’s Creek did it. Yes, That 80s Show also happened, and today it’s only worth looking into for a pre-It’s Always Sunny Glenn Howerton and Supergirl’s Chyler Leigh decked out in punk gear. Dog With a Blog is exactly what it sounds like, but Drew still doesn’t understand what it is. Tan

Since you’re apparently subscribed to the feed already, you don’t have to listen to this new teaser for what GEE is all about. You *can* listen to it, but you don’t have to. This is for promotional purposes only. Support us on Patreon! Follow: GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn • SoundCloud And yes, we do have an official website! And we even have episode transcripts courtesy of Sarah Neal. Our logo was designed by Rob Wilson. This is a TableCakes podcast.  

“Gender Reveal” (April 12, 2018) This week, Glen and Drew are joined by Karen Tongson, chair of the Gender and Sexuality Studies department at USC and the co-host of the Gen X pop culture podcast Waiting to X-Hale. We asked Karen what show she’d most like to discuss, and she chose Superstore, the current NBC ensemble comedy. Not only does it have a queer Asian lead character, but as Karen points out, there’s a lot of ambient queerness on the show, in addition to one of the more diverse casts on a sitcom today. Watch Smack the Pony, the all-female British sketch comedy show Drew is always trying to get you to watch. Lauren Ash’s performance as Scorpia on the new She-Ra is a wonderful, wonderful thing. The phenomenon of melon babies, however, is decidedly not wonderful. Buy Gayest Episode Ever shirts, totes and more on our TeePublic page. Buy Glen’s movie, Being Frank. Support us on Patreon! Follow: GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Pod

“The Competition” (February 13, 1987) Yes, we did do an episode last year in which we summed up Mr. Belvedere are a whole and said it never did an outright gay episode. We were wrong, and thanks to two different listers who politely exposed our ignorance, this week you are getting Drew and Glen talking about the one where Heather convinces her boyfriend he’s gay and Mr. Belvedere convinces him he’s not. It’s a weird bit of TV, but it’s also one of the very few family-focused sitcoms of this era to actually acknowledge that gay people exist. Also you can listen to the previous Mr. Belvedere outing, but also maybe don’t because this one is good enough to just replace the original? Christopher Hewett stars as King Koopa in Super Mario Bros. on Ice. Watch GEE TV to see the episode of 227 with Pee-Wee Herman. Enjoy the opening credits to Land of the Giants. Buy Gayest Episode Ever shirts, totes and more on our TeePublic page. Buy Glen’s movie, Being Frank. Support us on Patreon! Follow: GEE on Twitter • Drew on

“George” (February 16, 1974) And finally we arrive at the show that back when we were kids was what informed us that the kids’ block of syndicated TV had been turned over to the grown-ups. Now grown-ups ourselves (sorta, kinda), we still can’t get into M*A*S*H, but regardless of our personal feelings we weigh in on why this show was important, even if this second-season gay-themed episode gets a B/B minus. Apologies to the M*A*S*H diehards out there. Subscribe to Jonathan Bradley Welch’s new podcast, The Read Down. It's politics but for gays! Curious about the origins of this show’s theme song? Listen to our episode all about instrumental theme songs from sitcoms. Take in the insane debate over David Odgen Stiers’ sexuality. See what Radar’s butt looked like when it was glimpsed on a national broadcast in 1973 in the 8 p.m. timeslot. Trapper John stars as Major Nelson in I Dream of Jeannie: 15 Years Later. Buy Gayest Episode Ever shirts, totes and more on our TeePublic page. Buy Glen’s movie, Being Frank.

“Can’t Help Loving That Man” (October 20, 1991) Looking at the various 90s-era Fox shows that focused on black characters, Roc was the one with the reputation for tackling social issues with the most gravitas. Early in the show’s run, Richard Roundtree — Shaft himself! — guested as the title character’s uncle, who comes bearing the news that 1) he’s gay; 2) he’s getting married; and 3) his beloved is a white man. To discuss the various layers of this Roc episode, Drew and Glen are joined by University of Iowa professor Dr. Alfred L. Martin Jr., whose field of study includes a focus on the depiction of gay black men on sitcoms. Alfred’s forthcoming book is titled The Generic Closet: Black Gayness and the Black-Cast Sitcom. Yes, we would love to interview him when his book comes out. Read more about Alfred’s work on his faculty page. We mention the episode of Golden Girls that was recently pulled from Hulu for its alleged use of blackface, and Alfred mentions the larger racist implications of that episode that

Content warning: In this episode we talk about sexual assault. “For Every Man, There's Two Women” (July 20, 1985) This week, we’re not talking about an explicitly LGBT-focused episode of TV. No, we’re talking about the episode of Too Close for Comfort in which a male character, Monroe, is sexually assaulted by two women. No, really. Jim J. Bullock, the actor playing that character, is gay in real life, and because Monroe is coded as queer as well, this episode serves as a bizarre example of not just how a sitcom can handle a sensitive topic but also how some actors’ offscreen sexuality can color the way their performance is received and even how their characters get written. Jeffrey McCrann joins Drew and Glen to try and make sense of this strange, strange bit of TV history. RAINN is an online organization that offers both information about sexual assault and counseling. You can chat live with a counselor here. Have a listen to the episode of the Drew-Tony podcast You Have to Watch the Movie that Jeffrey gu