Gayest Episode Ever

“Love Letters to Sarge” (January 29, 1965) Not only is this the only installment of a podcast that will explain the gay history of Gomer Pyle and the man who played him, but also it’s the only discussion of Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C to feature relevant clips from both The Simpsons and Sailor Moon, because that’s the kind of show this is. Special thanks to listener Robyn Pavlakovich for suggesting this episode.  Watch this great explainer video on Gomer Pyle and Jim Nabors by friend of the show Matt Baume Watch the video of Jim Nabors and Rock Hudson appearing on The Carol Burnett Show, just two years before the rumors ended their friendship Listen to Drew talk about Pete's Dragon on the Inside the Disney Vault podcast. Listen to the latest episode of Smart Mouth. Find out what TV shows are part of the Tommy Westphall extended universe Purchase the first issue of Drew and Glen’s new comic anthology, Beyond Sunset. Go shop at our TeePublic store! Follow: GEE on Facebook • GEE’s Facebook Group • GEE on Twitter •

“He Said, She Said” (November 1, 1999) The legends speak of a forgotten volume of lore known as… Becker. Allegedly a hit CBS television series starring Ted Danson, it is apparently a victim of the same magic spell that befell Wings, making it all but forgotten from pop culture discourse today. However, as guest Jasmine Friend brought to our attention, Becker did a 1990s twist on the “old friend in town turns out to be trans” trope we discussed in our recent Jeffersons episode. This will likely be the only podcast you will listen to this week that will discuss not only Becker but also the pop culture legacy of Jadzia Dax, the extreme gendering of Ms. Pac-Man and Persian custom of taarof in a single episode. Read Jasmine’s Twitter thread, which is what brought this episode to our attention in the first place. Purchase the first issue of Drew and Glen’s new comic anthology, Beyond Sunset Go shop at our TeePublic store! Follow: GEE on Facebook • GEE’s Facebook Group • GEE on Twitter • GEE on Instagram • Drew on

“Roswell That Ends Well” (December 9, 2001) Equal parts sitcom and sci-fi epic, Futurama has some deep lore, and at the core of one of its most important storylines — that Fry is genetically destined to save the universe — is the fact that he also accidentally kills his gay grandfather and impregnates his own grandmother. Which is a lot, we realize, but in this episode we try to explain why Futurama is great and why dead, gay Grandpa Enos is vital to the cosmology of the show. If you like deep dives into Futurama, go throw money at the Talking Simpsons Patreon, where they’ve done whole bonus seasons about it. What does it mean that Leela is “the other”? If you want to listen to us discuss a far less good episode by the same writer, listen to “Marge Simpsons Is a Homophobe and a Transphobe,” about the Simpsons episode “There’s Something About Marrying.” It really sucks! Less critical is “Drew and Glen Discuss Instrumental Sitcom Themes.” Bender’s connection to The Breakfast Club is sourced to this Mental F

“Once a Friend” (October 1, 1977) Often cited as TV’s first sympathetic portrayal of a trans character, this episode of The Jeffersons introduces Edie Stokes as someone who, unlike other trans characters in earlier portrayals, is not at a point of crisis. She’s transitioned, she’s living the life she wants and she’s merely reaching out to her old Navy buddy to say hi — not to get his approval. Drew and Glen are joined by Marsha’s Plate host Diamond Stylz to discuss why this episode is not only good for when it aired but also better than many portrayals of trans characters who’d come in the years to follow. Subscribe to Marsha’s Plate, Diamonds podcast that discusses topics relevant to the black trans community. Make a donation to Black Trans Women Inc. or subscribe to the newsletter. Listen to the episode of Alison Arngrim’s podcast where she interviews Veronica Redd, who played Edie. Listen to the episode of Gender Reveal that features Diamond as a guest. Also listen to the Trans Vagina Dialogues, a new Ta

“Neighbors” (November 2, 1995) So it’s been a hot second since we talked about friends, and to be honest, we can’t mentally deal with the combined phobia attack that is Friends so instead we are offering everyone a glimpse of a forgotten, perhaps even lost fragment of the Friends would tour of terrible, that being Ross Geller’s pitstop on The Single Guy, where he helped bring about gay panic. Honestly, this episode is not actually all that bad, and it makes a guy wonder why this show failed when other Friends clones succeeded. Listen to the latest episode of Smart Mouth. Purchase the first issue of Drew and Glen’s new comic anthology, Beyond Sunset Go shop at our TeePublic store! Follow: GEE on Facebook • GEE’s Facebook Group • GEE on Twitter • GEE on Instagram • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn And yes, we do have an official website! We even have episode transcripts courtesy of Sarah Neal. Our logo was designed

“Indispensable Jeannie” (November 25, 1968) We’re as surprised as anyone that we’ve found an episode of I Dream of Jeannie that we can cover on this podcast. All credit goes to Brett White, who’s not only host of the Must Have Seen TV podcast but also the guy currently writing a book on the life of Hayden Rorke, who played Dr. Bellows on Jeannie but also was openly gay to the show’s cast and crew — and who pulled some important strings in TV history. This episode is even more interesting when considered in the context of Rorke’s life, but it does actually feature a real live gay joke. Listen to Must Have Seen TV’s I Dream of Jeannie episode with Jackie Cox Yes, the Jeannie cartoon spinoff is online in all its Mark Hamill-inclusive glory Beware The S From Hell Follow Brett on Twitter and also give him money to write his book about Hayden Rorke Also follow his husband Sebastian Dekken on Twitter and buy his book on the music of Final Fantasy VI Listen to the episode of Sam Pancake Presents the Monday Afterno

“Ordinary Extraordinary Love” (January 8, 2013) Bears, twinks, otters, wolves, panthers, yetis and bunniculas. The breadth of subcultures that gay life offers is both wide and weird — and a subject rarely approached by mainstream sitcoms. However, Happy Endings brought this to broadcast in the mid-2010s, all centered around the uncategorizable Max. The content warning that wasn’t: In the original intro clip, Max references a trans slur that, if we’re being responsible, would have gotten a warning. It’s a garbage joke. I cut it from our episode, and it could be removed so cleanly that 1) you won’t notice it being gone and 2) you have to realize how unnecessary it was in the first place. Should you watch the Happy Endings episode, be forewarned that it does feature this pointless joke. See the framed otter photo that Drew thinks looks like Glen here. Read After Elton’s piece on Happy Endings opting out of a same-sex kiss in its first season Read the NY Magazine piece on Happy Endings Purchase the first issue

“72 Hours” (February 17, 1990)   We figured the only proper way to start this season would be to say goodbye to Betty White — and a great way to do that would be to discuss a Golden Girls episode where Rose takes an HIV test. Not only does it showcase a wider range of Betty’s acting chops, but it’s also a great kickoff to a new sort of episode we’ll be covering on GEE in the future: very special episodes about HIV and AIDS. Even if there are no LGBT characters in this episode, the subject matter hit home for the community — and the fact that so many AIDS/HIV episodes revolved around the heterosexual experience of the disease is itself very telling.   Goodbye, Betty. You will be missed.   Read NPR’s piece “What The Golden Girls Taught Us About AIDS”   “Why Was HIV/AIDS Never Discussed on Will & Grace?”   The episode of Date With the Angels we discuss is “Brown Derby” — worthwhile watching for diehard Betty White completionists   The pilot to the Alfred Molina series Ladies Man, with a stack

“The Bands Break Up” (September 28, 1987) We’re not *quite* ready yet to swing into regular production, so we’re tossing up an episode of our Patreon-only bonus podcast, The Cartoons That Made Us Gay, onto the main feed. It’s the Jem and the Holograms episode that is titled “The Bands Break Up” but would me more accurately titled “Kimber and Stormer Are Gay Lesbians Making Beautiful Queer Music Together.” Intentionally gay or not, it is hard to dismiss these girls’ relationship as just platonic, to the point that we don’t have to work hard at all to find the queer elements — especially in a show that already offers a lot for LGBT viewers. Showtime, Synergy! And if you like this episode, you might also like the newest episode of Cartoons That Made Us Gay, which is all about Sailor Moon. You can listen right now on Patreon by pledging just $1 a month. And we’re not charging you all for the next month to account for the lighter content output. Show notes: Watch a featurette on Jem’s speaking voice singing the m

“A Little Christmas Queer” (December 8, 2005) Lest you be tempted to believe that Christmas miracles aren’t real, we finally found an episode of Will & Grace that Drew doesn’t hate. This one, from the final season of the show’s original broadcast run, focuses on Will and company spending Christmas with his family and the problems posed by the fact that Will’s nephew seems so very gay. It’s actually a more nuanced look at the difficulties of being gay and leaving your life to spend the holiday with your (presumably straight) family. It doesn’t suck! Not even the Grace storyline! Mental Floss has an article detailing Kellogg’s Cornflakes and their origin as an effort to get people to masturbate less. And Daily Beast has a piece on William Faulkner’s long-term love affair with binge drinking. Listen to the Monday Afternoon Move episode about The UFO Incident with Scott Philbrook. Listen to the Smart Mouth episode titled “Why Are U.S. School Lunches Like This?” Listen to the Singing Mountain episode titl

Special presentation! The Totally Trans podcast is covering the All in the Family character of Beverly LaSalle in a three part series this week because it marks a pairing of trans representation on a sitcom with the Christmas season. In an effort to promote this in-depth look at All in the Family, we’re posting the first part on our feed. Have a listen — and then subscribe to Totally Trans to hear parts two and three as well as everything Ada-Rhodes, Henry and Katie will be discussing in 2022. Subscribe on… Apple Podcasts Stitcher Spotify Google Podcasts Also follow Totally Trans on Twitter support them on Patreon!

“Evie Stevie” (December 16, 1989) Whether you remember it as the show with the talking geodesic dad cube or the one with the girl who could freeze time, Out of This World has been relegated to the further reaches of 80s nostalgia. You might even believe some naysayers that it wasn’t a good show; however, it was exactly as good of a show as you could hope for about a half-alien teen girl whose supernatural powers cause wacky, zany hijinx. It’s not Norman Lear, but you know what? Neither were ALF, I Dream of Jeannie or Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Watch the episode we’re talking about here (PW: garland) And here’s the weird clip Drew mentions about the episode with the twins who materialize to sing about bad breath. If you want to see what David Lynch TV looks like minus the macabre, watch this clip of On the Air. Finally, here is the Lincoln Center performance of Twelfth Night starring Helen Hunt. Buy the first issue of Drew and Glen’s new comic anthology, Beyond Sunset. Go shop at our TeePublic store! Follow:

“Ovulation Day” (January 7, 1996) Mad About You was one of NBC’s major sitcoms in the 90s, but it hasn’t left a legacy the way many of its Must See TV mates have. We talk about why in this episode, which is actually the part one of a two-part crossover with the queer film podcast A Piece of Pie, where we’re also discussing Helen Hunt’s Oscar-winning turn in 1997’s As Good as It Gets. Listen to Drew and Glen guest on A Piece of Pie’s discussing of As Good as It Gets here. Subscribe to A Piece of Pie on Apple Podcasts and follow them on Twitter. Read the New York Times’ write-up on the history of the show. Read the Vulture piece on how Mad About You defied categorization. Watch Helen Hunt do PCP and then jump through a plate glass window in the after school special Desperate Lives (which is actually not the angel dust movie, which is called Angel Dusted and which is also entertaining). Buy the first issue of Drew and Glen’s new comic anthology, Beyond Sunset. Go shop at our TeePublic store! Follow: GEE on

“Single White Male” (January 7, 1995) Even if you were the kind of person who watched all of NBC’s Saturday night sitcoms back in the day, the following things may surprise you: 1) Empty Nest is a solid sitcom. 2) Empty Nest was a strong ratings performer that often beat the show it spun off from, The Golden Girls. 3) Empty Nest was still on in 1995. 4) When it uses the “f”-slur, it actually uses it appropriately — to mark someone as being heinously gauche. Watch the interview where Rita Moreno talks about hating the filming of the backdoor pilot to Empty Nest. Read the Slate article about how Drew’s tweet inspired an SNL sketch. Also read the Slate article about the history of the effeminate wrist. Buy the first issue of Drew and Glen’s new comic anthology, Beyond Sunset. Go shop at our TeePublic store! Follow: GEE on Facebook • GEE’s Facebook Group • GEE on Twitter • GEE on Instagram • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya •

“Turkey in a Can” (November 24, 2013) Why did the fourth-season Thanksgiving episode of Bob’s Burgers make some people think Bob Belcher is bisexual? In short, it’s a single line — “I’m mostly straight” — but the real answer is a more complicated one that has to do with the show’s queer sensibility, its overall gentle nature and the fact that Bob is a TV patriarch who operates differently than Homer Simpson and Peter Griffin. Who's the real sloppy bear? Read the Mary Sue’s piece on Bob Belcher being a bi icon, which is probably the best-written argument in favor of this. Go shop at our TeePublic store! Follow: GEE on Facebook • GEE’s Facebook Group • GEE on Twitter • GEE on Instagram • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn And yes, we do have an official website! We even have episode transcripts courtesy of Sarah Neal. Our logo was designed by Rob Wilson. This episode’s art was designed by Ian O’Phelan. This episode wa

“The Play’s the Thing” (November 17, 1992) The big joke with Full House never did a gay episode despite being a show about three men cohabitating and coparenting in San Francisco. However, the fifth season introduced Derek (Blake McIver Ewing), a new friend for Michelle who’s well-mannered, soft-spoken and really good at showtunes. We’d argue that Derek, while young, still comes off as a queer-coded character, and the fact the actor himself would later come out makes the performance all the more interesting. Submit your pitch for issue two of Beyond Sunset here. Also buy the first issue of Beyond Sunset. Watch the unaired Full House pilot with John Posey playing the Bob Saget role Watch a pre-Full House Bob Saget on the CBS Morning Show Watch Lori Loughlin play Black Canary on the WB Birds of Prey before her Full House co-star Jurnee Smollett played her in the Birds of Prey movie The history of “Yankee Doodle,” via Atlas Obscura Go shop at our TeePublic store! Follow: GEE on Facebook • GEE’s Facebook Group

“Portrait of a Lackey on Fire” (November 21, 2021) Either we traveled to the future or the showrunner of The Simpsons reached out and asked us if we want to preview a new Smithers-centric episode airing this Sunday. Maybe both? This new episode happens to be written by Rob LaZebnik (a straight) and Johnny LaZebnik (his son, a gay), and we spoke with both of them about how they write together, what it’s like growing up gay in the shadow of Smithers and what it means that Helen Lovejoy is down with the gays.  Follow Rob and Johnny on Twitter! Watch “Smithers & Beyond: Every LGBT Joke on The Simpsons” if you haven’t already and you have 2.5 hours to kill. And if we’re talking about stuff we did, listen to the “Glen Writes a Golden Girls” episode. Also listen to the story about how Gayest Episode Ever helped get Tony Rodriguez cast as the  new Julio on The Simpsons. We are extra special stoked on the art for this episode, which if you’re not seeing on your podcast app of choice you should check out on the m

“The New Girl, Part One” and “The New Girl, Part Two” (November 19 and 26, 1980) True, the first episode of The Facts of Life is the one that comes closest to addressing LGBT issues, but so much of Jo and Blair’s relationship treads close that we are returning to discuss Nancy McKeon’s two-part introduction to the show. Librarian and Facts of Life scholar Erin Fletcher joins us to discuss the many layers to Jo and many lines that, upon second thought, seem like they might be double entendres. Listen to our first Facts of Life episode, “Blair Warner Is a Homophobe” Read The L Chat, a message board charting a longstanding history of queer women shipping Jo and Blair Watch Facts of Life co-creators Dick Clair and Jenna McMahon playing hetero husband and wife on The Ed Sullivan Show Watch Sara Gilbert tell Lisa Whelchel on The Talk that yep, Jo was gay “Literally the gayest ship that has ever existed” but also this Jo/Blair montage set to “Good for Me” by Amy Grant “the story inside my head of how jo and blai

“Michelangelo Meets Mondo Gecko” (September 14, 1991) It’s finally here: The Cartoons That Made Us Gay, our new Patreon-exclusive bonus podcast, focused on queer readings of the cartoons of our youth. While this series will comprise ten episodes only available on our Patreon feed, we’re putting the first part of the first episode on the main feed to show off what we’re doing.  To listen to the full version of this episode, all you need to do is pledge $1 a month on Patreon and subscribe to the Patreon-only feed for fancy people in your podcast app of choice. It’s easy! You should do it! But we’re biased! This episode focuses on the 1987 run of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles — specifically “Michelangelo Meets Mondo Gecko,” which is all about Mike being drawn to the man (or man-gecko) of his dreams, and we couldn't think of a weirder way to kick off this new podcast project. In doing this episode, we hoped to make this cartoon series accessible even for people who have never watched the show, but let us know how

The Paul Lynde Halloween Special (October 29, 1976) It’s the first TableCakes crossover! But is Gayest Episode Ever making an appearance on Monday Afternoon Monday or vice versa? Who cares! The point is that Sam Pancake — actor, comedian and host of MAM — is discussing The Paul Lynde Halloween Special with Drew and Glen in all its vintage bonkers badness. If there is one significant difference in this episode, it’s probably that it’s light on clips because 1) the jokes aren’t great and 2) Sam does a good enough impression of Paul Lynde that he can spare you from having to listen to the original audio. Watch this special right now on YouTube, if you want to for some weird reason. Subscribe to Monday Afternoon Monday and, in particular, listen to Drew’s episode about the Valerie Harper made-for-TV shocker Don’t Go to Sleep. Also the episode with Drew “Other Drew” Droege is great. Listen to Deep Cuts & Superficial Wounds’ three-hour all-music, no-talk Halloween special Listen to the Singing Mountain Ha