Gayest Episode Ever

“Nightmare on Oak Street” (November 23, 1987) We had to break format to do it, but at long last, we are talking about The Hogan Family… a.k.a. Valerie, a.k.a. Valerie’s Family. And yes the history of how this one sitcom had three different names is explained, but more to the point we ask why a show that killed off its title character would choose to confront its young viewers just a few weeks later with zombie horror — and worst of all, the Zombie Sandy Duncan. The Associates, the lawyer sitcom starring Martin Short and created by Hogan Family creator Charlie Hauck is, after all, available on YouTube. Jaime Weinman’s 2008 Maclean’s piece on why Valerie Harper left the show provided many details in my recapping on the incident. 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 • Goo

“PIlot” (1993) This unsold pilot, featuring JoBeth Williams as an aging actress in 1930s Hollywood, represents writer Joe Keenan’s attempt at selling NBC a TV series with a gay sensibility back in 1993. And while Gloria Vane never made it to air, its legacy lives on in Frasier, as Keenan joined the Frasier writers’ room and ended up penning some of the series queerest and most farcical episodes. Even without that Frasier connection, however, Gloria Vane would still merit its own very special episode, because it’s very funny and very queer. Watch the Gloria Vane pilot on YouTube. Watch Dear Diary, the unsold Bebe Neuwirth pilot that won an Oscar. 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 • TuneIn And yes, we do have an official website! We even have ep

“The Love Lesson” (Jan. 22, 1980) Heads up: The gender politics in this one are all fucked up, and a lie results in a character getting misgendered in a way that won’t be funny to every listener. However, it’s not the whole of the episode. When Mr. Furley catches Jack necking with a woman, Jack lies and says this woman is actually a man. Naturally, Mr. Furley offers to teach Jack how to be heterosexual. Listen to the What a Cartoon episode on Laverne and Shirley in the Army and get a nice primer on the extended Happy Days universe. Listen to our previous Three’s Company episode. Listen to an NPR piece on Jim Sullivan’s UFO. Smart Mouth is back! Listen to it! Monday Afternoon Movie is also back! Listen to it! Also Singing Mountain is ending! Listen to it! Support us on Patreon! 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 • Himal

“Out With Dad” (February 10, 2000) It’s been far too long since we did a Frasier episode, and so we’re returning with a good one, in which Martin (John Mahoney) plays gay and pretends that Niles (David Hyde Pierce) is his boyfriend. It’s a great farce, and as special guest Anthony Oliveira points out, it’s one of the best Joe Keenan-penned episodes of the show. Beyond Sunset is live! Buy issue one here! Listen to Anthony’s Patreon podcast, The Devil’s Party. Watch the pilot for Gloria Vane, a Joe Keenan script that didn’t go to series but did result in him writing for Frasier and also in Gil Chesterton and Bebe Glazer becoming characters on the show. What the fuck is Einstein on the Beach? Previous Frasier episodes: Frasier’s Boss Is Gay Frasier Has a Gay Dream Frasier Dates a Gay Guy Smart Mouth is back! Listen to it! Monday Afternoon Movie is also back! Listen to it! Also Singing Mountain is ending! Listen to it! Watch Drew’s video compilation of every LGBT joke ever on the history of The Simpsons. B

EDIT: Apologies for the original file cutting off early. It has since been fixed. “Pat Connects With Her Fans” (August 26, 2021) The Other Two is not a gay show, necessarily, but one of the two titular characters is gay, and through him this sitcom explores aspects of gay life that most shows don’t. Its current season has Cary (Drew Tarver) explore what kind of gay man he wants to be, and this episode in particular does that through a wacky sitcom misunderstanding that’s both expertly crafted and that could only work in a gay context. We love it, and we think you should watch this show. Help us decide which series we’ll be covering for our new Patreon-exlucsive podcast, The Cartoons That Made Us Gay.  Read the Buzzfeed article about this episode. Watch the SNL sketch “Do It on My Twin Bed,” written by Chris Kelly Sarah Schneider. “He’s gay / he’s blind” Watch Drew’s video compilation of every LGBT joke ever on the history of The Simpsons. Buy Glen’s movie, Being Frank. Support us on Patreon! Go shop at our

(“The Beard,” February 9, 1995) And… we’re back. Welcome to season five of Gayest Episode Ever, which is a lot like the previous seasons but with a few streamlining improvements. Our first episode looks at an Elaine-centric Seinfeld in which it’s supposed that a straight woman can cure a gay man if she tries hard enough and Melrose Place is a show that heterosexual men watch only in secret. Listen to our previous Seinfeld episodes: Susan’s Dad Had an Affair With John Cheever and Jerry and George Aren’t Gay, Not That There’s Anything Wrong With That  Watch Drew’s video compilation of every LGBT joke ever on the history of The Simpsons. Buy Glen’s movie, Being Frank. Support us on Patreon! 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 co

“Quest for He-Man” (October 5, 1983) A thousand gay nerds debating on a thousand twitter threads could come up with any number of candidates for the gayest episode ever of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, but the one we’re talking about with Talking Simpsons co-host Henry Gilbert is the one where our hero travels through a swirling rainbow hole to an alternate dimension ruled by a gay-seeming bunny-man who loads a phallic rocket full of his precious, life-giving fluid, and no, we’re not making any of that up. Follow Henry on Twitter, and listen to Talking Simpsons, What a Cartoon and his show’s various Patreon-only projects. Listen to our “Glen Writes a Golden Girls” episode, featuring Ted Biaselli, executive producer of Masters of the Universe: Revelation. Also listen to our “Cartoons That Made Us Gay” episode, also featuring Ted. Listen to episodes of Monday Afternoon Movie. Read Drew's Shelley Long essay. Read the Men’s Health article “Who’s Afraid of a Gay He-Man?” Read about the Bo Derek Daz

”Gone But Not Forgotten” (February 16, 1987) Surprise! We’re back! And we brought Fraggles with us! In the final season of Fraggle Rock, the episode “Gone But Not Forgotten” features Wembley making a new friend in Mudwell the Mudbunny, who knows he will soon die. Mudwell’s passing and Wembley’s grief serve as not only a general life lesson for young viewers but also a parallel for the life of Richard Hunt, the openly gay Mupetteer who voices Mudwell, who lost his own partner to AIDS not long before this episode was filmed and who would die as a result of AIDS not long after. Matt Baume, queer sailor of the pop culture seas, joins us to discuss how Fraggle Rock goes deeper than you might expect. Watch Matt’s videos Richard Hunt, the gay man behind the Muppets Star Trek's First Gay Ship-Mates? The Star-Crossed Romance of Garak & Bashir What Makes Disney Villains So Gay? Rocko’s Modern Life: Cartoons Coming Out of the Closet Plus there’s more on his YouTube channel and even more on his Patreon Also watch

“There’s Something About Marrying” (February 20, 2005) Gayest Episode Ever would not exist without The Simpsons — mostly because we stole Talking Simpsons’ podcast format and applied it to LGBT episodes of classic sitcoms, and Talking Simpsons would not exist without The Simpsons. But cultural and personal importance aside, there comes a time to point out when a thing you love screws up, and this episode — the one that should be about Marge disapproving about Patty marrying a woman but ends up being a nasty little parable about transphobia — is not the series’ best moment, despite promising bits in the first two acts. We’ve brought in both hosts of the Totally Trans podcast — Ada-Rhodes Short and Henry Giardina — to discuss why Marge really sucks and why the episode’s conclusion is hard for some trans folks to watch even today. Listen to some of Henry and Ada-Rhodes’ favorite episodes of Totally Trans: Spuds MacKenzie Wolverine The Dean from Community Hamlet Ferris Bueller Holly Golightly Read the New

“Family Gay” (March 8, 2009) Is it anticlimactic to say that this episode of Family Guy is not as terrible as you might expect? It concerns Peter being injected with the gay gene and becoming temporarily gay, and for the Seth MacFarlane of it all, this one gets some stuff right, lands a few decent jokes, biffs some bad ones and sometimes sacrifices laughs altogether to shock, horrify or offend. In short, it’s typical Family Guy. Listen to Drew and Glen on You’re Making It Worse. Listen to the summer/pride episode of Deep Cuts and Superficial Wounds, Drew’s 80s music podcast.  Read the New York Times article “The Secret History of Leviticus” — the "exception that proves the rule" article about the old testament outlawing homosexuality. Watch Drew’s video compilation of every LGBT joke ever on the history of The Simpsons. Buy Glen’s movie, Being Frank. Support us on Patreon! Follow: GEE on Facebook • GEE’s Facebook Group • GEE on Twitter • GEE on Instagram • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter Listen: iTune

“Woman Gets Plastered, Star Gets Even” (January 23, 1997) There was a time when two different networks were trying to push Téa Leoni as a sitcom star. The Naked Truth’s three seasons spanned ABC and NBC, and while it didn’t launch Leoni to TV success at this point in her career, Glen and Drew share a love of all things Téa with our guest, comedian H. Alan Scott. This episode is one of the more forgettable gay sitcom episodes sure, but there’s something to learn from the sitcoms that manage to make LGBT themes seem boring and banal. Right? Listen to H. Alan’s podcast, You’re Making It Worse. Watch Drew’s video compilation of every LGBT joke ever on the history of The Simpsons. Buy Glen’s movie, Being Frank. Support us on Patreon! 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 The episode’s outro track is “Follow Me” by Giusy Dej, which is not

“Chick Like Me” (January 31, 1997) Rider Strong’s Shawn Hunter is not canonically a trans character, but there is a season-four episode of Boy Meets World that gives you all the evidence you’d need to conclude that Shawn might be. For this extra-long episode — possibly our longest! — we are joined by Faati the Street, who explains why this one episode speaks volumes about the trans experience, even if it was not the intention of anyone involved in the episode’s creation. Read Faati’s Twitter thread “The Silencing of the Shrew.” Also read their promised list of Doom Patrol trigger warnings. Read Trina McGee’s 1999 L.A. Times column on Shawn and Angela’s interracial relationship. Listen to Monday Afternoon Movie’s episode about the Linda Blair TV movie Stranger in Our House. Listen to the Talking Simpsons episode that explains the Julia Sweeney/Dr. Hibbert connection. The “Snake” anti-drug PSA that Glen mentions. Samus Aran from Metroid is a trans woman. Watch Drew’s video compilation of every LGBT joke e

“Landlady” (October 15, 1984) Right at the top of its second season, Kate & Allie did the thing so many sitcoms do and put out an episode that explicitly says “No, these characters aren’t gay.” In this case, CBS had allegedly worried that viewers might suspect Susan St. James and Jane Curtain’s characters are anything other than platonic friends. On hand to discuss the show’s lesbian underpinnings is Leah Kopperman, the queer woman of our dreams and the winner of an exhaustive nationwide search for the guest who can offer context for this 80s TV favorite. Listen to our ”Cartoons That Made Us Gay” episode. Listen to Smart Mouth’s mochi episode. If you’re interested, check out The Preppy Handbook and Real Men Don’t Eat Quiche. Also watch SNL’s “Dyke and Fats” sketch. Watch Drew’s video compilation of every LGBT joke ever on the history of The Simpsons. Buy Glen’s movie, Being Frank. Support us on Patreon! Follow: GEE on Facebook • GEE’s Facebook Group • GEE on Twitter • GEE on Instagram •  Drew on Twit

“Alison” (May 16, 1983) Most of you haven’t had the chance to watch Love, Sidney, the the NBC series that ran from 1981 to 1983 and which featured Tony Randall as the title character — a gay man who is out to everyone but the audience. The show features queer themes more than you’ve been led to believe, perhaps, and interestingly it’s the hourlong episode “Alison” that showcases Sidney’s sexuality by giving him a female love interest. What results is poignant, personal and more progressive than you’d expect from a broadcast network sitcom at the time. To discuss this landmark show, we are joined by Steven Capsuto, author and historian focusing on queer representation of television. Buy the revised edition of Steven’s book, Alternate Channels: Queer Images on 20th-Century TV. Watch the TV movie that preceded Love, Sidney, Sidney Shorr, A Girl’s Best Friend. Read Charles Morrow’s article on Tony Randall, “Love, Lennie.” Watch Drew’s video compilation of every LGBT joke ever on the history of The Simpsons. Bu

“Dr. Urkel and Mr. Cool” (November 12, 1993) Yep, we finally figured out a way to talk about Family Matters. When Laura asks Steve why he is the way his is, he says he’s born this way — but then he uses science to become someone else. The metaphors are easy to make, even if the writers probably didn’t have anything gay in mind when they made this episode. Prepare for an overview of all the Family Matters lore you forgot you knew. Listen and subscribe to your new favorite classic RPG podcast, Square Roots: Apple Podcasts • Google Podcasts • Spotify • Twitter • Facebook Listen to Katherine discuss the history of pineapples with Andrew Ti on Smart Mouth. Watch how Perfect Strangers previewed Family Matters back in the day. Also? Urkel-os! Also? Do the Urkel! Watch Veronica Mars’ AWOL mom in the opening credits to TGIF’s Free Spirit. Also check her out as Prank, the proto-Harley Quinn to Mark Hamill’s Trickster on the 90s Flash series. Read the L.A. Times piece comparing Urkel to The Fonz. Why did Jo Marie Pa

“Enter Batgirl, Exit Penguin” (September 14, 1967) The final season of the 1966 live-action Batman series saw the debut of Batgirl, a twirling, high-kicking female hero created to get more  girls invested in the series — and more dads to keep paying attention. But Batgirl’s creators didn’t count on the fact that they were creating the exact kind of character that little gay boys would become obsessed with. Thanks in part to Yvonne Craig’s spot-on performance, Barbara Gordon (a.k.a. Batgirl) became one of the most queer-friendly aspects to an already queer series, and joining us discuss her big debut is Glen Weldon, co-host of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour and author of The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture. Buy Glen’s book on Batman, nerds and pop culture. Listen and subscribe to your new favorite classic RPG podcast, Square Roots: Apple Podcasts • Google Podcasts • Spotify • Twitter • Facebook Listen to Smart Mouth’s episode on the history of garlic bread. Watch Yvonne Craig, Adam West a

“You Brought a New Kind of Love to Me” (August 16, 1984) Heads up: In this episode we use the “F” word — no, not that one, but the gay one — but only because the subject matter itself uses it. This week, we look into Brothers, which ran for five seasons and 115 episodes on Showtime, 1984 to 1989. The show revolved around one of the three titular brothers coming out, and therefore it has a legit claim to being the first gay sitcom, and its second-ever episode featured Uncle Phil himself, James Avery, as a closeted football star. End of episode question: What is something that you experienced because of quarantine downtime but you didn’t like? For Mother’s Day, buy your mom a classic “ALF Says Gay Rights” mug from our TeePublic store. Listen to our interview with Stan Zimmerman, where we discuss his Brothers script. Listen to the What a Cartoon episode on Get a Life. Watch an episode of the early Fox sitcom Open House, starring Philip Charles Mackenzie and Alison LaPlaca. Watch the Batman: The Animated Series

In April, we gave an endorsement to The Great North episode “Pride and Prejudance Adventure” for giving the show’s gay character, Ham Tobin, a love interest just six episode into the show’s first season. Today, we’re interviewing Charlie Kelly, the writer of this episode, to find out how he has approached writing for Ham, how he came to voice Drama John and what it’s like to work on a show that might be the nicest on TV right now but is no less funny for being that way.  Follow Charlie on Instagram. Watch The Great North 8:30 p.m. EST/PST on Fox, because we normally don’t get to talk about shows that haven’t been off the air for at least two decades??? And this one is pretty good! Support us on Patreon! 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

“Some of My Best Friends Are…” (October 9, 1976) The fifth season of The Bob Newhart Show has a gay episode functions differently than most other show’s gay episode. For one thing, its central gay character is one who’d been on the show before; it’s just that no one — neither on the show or watching the show — knew he was gay. For another thing, it’s not the last time we see this character; unlike most LGBT guest characters on sitcoms, his existence does not end with the one episode that revolves around his queerness. End of episode question: If you were making a podcast called Gayest Video Game Ever, what game would your talk about first? For Mother’s Day, buy your mom a classic “ALF Says Gay Rights” mug from our TeePublic store. Read Brett White’s piece of how this episode’s Mr. Plager was the first pre-existing character on a sitcom to come out. Watch the pilot to Carlton, Your Doorman, the animated spinoff to Rhoda that almost was. Yes, you can watch all four hours of Carol Burnett’s Fresno online righ

“Pride & Prejudance Adventure” (March 14, 2021) The Great North is not Bob’s Burgers with snow. Okay, it is a little bit, but the show has its own vibe and, more importantly for our purposes, an out gay teen as well. In the show’s sixth episode, Ham not only meets a love interest but actually gets to kiss him full on the lips — and that is neither remotely controversial nor is it the only queer plot thread in this episode. Yeah, we’re fans of this new show and we think you should be too.  End-of-episode question: If you could pick one one-shot sitcom character and build a show around that character, who would you pick and why? For Mother’s Day, buy your mom a classic ”ALF Says Gay Rights” mug from our TeePublic store. Listen to Jenny Slate’s amazing bonkers brain in her episode of the podcast Good One. You can actually watch all four hours of Carol Burnett’s Dallas parody series, Fresno, online right now. Watch Julio Torres’ SNL sketches “The Actress,” “Wells for Boys” and “My Little Step Children” Watc