Back in the day, a major sitcom doing a gay episode was a big deal. A proper gay episode would get headlines, but it would get the attention of two young guys who were still figuring things out — sexuality-wise and culture-wise. Gayest Episode Ever has screenwriter Glen Lakin and stay-at-home journalist Drew Mackie going through the great and not-so-great gay episodes of sitcoms past.
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Ventures Bros. Is a Very Gay Show, But…
“Handsome Ransom” (October 25, 2009)
Let’s say this at the top: We are both fans in general of The Venture Bros, but this extremely homosocial show has a tendency to tiptoe up to being full-on gay and then laughing it all off as a joke. It’s a product of its time, and even explicitly gay characters like The Alchemist and Shore Leave don’t get their own episodes. So when it comes to picking one installment of the Adult Swim series that comes closest, we had to go with the one with Captain Sunshine, which sort of works but also makes the mistake of approaching pedo humor in the same manner it did gay humor. And that’s kind of a fuck-up?
Warning: Despite the presence of Brock Samson the art, Brock does not appear in this episode. We apologize.
There are two Patreon-exclusive episode that tie into this one, if you're willing to pay the very low fee of $1 a month! There's an episode all about The Tick: https://www.patreon.com/posts/cartoons-that-us-129745700
And one about Jonny Quest: https://www.patreon.com/posts/cartoons-that-us-131953014
Both have a lot to do with how Venture Bros. ended up becoming the show it did! Have a listen!
Schitt’s Creek Gets a Pansexual Love Triangle
“The Throuple” (January 17, 2017)
We’re back! Officially, but also now bimonthly — or biweekly, depending on how you want to look at it. And we are coming back in grand Canadian style by doing a show that Drew for years refused to do: Schitt’s Creek! Because you asked! And asked and asked and asked! But have chosen not to do a Patrick epsiode for reasons that are well-known to loyal listeners.
And special thanks to Patreon supporter curlsthefanenby for finally getting us to do this show!
We have episode transcripts courtesy of Sarah Neal. Our logo was designed by Rob Wilson. This episode’s art was designed by Ian O’Phelan. Sound cues for this podcast were composed by Meika Grimm.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Does a Body/Gender Swap Episode
“Switching Places” (October 4, 1993)
If you’re reading this and deciding that Power Rangers is not a sitcom, you’re correct! We’re doing it anyway, and as elder millennials who were just a little too old for MMPR when it originally aired, we’re bringing in a ringer in the form of Sina Grace — artist, writer and bonvivant. whose work in the comics world has included writing for these very teenagers with attitude. In this episode, Billy and Kimberley swap bodies and so David Yost and Amy Jo Johnson have fun imitating each other while also commenting on gender norms… inasmuch as that’s possible in a 20-minute-long TV episode about superheroes who fight giant monsters.
Buy Sina’s latest comic, West Hollywood Monster Squad.
Support Sina’s Kickstarter for his book about dog grief, Life on Paws.
For more on the story of Saban, listen to our Cartoons That Made Us Gay episode about Samurai Pizza Cats.
And here is the This American Life episode that Drew refers to
We have episode transcripts courtesy of Sarah Neal. Our logo was designed by Rob Wilson. This episode’s art was designed by Ian O’Phelan.
Mork Is the Mommy, Mindy Is the Daddy
“Mama Mork, Papa Mindy” (November 5, 1981)
Thus far, we have not attempted the Happy Days universe of TV shows, and we’re starting with this season four Mork & Mindy that has our interspecies marrieds creating a baby that redefine their gender roles. Essentially, Mork hatches an egg from which comes a child that puts a shocked Mindy in the role of father. It’s silly, but as returning guest Diamond Feit helps us explain, it’s also modelling parenthood outside typical gender conventions.
Listen to Diamond’s previous episode with us about Ranma 1/2!
Listen to our previous adult baby episode (a Patreon exclusive!) with guest Nina Matsumoto!
We have episode transcripts courtesy of Sarah Neal. Our logo was designed by Rob Wilson. This episode’s art was designed by Ian O’Phelan.
Mary Hartman Meets a Gay Couple
This week, in a first-ever solo episode, Drew talks you through not just one episode of the cult series Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman instead the whole of the show’s art for its two gay characters, Ed and Howard. What’s remarkable about this nuanced portrayal of a same-sex couple is that by virtue of airing before the AIDS crisis, the showrunners didn’t need to make these two characters angel gays. They’re as neurotic and complex as any of the straight characters on the show, which means it’s an example of a progressive representation back in 1976.
If you want to see Ed and Howard (and everyone else) in action, check out the supercut of their whole story on Patreon. It’s free for everyone, so even people who aren’t pledging can watch it. There is not another place online where you can easily watch Ed and Howard’s whole story.
But also check out Matt Baume’s 2020 video on why this show’s gay storyline still matters.
We have episode transcripts courtesy of Sarah Neal. Our logo was designed by Rob Wilson. This episode’s art was designed by Ian O’Phelan.
The Great North Pushes Aunt Dirt Out of the Bunker — and Out of the Closet
“Bear of Beeftown Adventure” (April 7, 2024)
About a hundred episodes later, this podcast is pleased to report that The Great North got even gayer with the season four addition of Aunt Dirt, voiced by Jane Lynch. She’s been living in a bunker for sixty years and in this episode she learns about what it means to be a lesbian in the 2020s.
Listen to our previous episode about The Great North and our interview with Charlie Kelly, who wrote both the episodes we’ve covered.
We have episode transcripts courtesy of Sarah Neal. Our logo was designed by Rob Wilson. This episode’s art was designed by Ian O’Phelan.
Mr. Belvedere Meets a Kid With AIDS
“Wesley’s Friend” (January 31, 1986)
Yes, it’s this episode. If you’ve seen any bit of it, it’s probably the one line delivered by the focus character, and while we will admit it’s a major groaner, it’s not representative of this whole episode. No, this is a Mr. Belvedere “very special episode” that has its heart in the right place and which mostly lands well all these years later.
This is our second Mr. Belvedere outing, and yes, the first one really is about Mr. Belvedere discouraging a teenager from being gay.
We have episode transcripts courtesy of Sarah Neal. Our logo was designed by Rob Wilson. This episode’s art was designed by Ian O’Phelan.
Titus Is the Real Star of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
“Kimmy Goes to Her Happy Place!” (April 15, 2016)
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is a funny show. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is a flawed show. These two things can both be true simultaneously, and you can not like the plotline given to Jane Krakowski’s character, where it turns out she’s actually Lakota posing as white, and still enjoy other elements of the show. Case in point: Titus Andromedon (Tituss Burgess) is exactly the kind of messy, selfish, desperate gay character people want to see realized onscreen. What’s more? He’s very, very funny — and so it this episode, which features a puppet cameo you won’t see coming.
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.
What’s With All the Orphans in 80s Sitcoms?
If you grew up watching TV in the 80s, you may have noticed that there was a preponderance of… if not shows about orphans specifically then similar shows where the care of children was entrusted to people who weren’t their parents and maybe didn’t know how to raise kids. We’re talking Diff’rent Strokes, Rags to Riches, Punky Brewster, Webster and Gimme a Break, but also The Facts of Life, Charles in Charge, My Two Dads, Full House, My Sister Sam, Silver Spoons, The Hogan Family and more. Sure, a lot of factors could explain these absent parents, but what if we told you there was a single patient zero for this whole trend? Because Drew thinks there is one, and its history stretches back to the 19th century.
Links to previous episodes mentioned in this one:
- Gimme a Break Meets Yet Another 80s Orphan
- Gimme a Break Transformed Into a Lesbian Perfect Strangers
- Backdoor Pilots: Diff’rent Strokes Spins Mrs. Garrett into Facts of Life
- Weirdest Episode Ever: Day by Day Has a Very Brady Nightmare
- Superstore Is Queerer Than You Think
And if you want to watch the video version of the Seinfeld addiction/cashmere examination at the end of this episode, click here.
My Two Dads Can’t Escape the Gayness of Its Title
“The Family in Question” (May 9, 1988)
It might seem like a joke today, that a show called My Two Dads is about two very hetero bachelors. But don’t let that stop you from appreciating My Two Dads for being a smarter, funnier version of Full House. They debuted the same week, and unlike Full House, My Two Dads actually acknowledges that gay people exist. In this episode, the judge who awarded them custody of their daughter is persecuted in the press as being an activist judicial who is changing the definition of a family.
Read the New York Times piece from 2022 that finally outed Ed Koch.
Listen to the Bad Gays episode about Larry Kramer, which also discusses Ed Koch.
Gilligan’s Island Does a Body Swap Episode
“The Friendly Physician” (April 7, 1966)
Sure, Gilligan’s Island may have skewed family-friendly, but its love of genre parody meant that it did a body swap episode in which all of its female characters end up in male bodies. Horny! That’s enough to get our attention, even without the mad scientist bad guy with perversely vampiric sexual energy.
Follow: GEE on Bluesky • Drew on Bluesky • Glen on Bluesky
Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify
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.
Curb Your Enthusiasm Acknowledges That a Child Seems Gay
“Larry vs. Michael J. Fox” (September 11, 2011)
For better or worse, Larry David is a truth-teller, and the fictional version of him can help but to poke at social taboos. In this Curb Your Enthusiasm episode, Larry suspects that Michael J. Fox may be using Parkinson’s to get away with bad behavior while also insisting that his latest love interest’s seven-year-old child is gay. It’s a lot, but here’s the thing: Larry is often not wrong.
Read “The Great and Wonderful Wizard of Odds,” the 2000 New York Times piece on Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Sailor Moon Meets a Beguiling Genderfluid Villain
We are keeping our tradition of making our first post of the new year about Sailor Moon. That ep, about the debatably trans Sailor Starlights, is now live on Patreon — at $1 for subscribers but it can also be purchased for $3 for non-subscribers. But we're putting last year's Sailor Moon ep, about the villain Fisheye, on the main feed.
Important note: Due to recent political events, we’re giving all of our Patreon proceeds for this month to the Transgender Law Center.
“Shadow of Evil: The Trio's Last Chance” (September 23, 1995)
It’s a new year, and you’re getting a new Sailor Moon. This time, we are focusing on Fisheye, a henchman villain from the fourth season who defies categorization both in terms of his gender performance and his status as a bad guy. This one is all over the place in the best possible way, and might be the closest to a true anti-Sailor Moon the series ever gets. Seriously, we love this goofy weirdo and who he gets more of an arc than anyone else does this season.
We gave Fisheye the Leon Carp treatment, and this episode also examines the following other episodes: Meeting of Destiny: The Night Pegasus Dances (s4e1), Forest of Illusion: A Beautiful Fairy’s Invitation (s4e10), We Love Fashion: The Stylish Guardians (s4e13), Become a Prima: Usagi’s Ballet (s4e18) and Mirrors of Dreams: The Amazon's Last Stage (s4e22).
Also listen to our previous Sailor Moon episodes: The Cartoons That Made Us Gay: Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon Meets a Lesbian Couple.
The Grand Unified Theory of Why Frasier Seems Gay
“The Matchmaker” (October 4, 1994)
Whelp, it’s our 250th episode (sort of), and we’re celebrating by going back and reexamining our first-ever episode and, really, the reason this podcast exists in the first place: “The Matchmaker” from Frasier’s second season, which the show used to tell viewers definitively that no, despite all appearances otherwise, Frasier Crane is not gay. We’re joined again by Anthony Oliveira, who also helps us recount Frasier’s entire history of seeming kinda gay, from being metaphorically born from Diane Chambers all the way until the reboot.
Buy Anthony’s new book, Dayspring.
Read the New York Times article Drew mentions, “The Boys in the Writers’ Room.”
Read GEE's write-up in Emmy magazine, which is basically the same thing as actually winning an Emmy.
It’s All Relative Was ABC’s Attempt at a Will & Grace
“Pilot” (October 1, 2003)
Even NBC tried to replicate the success of America’s first popular gay sitcom, and this week we’re joined once again by Steven Capsuto to discuss an attempt to bring same-sex parents to prime time. It’s All Relative only lasted a season, but that’s actually longer than most LGBTQ-inclusive sitcoms that followed in Will & Grace’s wake, and for what it’s worth, its pilot shows a lot of promise.
Read GEE's write-up in Emmy magazine, which is basically the same thing as actually winning an Emmy.
Buy the revised edition of Steven’s book, Alternate Channels: Queer Images on 20th-Century TV.
Listen to Steven’s previous episode, about Tony Randall’s Love, Sidney.
Drew is pulling quotes from the following articles:
Bob’s Burgers Gives Marshmallow a New Voice
“Hope ’n’ Mic Night” (November 10, 2024)
Long-running animated sitcoms face a unique challenge in having to account for an episode that aired more than a decade previously, and this recent Bob’s Burgers proves that this can be accomplished thoughtfully and deliberately. “Hope ’n’ Mic Night” repeatedly references the season one episode “Sheesh! Cab, Bob?” which introduced Marshmallow to the show but also did a few things that cast trans characters in a less than flattering light. Fifteen years later, the show gives Marshmallow 2.0 the spotlight she’s deserved for while, and frankly it’s heartening to see a show make all the right moves.
Watch the homemade Archer/Bob’s Burgers crossover that got Simon Chong, the director of this episode, a real Hollywood job.
What the video for Paula Abdul’s “Opposites Attract.”
Read the Deadline interview with Jari Jones, the new voice of Marshmallow.
It’s a Will & Grace Thanksgiving!
“Homo for the Holidays” (November 25, 1999)
What? An episode of Will & Grace that Drew actually likes? Kind of! This season two episode has Jack coming out to his mother over Thanksgiving dinner, and it’s basically the gayest Thanksgiving episode of any sitcom ever. And it’s a good piece of TV with some thoughtful dialogue, even if a lot of the jokes are very representative of that Will & Grace style, which you either like or you don’t. Also: Is Jack McFarland responsible for popularizing the phrase “platinum gay”?
Listen to previous Will & Grace episodes here.
King of the Hill Accidentally Explores Muscle Gainer Subculture
“Bill, Bulk and the Body Buddies” (May 20, 2007)
Can one illustration of a buff Bill Dauterive change your entire life in an instant? Well, for some people, yeah. This King of the Hill outing manages to stuff in a whole lot of imagery that will be familiar to a certain gay subculture. It’s inadvertent — and specifically this episode also features explicitly gay characters as a counterpoint to the rude, crude muscle bros, but there’s plenty to talk about nonetheless in Bill’s adventures through body transformation.
Listen to our previous King of the Hill episodes here.
That Girl Meets the Cross-Dressing Cops
"A Muggy Day in Central Park" (November 14, 1968)
A contemporary of Bewitched, That Girl aimed for a more sophisticated audience than most sitcoms of its era. Not only does it look more cinematic, in a way that sitcoms generally wouldn't until the 2000s, but it's also more clearly a feminist show, where Marlo Thomas plays a woman braving big city life on her own. This episode does that tired thing where gay men, cross-dressers, trans woman and drag queens are conflated down to a single thing, but it’s nonetheless interesting to see how a progressive show handles queer things fairly explicitly in the 1960s.
Listen to the Monday Afternoon Movie episode about the Ted Bessell thriller Scream, Pretty Peggy.
Boy Meets World Does a Scream Parody
“And Then There Was Shawn” (February 27, 1998)
Somehow, Boy Meets World got ABC to say yes to a parody of Scream within the confines of the TGIF lineup. That’s wild enough, but it’s even more surprising what this “it was all a dream” episode lifts directly from the 1996 slasher. Joining us to discuss this unlikely intersection of franchises are the hosts of the Guide to the Unknown podcast, Kristen Anderson and her little brother, Will Rogers (not the gay beach). Happy Halloween!
Listen to Guide to the Unknown groundbreaking analysis of the Scary Movie franchise, SCARMUTO.
Listen to William’s narrative horror podcast Blackwood.
And if you want to read more about the Scream 3/Harvey Weinstein connection, read this Slate article.
Watch the new season of Glen's show, Ninjago: Dragons Unleashed!
Listen to Drew discussing 16-bit horror video games on Retronauts.
Episodes what we mentioned:
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Gayest Episode Ever, “Boy Meets World Accidentally Does a Trans Episode”
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Gayest Episode Ever, “Two Guys, a Girl and a Post-Scream Slasher Halloween”
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Gayest Episode Ever, “The Facts of Life Goes to the Twilight Zone”
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Weirdest Episode Ever, “Family Matters Fights and Evil Murderous Puppet”
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Monday Afternoon Movie, “Summer of Fear with John Arthur Hill”
Bewitched Unleashes the Gay Scourge That Is Uncle Arthur
“The Joker Is a Card” (October 14, 1965)
Nearly two hundred episodes later, we’re finally returning to Bewitched to give Uncle Arthur a proper introduction. And while he’s a big part of Bewitched’s gay fandom, Paul Lynde brings a lot of baggage to the role that taught Americans to laugh at eccentric gay weirdos everywhere.
Watch the new season of Glen's show, Ninjago: Dragons Unleashed!
Listen to Drew discussing 16-bit horror video games on Retronauts.
This episode featured a lot of references to previous episodes, so here are all of those, for your listening pleasure:
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The previous GEE about Bewitched (but honestly this new episode is better)
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Our episode about The Addams Family, which deals with similar themes of ethnicity/culture erasure
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The GEE/Monday Afternoon Movie crossover episode about the Paul Lynde Halloween Special
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The Monday Afternoon Movie episode about The Legend of Lizzie Borden, which starred Elizabeth Montgomery and Katherine Helmond
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And finally the Monday Afternoon Movie episode about the Star Wars Holiday Special, with special guest Bruce Villance
Finally, the Hollywood Squares zingers all come from this YouTube compilation.
Karl Is the Simpsons' First Gay Friend
“Simpson and Delilah” (October 18, 1990)
Not only the earliest gay-themed Simpsons episode we’ve ever done, this one is also the first gay-themed episode The Simpsons ever did. And while the enigmatic Karl doesn’t get to be explicitly gay, we argue whether having a gay-coded character might have been the show’s way to — in its second season and at the height of Simpsons mania — signal to grown-ups that no, despite the t-shirts, this was not a show for kids and it could operate at a higher level. But how many adults watching TV in 1990 knew who Harvey Fierstein was?
Remember when I did a supercut of all the LGBTQ jokes on The Simpsons? It still lives, even if you have to go to YouTube to watch it now for stupid homophobic reasons. It has 3.7 million views so far! I just think that's neat!
Also listen to the most recent Talking Simpsons take on this episode here.
A Different World Meets a Possible Lesbian
“Wild Child” (February 4, 1988)
Officially, A Different World never did a gay episode and there were no queer students at Hillman. Nestled in the middle of the Bonet/Tomei season, however, is an interesting episode about a girl named Cougar, who happens to be easily read as a lesbian and interact in interesting ways with both Denise and Whitley. Entertainment journalist Stacey Yvonne joins us to discuss this episode and why A Different World still matters in 2024.
You can watch this episode of A Different World on our Vimeo.
Listen to Stacey's appearances on Sam Pancake Presents the Monday Afternoon Movie discussing the made-for-TV horror films The Possessed and The Strange and Deadly Occurrence.
The Beetlejuice Cartoon Is Weird, Gross and Very Queer
“Pranks for the Memories” (September 18, 1991) and “Beetlebones” (September 27, 1991)
Sure, we’ve all thought more about Beetlejuice in the last few weeks than we have in the last few decades, but we come to you today not to discuss the sequel film but the animated spinoff. Henry Giardina returns to explain why this more kid-friendly version of the Tim Burton ghoul lends itself to trans and queer readings.
Listen to Henry’s movie podcast, I’ll Watch Anything, and also subscribe to Totally Trans, which is currently on hiatus.
Mentioned in this episode:
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The Lost Gals and specifically their episode about Drop Dead Fred
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The Best Movies Never Made and their episodes about all the Beetlejuice sequels that never were
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Guide to the Unknown and their episode about A Nightmare on Elm Street 3
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What Went Wrong and their episode about the making of Beetlejuice
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Cracked’s oral history of the Beetlejuice cartoon
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia Stops Being Funny to Be Gay Instead
“Mac Finds His Pride” (November 7, 2018)
Twelve seasons in, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia stopped giving Mac the Smithers treatment and let him be gay, but it’s the season thirteen finale we’re talking about because it highlights Mac’s sexuality without making jokes, at least for the third act. The episode received wide praise, but did it also jeopardize the show’s comedic tone in order to make a statement?
Thanks to Dr. Alfred Smith, David Russell and Ally J. Shivka for offering their interpretations of the narrative in the dance sequence!
Watch the dance sequence in question here.
Read Vulture’s analysis of “Mac Finds His Pride.”
The 80s Gay Fantasia That Is Jennifer Slept Here
This is the second-to-last of our summer reruns; new episodes back Sept. 18 on the Patreon feed and Sept. 25 on the main feed! For this one, we're taking a break from looking at the ways that sitcoms advanced American discourse about LGBTQ people and instead gawking at campy 80s fluff — because that is also a thing that is important to gay people.
“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
How Do You Write a Sitcom About a Gay Bashing?
Yep, we are still in summer reruns — but to return with new episodes in September! This one is out second look at the Showtime sitcom Brothers, which I feel too few listeners know about. Let this episode be your primer, however! And your jumping off point to watching the entire series on YouTube!
“It Only Hurts When I’m Gay” (October 25, 1985)
On paper, the idea of a sitcom taking on the subject of gay bashing seems like the worst idea, but somehow Brothers — TV’s first gay sitcom — manages to tell a real story about violence against gay people while avoiding the hokey “very special episode” tropes. We’re as shocked as anyone how good this turned out, and what’s more, it’s genuinely funny without underselling the gravity of the attack.
You can now watch Glen’s movie, Being Frank, on Freevee via Amazon Prime. WATCH IT NOW!
Please, watch this episode (and other Brothers episodes!) on YouTube. The posting we used to do this episode only had 36 views as of the time this GEE first went live!
The Complete History of Leon Carp, Roseanne's Gay Nemesis
This is a summer rerun of an episode that originally went live in May 2023. We know that no one likes to reflect on how Roseanne used to be awesome, but we get through that emotional baggage as quickly as we can to discuss why Martin Mull's character is openly gay but also tweaks certain gay stereotypes.
“The Driver’s Seat” (November 30, 1993)
We’re giving another shot to Roseanne, because perhaps it’s been long enough that you all want to listen to stories about this iconic series. Perhaps not! Regardless, this show offered us Martin Mull’s Leon, who goes unsung in the annals of gay supporting characters. He’s a villain, though much of his evildoing has nothing to do with his sexuality, and in this particular episode, his gayness doesn’t even come up — which is unusual, because usually gay supporting characters on sitcoms only show up to be gay and do nothing else.
Green Acres Meets a Woman Named Ralph
This is a summer rerun of an episode that originally went live in May 2023. It's good even if you think you don't care about Green Acres, we swear!
“What’s in a Name?” (February 16, 1966)
On a show all about the zany inhabitants of Hooterville, Ralph Monroe (Mary Grace Canfield) stands out because the most unusual thing about her is her name. She works as a carpenter and dresses for her work, but that name alone is enough that most Hootervillians don’t know what pronoun to use for her. As we discuss with special guest Josh Trujillo, Ralph is not a trans character, but this episode about her seeking a new name so she can get married, offers enough to qualify her as interesting enough to merit her own episode of this podcast… darling.
Since this episode originally went life, Josh's book, WASHINGTON'S GAY GENERAL, went on sale. GO BUY IT!
Tori from Saved by the Bell Is a Lesbian Icon
“The New Girl” (September 19, 1992)
Tori Scott is more than just the mysterious seventh Bayside High student who exists in a fractured Saved by the Bell timeline in which Jessie and Kelly don’t exist. She’s also really gay in the tradition of Jo from The Facts of Life, and not only because Leanna Creel, the actress who played Tori, came out in real life. Erin Fletcher returns to explain why she’s actually a better match for Zack than Kelly or AC Slater… because Zack Morris is the Blair Warner of Saved by the Bell.
Listen to Erin’s previous appearance, in which we also discussed a lesbian-tinged ep titled “The New Girl.” (And yes, there is a Tori Scott fanvid.)
Follow: GEE on Facebook • GEE’s Facebook Group • GEE on Twitter • GEE on Instagram • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • 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 is a TableCakes podcast.
The Gay History of Mama's Family
Leading up to our return in September, we are doing summer reruns, which is our way of repurposing episodes that with a little configuring (and retitling) might get more listens than they got back in the day. First up: Mama's Family! And next week, you'll be getting a full-fledged new episode about Saved by the Bell! Enjoy!
“There Is Nothing Like the Dames” (February 17, 1990)
Believe it or not, Mama’s Family has a deeply queer history. While the final result of — the syndicated revival that returned to TV after NBC canceled the it — bears little of that, this episode goes over all the ways a recurring sketch on The Carol Burnett Show originally told the story of a queer-coded artist who can’t relate to his family back home. It’s all the stranger to consider that Mama’s Family never did an explicitly queer episode, even with all those Bob Mackie costumes.
Read the article in which Bubba actor Allan Kayser talks about his famously tight jeans.
Vicki Lawrence sings the original, non-instrumental version of the Mama’s Family theme song. But also listen to her disco banger “Don’t Stop the Music” and the no. 1 murder mystery pop hit “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia.”
Watch the brilliant 1982 TV movie adaptation of the Harper family saga, Eunice. Also watch The Carol Burnett Show’s famous “Went With the Wind” sketch. But most importantly watch the original sketch version that led to Mama’s Family, when it was just called “The Family.” It made Drew way more sad than sketch comedy usually does.Community’s Gay Dean Is Not Actually Gay
“Queer Studies and Advanced Waxing” (March 31, 2015)
In its sixth and final season, Community decided to explore the series-long running joke about Dean Pelton’s mysterious, complex sexuality. Henry Gilbert once again joins us to discuss how the dean is not actually gay — he may be a pansexual imp, after all — but in forcing him to pick a tidy label, this show does a good job showing how many queer people end up pigeonholing themselves in a way that doesn’t fully express who they are.
Listen to Henry’s podcast, Talking Simpsons.
Listen to his episode about Pride Nite at Disneyland on Podcast: The Ride.
The Community “this better not awaken anything in me” clip.
The trailer for Portuguese Gremlins, which is not only the best thing Community ever did but also a justification for the medium of TV in general.
Follow: GEE on Facebook • GEE’s Facebook Group • GEE on Twitter • GEE on Instagram • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • 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 is a TableCakes podcast.
Drew Carey Has a Cross-Dressing Brother Who Just Might Be Trans
“Drew’s Brother” (November 19, 1997)
We finally did it! We not only found the perfect guest for this episode — writer, performer and UCB alum Joan Ford — but we also got the chance to tell the world that The Drew Carey Show deserves to live it. It’s not only the most successful Friends clone but also the only one that sustained a whole series about working class young people. And in its third season, it introduced Drew’s brother Steve (John Caroll Lynch) who is a cross-dresser who might just be a transwoman. What’s more, the show pairs Steve off with Mimi Bobeck (Kathy Kinney), who is dragtastic and deserving of queer icon status in her own right.
Follow: GEE on Facebook • GEE’s Facebook Group • GEE on Twitter • GEE on Instagram • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • 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 is a TableCakes podcast.
The Associates Meets a Gay Joke It Doesn’t Like
“The Censors,” (April 10, 1980)
James L. Brooks followed up the hit Taxi with another workplace ensemble that skewed decidedly fancier: The Associates featured a young and unknown Martin Short among a group of fresh hires at a Wall Street law firm. The show didn’t work and is almost forgotten today. But its second-to-last episode did feature a trip to the Hollywood set of a sitcom where a producer battles an overzealous censor. There’s a gay sublot, but the overall story is a cautionary tale that applies to people making TV today just as much as it did four decades ago
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How I Met Your Mother Meets a Gay Brother
"Single Stamina" (November 27, 2006)
Now that HIMYM has been off the air for a full decade, it’s worth considering how this show holds up better than most from the early 2000s did. Not only did it give us Robin Sparkles, it just might be the only TV show to compare equally well to both Friends and Lost, as improbable as that sounds. This episode has Wayne Brady playing a gay character in a bit of stunt casting that worked a lot better before he came out, but it also just might be the thing that convinced Neil Patrick Harris to finally come out as well.
Listen to the newest episode of Cartoons That Made Us Gay, all about Conan: The Adventurer and the inherent gayness of the “barbarian” genre in general.
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This is a TableCakes podcast.
What’s Gay About Jeopardy(!)?
What if we broke format to discuss America’s favorite smartypants game show? Well, we did it. And special guest Emily Heller joins us to discuss Amy Schneider, who became Jeopardy’s second-longest-running winner ever — and as a result became a household name and a trans icon.
Listen to Emily’s Jeopardy podcast, What Is…? A Jeopardy! Podcast on Apple or Spotify!
Listen to Peaches Christ and also Drew on Matt Baume’s new My So-Called Life podcast!
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This is a TableCakes podcast.
Amen’s Closeted Sitcom Star Smackdown
“The Courtship of Bess Richards” (October 4, 1986)
The second episode of Amen concerns Sherman Hemsley’s Ernie trying to land his choir a new singer in Nell Carter’s Bess, and the result is a comedy of errors in which both he and she perform romantic interest that neither is capable of actually feeling. The result is a WWF-style wrestling match between these two iconic sitcom stars, and we’re joined once again by Dr. Alfred L. Martin to discuss how this is rendered all the stranger because Hemsley and Carter both were closeted and therefore all too accustomed to acting out hetero identities different from how they lived privately.
This episode mentions a TV Guide article about Sherman Hemsley’s private life that I now cannot find online. However, I bought the issue on eBay and will post as soon as it arrives. You can see Zach Wilson’s posting of it on Twitter. Thanks, Zach!
Buy Dr. Alfred’s book, The Generic Closet: Black Gayness and the Black-Cast Sitcom.
Listen to Hemsley in the performance of Purlie that Alfred mentions.
Watch a clip of Hemsley’s gay villain turn in 2000’s Screwed.
Listen to Dr. Alfred’s previous episodes:
Mary and Phyllis Date a Possible Homosexual
“Menage a Phyllis” (November 2, 1974)
In the third-season episode “My Brother’s Keeper,” Rhoda famously said the word “gay,” turning a plot about her association with Phyllis’ brother on its head. Two seasons later, Phyllis shows up in another episode that discusses gay issues but weirdly doesn’t say that word. Regardless, there’s perhaps more to be made of the newsroom’s opinions about what codes as gay, and Dan Steadman returns to discuss this and what we’ll call the “Murray Slaughter problem.”
Read Dead Buckley’s 2018 piece “Queer Coding on the Mary Tyler Moore Show”
Episodes referenced:
- Dan’s previous episode, “Mike Seaver Actually Said the Word ‘Gay’”
- Our previous Mary Tyler Moore episode, “Mary and Rhoda Meet a Homo”
- Our episode “Phyllis Dates a Homo”
- Our episode “The Dream On Guy Has a Gay Dad”
Facts of Life Does a Covert Gay Episode With Cousin Geri
“Cousin Geri” (December 24, 1980)
Fun game for listeners: Take a shot every time Drew mentions the phrase “gigantic bitch” in connection with Lisa Welchel’s Blair, who is in rare form this episode as she shuns her disabled cousin Geri for reasons that aren’t the ones you’re probably assuming. In this discussion, we bring up why Geri Jewell is a trailblazer as far as being queer and also one other thing and also why “actress recurring on Deadwood” is lowkey code for lesbian.
Erin Fletcher, we want you back for that Saved by the Bell episode.
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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 is a TableCakes podcast.
Drawn Together Forces Xandir Out of the Closet
“Gay Bash” (November 10, 2004)
For better or worse, Drawn Together represents a very real trend in mid-2000s humor. It specifically sought out to tell the most offensive jokes it could get on air, but that’s what makes it surprising that the episode where Xandir admits he’s gay isn’t the parade of easy jokes you might expect. The B plot sucks rancid balls, to the point that we don’t even use clips from it in this discussion, but you might be surprised how this animated reality show makes its token gay a sympathetic guy.
Check out Bradley Smith’s YouTube interview with series creators Dave Jesser and Matt Silvertsein, from which we grabbed a few anecdotes about the development of Drawn Together.
Listen to our Cartoons That Made Us Gay episode about the Legend of Zelda cartoon.
Listen to the Best Movies Never Made podcast, hosted by Golan the Insatiable creator Josh Miller.
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Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • 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.
Daria Should Have Kissed Jane Instead of Tom
“Dye! Dye! My Darling!” (August 2, 2000)
Spend a little time in a Daria fan community and you’ll find folks who ship the title character with her best friend, Jane. The show actually never does a gay episode and only gets the slightest bit queer in the first movie, Is It Fall Yet?, which has Jane affirming her heterosexuality despite how very queer she might seem. In this episode, we’re discussing the nonetheless existent lesbian vibes between Daria and Jane — and who better to offer input on this than Talking Simpsons cohost Bob Mackey? Sure, he’s straight, but it turns out that straight men can relate to female characters too. (We were shocked!)
As it turns out, Bob and Henry’s What a Cartoon podcast covers not only the Daria episode that immediately precedes this one, “Fire!” and also “The Misery Chick,” which as we discuss is a crucial turning point in the development of Daria Morgandorfer.
This week, Glen and Drew are guests on Talking Simpsons, discussing "Three Gays of the Condo" and why it's not great! If you need more of our voices in your life, have a listen here.
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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.
Lucy Meets a Drag Queen
“Lucy and Jim Bailey” (November 6, 1972)
Basically, Lucille Ball did a solid for one gay performer, but in doing this, she also helped make gays a little less scary for America. Jim Bailey was a female impersonator who who had already made appearances on late night TV for this uncanny ability to turn himself into female celebs. Lucy, however, gave him a showcase on her popular prime time sitcom, showing her viewers that not only were drag queens not scary, but in fact they can be a lot of fun.
Watch the episode of The Lucy Show where Lucy almost drowned on Tubi. And read the book that details both versions of the story on Archive.org.
What the episode of the Desilu-produced game show You Don’t Say.
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Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • 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.
A Queer History of SNL, Part Four: The Lost Years
People use the term “the lost years” differently when speaking of Saturday Night Live, but this podcast is using it specifically from the time Lorne Michaels left the show after season five up until season eleven. Aside from Eddie Murphy’s presence on the show, these are the sketches that are less remembered today because they weren’t rerun on Comedy Central in the 2000s as much and they’re largely absent from the cache of episodes preserved online today. And that’s too bad, because this is when the show boasted some legends in the cast — Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Billy Crystal, Joan Cusack, Robert Downey Jr., Martin Short and Damon Wayans among them, as well as queer cast members Terry Sweeney, Denny Dillon and Danitra Vance.
The sketches (and click here if you want to watch them):
- “SoHo Lesbians” (S6E10: Debbie Harry)
- “Little Richard Simmons” (S7E1: No host)
- “James Coburn Is a Homosexual” (S7E11: James Coburn)
- “Focus on Film: Making Love” (S7E12: Bruce Dern)
- “Penny Lane” (S10E11: Roy Scheider)
- “Pinklisting” (S11E1: Madonna)
- “Mr. Monopoly” (S11E12: Griffin Dunne)
- Monologue (S11E16: Catherine Oxenberg)
- “Lesbian Pick-Ups” (S11E18: Anjelica Huston)
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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.
Sex and the City Meets an Effeminate Heterosexual
“Evolution” (August 19, 1999)
If you came of age in the late 90s or early 2000s, you live in a world informed by Sex and the City — whether you realize it or not. It’s probably one of the most influential TV shows to air during our lifetimes, and so it’s more than time that we look at one of its many LGBTQ-themed episodes. Joining us to discuss Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte is returning guest Gwynedd Stuart, who has big feelings about why this show matters.
Listen to Gwynedd’s previous episode about Soap.
Most of Drew’s background on how SATC ended up at HBO comes from this Vulture article. And here is the 1991 New York Times article about Woody Allen and Mia Farrow waving at each other from across Central Park.
Listen to Drew discussing Bowser, King of the Koopa, on the Retronauts podcast.
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Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • 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.
Newhart Meets a Gay
"Homes and Jojo" (May 1, 1989)
Newhart is a show about white people who live in the snow, and while 70s-era Bob Newhart sitcom is the one pop culture remembers better, this is the longer-lived, more-Emmy-nominated of the two. What the 80s-era Bob New1hart sitcom has working in its favor are future Simpsons showrunner David Mirkin, who gives a host of wacky townspeople not unlike what you’d find in Springfield, and the duo of Julia Duffy and Peter Scolari, who male a perfect yuppie couple worthy of mockery. It’s great. Here, learn about it.
Listen to Smart Mouth, GEE”s sister show, and in particular check out the episode “Queer Food” with John Birdsall, because if you’re listening to this podcast you’re probably queer and probably also you eat food.
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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.
Jerri Blank Is a Pansexual Sex Predator
“Blank Relay” (August 13, 2000)
Honestly, we could have picked just about any episode of Strangers With Candy to focus on for this podcast about queer themes, but we ended up deciding on the one where we see Jerri Blank at her most girl hungry. It’s light on Mr. Noblet and Mr. Jellineck, but we can always circle back to this one in another two hundred episodes, right?
Watch the Exit 57 “Down in the Basement” sketch, which does not translate especially well to an audio-only format.
Watch The Trip Back, the 1970 PSA featuring Florrie Fisher, the real-life inspiration for Jerri Blank.
Listen to the two-part Rasputin episode of the Unexplained podcast.
And we dropped a whole hell of a lot of Sam Pancake Presents the Monday Afternoon Movie episodes. Here are all of them:
- Angel Dusted with Gedde Watanabe (the one where Helen Hunt doesn’t jump through a window)
- Desperate Lives with Arden Myrin (the one where she *does* jump through a window)
- It Happened One Christmas with Sarah Thyre
- The Cat Creature with Becky Thyre
- And finally Crowhaven Farm and A Vacation in Hell, both with Rose Abdoo
Gimme a Break Transformed Into a Lesbian Perfect Strangers
“Joey’s First Crush” (January 28, 1987)
Few other shows changed as much as Gimme a Break, which began as a fish-out-of-water sitcom that had Nell Carter playing mom to three white girls in California but ended up with Nell and her best friend, Telma Hopkins’ Addy, co-parenting two white boys in New York. Minus the kids, it’s basically a female-female twist on Perfect Strangers, only they don’t get steady boyfriends. Perhaps in an effort to make the show seem less gay, they tossed in a happily married character… who was played by newcomer Rosie O’Donnell. This episode, which is the second of Gimme a Break’s outings to feature actual gay characters, showcases a lot of how this show ended up pretty damn gay.
… Now that I think about it, maybe the only sitcom that changed as much over its run was Ellen — and that’s pretty notable, right?
Listen to our previous Gimme a Break episodes.
Learn all about Betty and Barney Hill in the Monday Afternoon Movie episode about 1975’s The UFO Incident.
Watch:
The Simpsons Does a Riff on Lesbian Cult Classic
“Lisa the Drama Queen” (January 25, 2009)
So here’s an interesting one. In its twentieth season, The Simpson did an episode inspired by Heavenly Creatures, the 1994 Peter Jackson movie that has Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey playing schoolgirls who flee into a fantasy world and also each other. More than a decade later, this story would play out again, only with Lisa Simpson and a new character voiced by Emily Blunt, and that might seem like a strange combo, especially because the Simpson version nixes the sex and violence of the original, but it nonetheless works.
Special thanks to the writer of this episode, Brian Kelley, for sharing his memories of how this episode came to be.
For a limited time, you can still screen Heavenly Creatures via the GEE Patreon, but that window is closing. Info here.
Listen to Drew on the In Retrospect podcast’s episodes about the “lesbian/Lebanese” joke (part one & part two)
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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.
How Does a Conservative Sitcom Do a Gay Episode?
“Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” (November 29, 2011
Yes, Tim Allen’s follow-up to Home Improvement got branded as the most conservative sitcom on network TV, but is that fair? We’re honestly not sure, because the ninth episode of Last Man Standing’s first season features a gay couple. We’re mostly good with how this plays out, but we also think this show changed in its second season. We’re also skimming over the second-season episode “Bullying,” which ended up arguing that it’s okay to say “gay.” Key takeaway: Tim Allen may be less conservative than Kelsey Grammer.
Listen to our Home Improvement episode.
Remember a short-lived sitcom from Fox's early days? Tell us about it (there’s a thread on Patreon that’s open to even non-members), and we may cover it for our upcoming bonus miniseries, The Fox Files!
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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.
The Gay Origins of Mister Ed
“Sorority House” (February 8, 1961)
A few times on this podcast, we’ve bent over backwards to find a gay interpretation of a sitcom that never did anything gay, but this is not one of those. Mister Ed was developed by Arthur Lubin, a closeted gay director who was married to a woman but eventually ended up cohabitating with a male companion. It’s interesting, then, that he’d be into making a TV show out of a story about Wilbur Post, who’s married to a woman and who’s outwardly a traditional guy even if his most significant relationship is with a male — a horse, but a male nonetheless — that he has to keep secret. Primitive though it might be, Mister Ed is actually the blueprint for more traditional magic sitcoms like Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie.
You can watch this episode of Mister Ed for free on archive.org.
Want to hear your words on an upcoming GEE? We’re covering the Simpsons episode “Lisa the Drama Queen” and therefore we’re offering patrons a chance to watch the movie that inspired it: 1994’s Heavenly Creatures, which is not easy to watch online nowadays. Details at the GEE Patreon.
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Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • 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.
Frasier Has Two Daddies
“Fathers and Sons” (May 3, 2003)
And we’re back! Our first regular episode of the new year returns to the first-ever show we discussed: Frasier. It’s the episode where David Ogden Stiers plays an old colleague of Frasier’s late mother who acts more like Frasier and Niles than Martin does. This is the final time the series put a spotlight on the series innate queerness, and in selecting Stiers, it also tacitly endorses the notion that his M*A*S*H character helped inspire Frasier Crane.
Listen to Unsafe Spaces, Josh Hallmark’s new true crime podcast about serial murders in Tampa’s gay community — and while you’re at it, also give a listen to his other podcast, True Crime Bullshit, about serial killer Israel Keyes.
Want to hear your words on an upcoming GEE? We’re covering the Simpsons episode “Lisa the Drama Queen” and therefore we’re offering patrons a chance to watch the movie that inspired it: 1994’s Heavenly Creatures, which is not easy to watch online nowadays. Details at the GEE Patreon.
Listen to our previous Frasier episodes.
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Follow: GEE on Facebook • GEE’s Facebook Group • GEE on Twitter • GEE on Instagram • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • 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.
Sailor Moon Meets a Lesbian Couple
“Coldhearted Uranus: Makoto in Danger” (May 14, 1994)
It’s a new year, and we’re giving you a new episode of Sailor Moon — now with 200 percent more lesbian content! This third-season episode not only showcases Haruka/Sailor Uranus and Michiru/Sailor Neptune, but also uses them as a way to explore how Makoto/Sailor Jupiter is the most queer-coded of the core five Sailor Guardians. What’s most notable about this episode, however, is the fact that the Viz dub of it actually re-writes the original Japanese dialogue to seem less homophobic than the original version was.
Read Drew’s Thrilling Tales of Old Video Games post if you want to know how the connection to Rose of Versailles.
And check out the lengthy Twitter thread posted in response to the first Sailor Moon episode, about why it wasn’t surprising to have a same-sex couple in the first season of the show.
Watch the clip comparing Molly’s original DiC accent to Mia Farrow’s.
And here’s the Reddit thread looking into how the Viz dub played down the homophobia of the original version of this episode.
Listen to the first Sailor Moon episode, about Zoisite, on the main feed *or* if you’re fancy listen to the new Sailor Moon episode, about Fisheye, on the Patreon feed.
Bob’s Burgers Celebrates Christmas at a Gay Rave
“The Bleakening” (December 10, 2017)
We’re closing out 2023 with a two-part Bob’s Burgers Christmas mystery that also happens to be the last episode a cult favorite trans character, Marshmallow, appeared in before vanishing from the series for six years. This is basically our way of discussing the “Sheesh! Cab, Bob?” episode without having to drag you all through it, because for all its flaws, it did give the world the cherished treasure that is Marshmallow. Happy holidays!
Watch the Bob’s Burgers-Archer mashup that got Simon Chong a job making art for this show — starting with this very episode.
Totally Trans watched that Lady Ballers movie so you don’t have to!
Listen to our previous Bob's Burgers episode, about Bob's alleged bisexuality.
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Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • 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.
Frank’s Place Makes Hanukkah Gay
A new episode on a Tuesday?! Well, the way our schedule ended up working out was that we are finishing the year with two Christmas episodes, and we figured it would be better to get those both out before the actual holiday, so you’re getting this today and then our second Christmas ep (and the last ep of 2023) on Friday. Enjoy, we hope!
“Season’s Greetings” (December 14, 1987)
Perhaps you haven’t heard of Frank’s Place. All the incentive you need for this episode is that Frank’s Place is that it won Emmys, it won critical praise, and it’s still remembered today as a showcase for a type of black American who wasn’t often depicted on the small screen. Despite all that, it only lasted a single season. Brian Cronin joins us to discuss perhaps the only sitcom episode to feature a Hanukkah dinner ruined by a coming out. And BTW, there is a twist ending we are still unsettled by.
Read Brian’s work at CBR but also at his website, Pop Culture References, which frequently dives deep into sitcom history.
Watch this Frank’s Place (and all episodes, if you want) at archive.org.
Read the LA Times piece we cite in this discussion here.
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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.
Suddenly Susan Meets a Gay
“A Boy Like That” (April 24, 1997)
Heads up: We briefly discuss suicide episode in discussing on of this show’s cast members. If you’re experiencing suicidal thoughts, the U.S. hotline to call is 988.
Well, it took us 214 episodes, but we finally arrived at Suddenly Susan. You might dismiss Brook Shields’ entry into the post-Friends landscape as an also-ran, and you are maybe right, but this first-season gay episode manages to give more depth and consideration to its one-off gay character than its fellow Must See TV alums did. That’s something. Plus Kathy Griffin is here.
Here’s the LA Times article cited in this piece, and here’s the Entertainment Weekly piece
Buy Josh Trujillo’s new book, Washington's Gay General: The Legends and Loves of Baron Von Steuben.
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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.
A Queer History of SNL, Part Three: The “Not Ready for Prime Time” Era
- Jamitol (S1E1: George Carlin, Oct. 11 1975)
- Long Distance (S1E4: Candice Bergen, Nov. 8 1975)
- Latent Elf (S1E8: Candice Bergen, Dec. 20 1975)
- Household Hints (S1E16: Anthony Perkins, March 13, 1976)
- The Snake-Handling O’Sheas (S2E2: Norman Lear, Sep. 25, 1976)
- Monologue (S4E11: Cicely Tyson, Feb. 10, 1979)
- The Ex-Police (S4E11: Cicely Tyson, Feb. 10, 1979)
- Miles Cowperthwaite (S4E18: Michael Palin, May 12, 1979)
- Not for Transexuals Only (S4E20: Buck Henry, May 26, 1979)
- The Continuing Correspondences of Eleanor Roosevelt (S5E3: Bill Russell, Oct. 20 1979)
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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.
Gimme a Break Meets Yet Another 80s Orphan
“Nell and the Kid” (April 28, 1983)
As if network TV didn’t have enough sitcoms about non-biological parents stepping in to care for parentless children, Gimme a Break — itself a show about a woman acting as a substitute mother for three girls — has a second season episode in which Nell Carter’s character meets a spunky orphan (LaShana Dendy) and then entrusts her to the care of the neighborhood deli owner (Don Rickles). It didn’t end up becoming its own series, but Drew and Glen are pretty sure that this serves as a sort of soft launch for another show that has the same premise and which launched on NBC’s schedule the following fall.
You can watch this episode of Gimme a Break on YouTube.
Listen to us discuss Gimme a Break’s gay episode.
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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.
We Can Be Sad About Matthew Perry Dying and Still Think Friends Is Homophobic
“The One With the Memorial Service” (March 13, 2003)
Since Matthew Perry died, the tone of conversations about Friends has shifted from looking at all the reasons it wasn’t so great to trying to focus on the reasons we like it. That’s fair. Grief does that. But in seeking comfort in Friends, let’s not rush to thinking that Chandler Bing was something more than one long-running gay panic joke. Matthew Perry was a great comedic actor and we enjoy him delivering a one-liner with perfect timing, but we can acknowledge that without giving Friends a pass for its homophobia.
Here’s the Slate article that inspired this episode, and here’s the Substack post where it originally appeared, with its original headline.
Friends, previously on GEE:
- Everyone Thinks Chandler Is Gay
- Ross’s Lebsian Ex-Wife Gets Lesbian Married
- Rachel Kisses a Lesbian
- Ross Gellar Brings Gay Panic to The Single Guy
Listen to Magnificent Jerk, a great podcast about one woman’s journey to understand how her uncle’s autobiographical movie script became a B-action movie starring Rob Lowe.
The Complete History of George Costanza’s Homosexuality
“The Note” (September 18, 1991)
Seinfeld kicked off its third season with a rather risky premiere about George’s dick twitching during a massage from a man. What follows is a more earnest exploration of gay panic than you might expect from a Must See TV sitcom, and it happens to be the most in-depth look at George’s complex sexuality, though we will also be discussing every other time that Seinfeld implied that he’s something other than straight. An unblemished record of staunch heterosexuality? Yeah, sure, George.
There is a video companion to this episode! You can see all of the clips from the entire run of Seinfeld on the GEE Patreon! And you can view it even if you’re not a patron, because I’m nice and I want you to enjoy this episode.
Seinfeld on GEE previously:
- Kramer Gets Bullied by Mean Gays
- Elaine Dates a Gay Guy
- Susan's Dad Had a Gay Affair With John Cheever
- Jerry and George Aren't Gay, Not That There's Anything Wrong With That
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: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • 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.
The Sarah Silverman Program Has Gigantic, Orange Gays
“Muffin’ Man” (March 1, 2007)
You know what’s super complicated? The Sarah Silverman Program. It’s funny, but just talking about why it’s funny in 2023 necessitates a lot of discussion of controversial topics including but not limited to ironic racism, straight dudes playing gay characters, January 6 and several people who are now canceled. Nonetheless, Drew (and not Glen, because Glen is not in this episode) is joined by Henry Gilbert to discuss why this show’s queer representation was novel and still should be important all these years later.
And yes, if you’re like “I could swear that Drew said this week would be Seinfeld,” you are correct; that episode will now be coming next week. Stay tuned!
Did you know that Henry also has a podcast? It’s called Talking Simpsons, and it’s a lot like GEE just specifically about The Simpsons.
Watch Glen's episode of Ninjago: Dragons Rising, now streaming on Netflix! And if you're not sure what a Ninjago is, watch Ninjago Decoded, Glen's video series that explains the history of the Ninjago TV show.
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: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • 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.
Benson Literally Plays a Game With Death
Happy Halloween! You're getting this week’s episode one day early because it is, in fact, a Halloween episode.
“The Stranger” (October 25, 1985)
Benson may have been a more conventional sitcom than Soap, the show it spun off, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t have its exceedingly weird moments — including this final season Halloween special in which Benson must play a trivia game with death personified in order to save the lives of 41 hapless schoolchildren. It’s basically the last moment in time an otherwise grounded sitcom could get away with this, and we’re lucky to have James Eldred on hand to discuss it. Also he suggested it!
Please don’t spoil Poker Face for him.
Also give a listen to his Cinema Oblivia podcast — and check out the episodes Drew guested on, about Switchblade Sisters and Troll.
The supercut of Kraus yelling “I can hear you” (or some variation thereof) was excerpted from this video on YouTube, posted by Undercover Budget Director. The full version is much longer.
Watch Glen's episode of Ninjago: Dragons Rising, now streaming on Netflix! And if you're not sure what a Ninjago is, watch Ninjago Decoded, Glen's video series that explains the history of the Ninjago TV show.
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: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • 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.
Two Guys, a Girl and a Post-Scream Slasher Halloween
Want to watch this episode, which is not streaming and is hard to find online? You can do that right now on the GEE Patreon!
“Two Guys, a Girl and a Psycho Halloween” (October 28, 1998)
It didn’t want to be Friends. It really tried to give the cast real jobs, at the very least. But in the end, Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place lost the workplace setting and added three more characters, essentially becoming another Friends wannabe. Along the way, however, it had some genuinely funny episodes and even did a non-canonical Halloween special that killed off the entire cast in the style of Scream-inspired 90s slasher flicks. If nothing else, give them credit for not couching their weird episode in the context of a dream.
The logo for Weirdest Episode Ever was designed by Ian O’Phelan. The theme music was composed by Nick Loiacano.
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Follow: GEE on Facebook • GEE’s Facebook Group • GEE on Twitter • GEE on Instagram • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • 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.
Family Matters Does Dracula
“Dark and Stormy Night” (October 28, 1994)
We’ve talked before how Family Matters has a more liberal take on typical hijinx than most sitcoms, but the show’s sixth season Halloween episode went full on Dracula — by which we mean Francis Ford Coppola. It’s really ambitious! And Hariette has never looked sexier! And we’re very stoked to have Michael Varrati on hand to discuss it because not everyone would be able to spot this darkling little gem hidden in the 1994 TGIF lineup.
Listen to Michael’s podcast Midnight Mass — and in particular listen to the episode all about Prom Night 2. It’s a hoot.
Watch Glen's episode of Ninjago: Dragons Rising, now streaming on Netflix! And if you're not sure what a Ninjago is, watch Ninjago Decoded, Glen's video series that explains the history of the Ninjago TV show.
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: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • 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.
Ghosts Has a Gay Revolutionary War Ghost
“D&D” (November 18, 2021)
Beware the gay ghost!
What are the odds that when your friend writes a book about Baron von Steuben, allegedly gay Revolutionary War hero, there would also be a current sitcom that features a gay Revolutionary War character? Pretty slim, we’d say! But this happy coincidence allowed us to not only promote Josh Trujillo’s new book, Washington's Gay General: The Legends and Loves of Baron Von Steuben, but also to dive into Ghosts, the CBS sitcom that is one of the more popular sitcoms on TV today. We’re happy to report that being a CBS sitcom means something quite different today than it did just a few years ago.
You should probably want a copy of Josh’s book. Buy a copy here!
Watch Ninjago Decoded, Glen's series that explains the history of the Ninjago series and will help you understand his episode of Ninjago: Dragons Rising.
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: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • 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.Fine, We Will Cover Ellen’s Big Coming Out Episode
A Queer History of SNL, Part Two
- Girl With No Gaydar (S27E17: The Rock, 4/13/2000)
- Donatella Versace (S30E18: Johnny Knoxville 5/7/2005)
- Two Gay Guys (S32E4: Hugh Laurie 10/28/2006)
- Deep House Dish (S32E7: Matthew Fox 12/1/2006)
- Vincent Price Holiday Special (S34E16: Alec Baldwin 2/14/2009)
- Stefon (S36E15: Russell Brand 2/12/2011)
- Right Side of the Bed (S40E19: Scarlett Johansson 5/2/2015)
- Dyke & Fats (S39E16: Louis C.K. 3/29/2014)
- Whiskers R We (S41E13: Melissa McCarthy 2/13/2016)
- Bowen Yang Surprisingly Gay (S46E17: Carey Mulligan 4/10/2021)
A Queer History of SNL, Part One
Welcome to a new season of Gayest Episode Ever. It will be a Saturday Night Live-centric season. Among the regular, sitcom-focused episodes, we will be doing periodic deep dives into the LGBTQ-focused sketches that ran on the show during its various eras.
To kick it off (and to kick off the new season), we are starting with a two-part look at the various queer-adjacent recurring sketches from SNL. This first episode covers the launch of the show until the mid-90s, and next week’s episode will get us through the current era. Enjoy? Maybe? It’s a lot to take in, honestly, but we swear it’s worth discussion.
Here are this episode’s sketches:
- Anita Bryant (s5e16 — Burt Reynolds, April 12, 1980)
- Dion (s9e8 — Flip Wilson, December 10, 1983)
- Nancy Reagan (s11e2 — John Lithgow, November 16, 1985)
- Coffee Talk (s16e13 — Roseanne Barr & Tom Arnold, February 2, 1989)
- It’s Pat (s17e3 — Kirstie Alley, October 12, 1991)
- Lyle the Effeminate Heterosexual (s17e16 — Mary Stuart Masterson, March 21, 1992)
- Mickey the Dyke (s22e8 — Martin Short, December 7, 1996)
- Ambiguously Gay Duo (s23e20 — David Duchovny, May 9, 1998)
- Jeffrey’s (s26e12 — Sean Hayes, February 2, 2001)
- Mango (s27e9 — Ellen DeGeneres, December 15, 2001)
You can watch the sketches on Patreon. You can see Drew’s master list of LGBTQ-focused SNL sketches here.
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Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • 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.
Barry’s NoHo Hank Is a Great Gay Villain
“it takes a psycho” (April 30, 2023)
Barry is not a sitcom, though it was frequently one of the funnier shows on TV. We’re doing a bonus summer episode about it anyway because its gay character, NoHo Hank, is a rarity on TV because he’s both a villain and a person who doesn’t let his sexuality define him. That’s not necessarily a good thing, but we’re all about complex, messy queer characters, and this is one people should be talking about. Special thanks to Emily Heller for sharing her recollections of working on the show.
SPOILER WARNING: We will talk about major plot points from Barry through season three, episode four.
Read the New York Times piece on gay villains on TV.
Listen to Drew and Glen discuss the Lookwell pilot on Talking Simpsons.
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Follow: GEE on Facebook • GEE’s Facebook Group • GEE on Twitter • GEE on Instagram • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • 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.
Punky Brewster and Cave of Horrors
“The Perils of Punky” (October 20, 1985)
This might be the most famous weird episode of any TV show ever, and with good reason: it is utterly inexplicable how this parade of horrors came to be. It would be weird for any sitcom to deliberately scare its viewers, much less a show that catered specifically to kids. Wait, is the shared trauma of this Punky Brewster the reason why millennials can’t stop talking about old TV? No, really — is this why???
This is an episode of our Patreon bonus podcast Weirdest Episode Ever. Listen to the rest of those episodes on Patreon or now also on Apple Podcasts!
Check out Drew's video of all the times Brandon the dog was clearly not acting and was, in fact, actually scared of what was happening during this episode.
Most of the quotes used in this piece come from this Yahoo TV retrospective on this episode.
Watch Drew’s supercut of the Soleil Moon Frye’s pre-Punky made-for-TV horror movie, Invitation to Hell — and listen to the Monday Afternoon Movie about it!
The logo for Weirdest Episode Ever was designed by Ian O’Phelan. The theme music was composed by Nick Loiacano.
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: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • 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.
Golden Girls Tries to Spin Off the Neighbors Next Door
“Empty Nests” (May 16, 1987)
Happy summer! This is an episode of Backdoor Pilots, our summer Patreon series looking into the times famous sitcoms attempted to use a backdoor pilot to launch a spinoff. This particular example is one of the most interesting, since what aired on Golden Girls ended up being very different from the spinoff that made it to air, Empty Nest.
Here is the full list of Backdoor Pilots episodes, with links to the ones that are currently live on Patreon. More to come!
Golden Girls, “Empty Nests”
Married With Children, “Top of the Heap”
Diff’rent Strokes, “The Girls School”
Gimme a Break, “Nell and the Kid”
Married With Children, “Radio Free Trumaine”
227, “The Audit”
The Cosby Show, “Mr. Quiet”
The Nanny, “Chatterbox”
Who’s the Boss?, “Living Dolls”
Support us at the $5-a-month level or higher to get every new episode of Backdoor Pilots in your feed as they go live.
Is there maybe some bad blood between Golden Girls creator Susan Harris and Rita Moreno, who almost starred in the spinoff? We talk about it in the episode, but I also made a video detailing this weird bit of TV history in case you’d like to explore it with visual aids.
The theme song to this series was composed and performed by Meika Grimm. The art for the series was designed by Ian O’Phelan.
Moe Szyslak Is Gay for Pay
“Flaming Moe” (January 16, 2011)
Today, LGBTQ characters on The Simpsons get to be more than walking gay jokes, and, really, this is one of the first episodes that shows Smithers as a (mostly) out member of the larger community in Springfield. It’s not perfect, however; there’s an homage to the 2008 film Milk that lands strangely, there’s a hetero love subplot for Skinner that takes acts two and three, and there’s a trans joke that underscores how advances in representation for LGBs didn’t include the Ts. But this episode, penned by future showrunner Matt Selman, shows the series is learning and evolving.
Watch Drew's supercut of every LGBTQ joke on The Simpsons (season 1 through 31) to get that view count over 4 million.
Watch the new season of Ninjago: Dragons Rising June 1 on Netflix! And if you don’t know what a Ninjago is, watch Ninjago Decoded, starting here.
You can now watch Glen’s movie, Being Frank, on Freevee via Amazon Prime — and now also on Apple TV. WATCH IT NOW!
The Honeymooners Meet a Sexually Ambiguous Latino
“Mama Loves Mambo” (May 3, 1956)
While Ralph Kramden never met an out gay character on screen, he did once tussle with a new neighbor, Carlos Sanchez (Charles Korvin), who embodies all the traits of the “latin lover” stock character type. This includes being perceived as a threat to women while also being sensitive, empathetic and emotional — or in the midcentury binary, effeminate. We’re joined by Nu Julio himself, Tony Rodriguez, to discuss why this classic sitcom strikes a different chord than I Love Lucy, what to make of Ralph Kramden’s domestic violence threats and why you maybe didn’t see The Honeymooners in syndication back in the day.
Watch Tony's new movie Maximum Truth on Prime Video, Apple TV or YouTube.
Watch the new season of Ninjago: Dragons Rising June 1 on Netflix! And if you don’t know what a Ninjago is, watch Ninjago Decoded, starting here.
You can now watch Glen’s movie, Being Frank, on Freevee via Amazon Prime. WATCH IT NOW!
Go shop at our TeePublic store!
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Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
American Dad Puts on a Play
“Blood Crieth Unto Heaven” (January 27, 2013)
Yes, we’re giving you two American Dads this season, with this one representing how this show uses high-concept premises better than most other sitcoms. In this one, the show presents itself as a stage play, complete with all the restrictions and encumbrances that come with denying itself the ability to do quick cuts, and what results is as funny as it is bizarre. Here to discuss why this episode is a stand-out is Johnny LaZebnik, who sings the praises of Wendy Schaal’s comedic delivery.
Do you love old TV? Then check out Network 33, where you can get the series run of various classic sitcoms in a way that’s more permanent than you can get on streaming services. We are fans! And we use this site to make this show!
Should this technically be a Weirdest Episode Ever? Sure, but here’s the thing: When we label episodes in the main feed as this, you all tend to click on them less. Will dropping this on the main feed with a non-Weird title get us more listens? Only time will tell.
Subscribe to Johnny’s Substack!
Listen to Johnny’s previous GEE episode, where he discusses writing a Simpsons with his papá.
If you want to hear about another good, weird American Dad episode, listen to Talking Simpsons’ episode about “Gold Top Nuts.” Also listen to Drew and Glen on their episode about Conan O’Brien’s pilot, Lookwell.
Watch the new season of Ninjago: Dragons Rising June 1 on Netflix! And if you don’t know what a Ninjago is, watch Ninjago Decoded, starting here.
You can now watch Glen’s movie, Being Frank, on Freevee via Amazon Prime. WATCH IT NOW!
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: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
Alex Mack Is a Lesbian Icon
“Bad Girl” (November 12, 1996)
If you were not the target audience (and target age) for this live-action Nickelodeon series, you may be shocked to find out that The Secret World of Alex Mack is a sci-fi show. It’s basically Spider-Man with a baby gay lead protagonist, played with remarkable aplomb by Larisa Oleynik. We’re joined by Katie Mathewson, screenwriter on Hawkeye and the breakout hit Jury Duty, to discuss how very queer this show is — and in particular this episode, which plays out like a mid-90s lesbian teen romcom.
Check out Lizzie Borden (no, not that one), who directed this episode and may have played a role in giving it its queer vibe.
Listen to Drew and Glen talk about Conan O’Brien’s failed pilot Lookwell on Talking Simpsons!
Watch the new season of Ninjago: Dragons Rising June 1 on Netflix! And if you don’t know what a Ninjago is, watch Ninjago Decoded, starting here.
Listen to the newest episode of Deep Cuts & Superficial Wounds here.
You can now watch Glen’s movie, Being Frank, on Freevee via Amazon Prime. WATCH IT NOW!
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: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
The Evolution of Coming Out Episodes
This week, we’re joined by Matt Baume, author of the new book Hi Honey, I’m Homo, about the history of LGBTQ representation on American TV. Instead of a single episode, we’re talking about several, including some we’ve covered previously on GEE and some we have not!
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All in the Family, “Judging Books by Covers” (February 9, 1971)
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Soap, “Episode 1.8” (November 8, 1977)
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The Golden Girls, “Isn’t It Romantic?” (November 8, 1986) and “Sister of the Bride” (January 12, 1991)
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Ellen, “The Puppy Episode” (April 30, 1997)
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Will & Grace, “Homo for the Holidays” (November 25, 1999)
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Schitt’s Creek, “Honeymoon” (April 15, 2015)
Go buy Matt’s book, Hi Honey, I’m Homo!
Watch the Carol Burnette clip with Jim Nabors and Rock Hudson that Drew mentions.
Watch the Ellen DeGeners appearance on Rosie O’Donnell that Matt mentions.
And here is that Australian marriage equality ad.
Listen to that deep dive about Cool World that Drew mentions.
There are a lot of references to episodes we’ve covered previously, and check them all out here:
Give us a rate and review on Apple Podcasts — and on Spotify too, if you can.
Ranma Is a Girl Sometimes
“I Love You! My Dear, Dear Ukyo” (May 18, 1990)
This week, we’re pivoting away from traditional sitcoms to discuss Ranma ½, a long-running anime that combines martial arts, romance, mysticism and… zany misunderstandings that are actually very sitcom-like, when you get down to it. This series focuses on the title character, a teenage boy who due to a curse turns into a girl when splashed with cold water, so there are a bajillion ways to analyze the gender dynamics. Here to discuss this with us is Diamond Feit, an American-born writer for whom Ranma ½ was a gateway drug to not only Japanese culture but also getting xem to live in Japan.
Drew refers to a Twitter thread by Michaela Joffe about the Urusei Yatsura character Ryūnosuke Fujinami. Read that here.
Diamond refers to the list of differences between the first series of Ranma ½ and the later ones. Read that here.
And see the clip of Kodachi laughing maniacally here.
Watch the new season of Ninjago: Dragons Rising June 1 on Netflix! And if you don’t know what a Ninjago is, watch Ninjago Decoded, starting here.
Listen to the newest episode of Deep Cuts & Superficial Wounds here.
You can now watch Glen’s movie, Being Frank, on Freevee via Amazon Prime. WATCH IT NOW!
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: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • 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 is a TableCakes podcast.
Leon Carp Is Roseanne’s Gay Nemesis
“The Driver’s Seat” (November 30, 1993)
We’re giving another shot to Roseanne, because perhaps it’s been long enough that you all want to listen to stories about this iconic series. Perhaps not! Regardless, this show offered us Martin Mull’s Leon, who goes unsung in the annals of gay supporting characters. He’s a villain, though much of his evildoing has nothing to do with his sexuality, and in this particular episode, his gayness doesn’t even come up — which is unusual, because usually gay supporting characters on sitcoms only show up to be gay and do nothing else.
Watch the new season of Ninjago: Dragons Rising June 1 on Netflix! And if you don’t know what a Ninjago is, watch Ninjago Decoded, starting here.
Listen to the newest episode of Deep Cuts & Superficial Wounds here.
You can now watch Glen’s movie, Being Frank, on Freevee via Amazon Prime. WATCH IT NOW!
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: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • 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 is a TableCakes podcast.
Kath Thinks Kim Is Gay (American Version)
“Gay” (November 20, 2008)
The reviews would have you believe that NBC’s attempt at an American redo of Kath & Kim was without merit and appealing to no one. We’re not so sure, and the fact that its one season on air came around the same time franchises like Real Housewives and RuPaul’s Drag Race were revving up means that there actually an audience for two women who dress trashy but who think they’re hot stuff and whose banter vacillates between friendly and bitchy. It’s not as successful as the Australian source material was, but given a chance to come into its own, could Kath & Kim U.S. grown like the American version of The Office did?
Since it’s not streaming anywhere and next to impossible to find online, watch this episode and the pilot here.
Need to get pricked? Visit Los Angeles' own Poke Acupuncture!
And read the list of episodes we're doing for Backdoor Pilots, our new Patreon series, here.
You can now watch Glen’s movie, Being Frank, on Freevee via Amazon Prime. WATCH IT NOW!
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: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • 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 is a TableCakes podcast.
Kath Thinks Kim Is Gay (Australian Version)
“Gay” (May 23, 2002)
A smash hit in its native Australia, Kath & Kim focuses on two suburban women joined by their lack of both good taste and any sort of a clue. The second episode is just titled “Gay,” and to discuss it, we were joined by Glenn Charlie Dunks, a real-life Australian homosexual who’s spent a great deal of time thinking about art, culture and the differences between Australian and American media. He also taught us several vocabulary lessons, because as we learned, we speak English but not necessarily Australian.
And read the list of episodes we're doing for Backdoor Pilots, our new Patreon series, here.Videos referenced in this episode:
- This episode’s gay panic montage
- Weddings, the 1994 Australian special that inspired Kath & Kim
- Fast Forward’s parody of Wilson Phillips
- Fast Forward’s straight Mardi Gras sketch
- The Big Girl’s Blouse sketch Gay Olympics
- Lord of the Rings x Kath & Kim
Follow: GEE on Facebook • GEE’s Facebook Group • GEE on Twitter • GEE on Instagram • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • 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 is a TableCakes podcast.
Two and a Half Men Meets a Trans Man
“An Old Flame With a New Wick” (March 1, 2004)
Despite the preconceptions you might have about Two and a Half Men, the fact remains that its first season features an episode centered on a trans man... when few other sitcoms ever bothered to tell a story about someone who’s trans and male. In fact, the previous sitcom of note to do a trans man storyline was the previous episode we had guest Henry Giardina on for: the Golden Girls episode with Gil Kessler. In this installment, we discuss why sitcoms are allergic to trans men and why Two and a Half Man, improbably, doesn’t completely fuck this up, even if it’s very early 2000s in its understanding of trans people.
Listen to Henry & co. on the Totally Trans podcats. And listen to the the trans man-centric (kinda) episode of The Golden Girls with Henry here.
Watch the “best fellatio known to mankind” scene that won Holland Taylor the Emmy for The Practice.
You can now watch Glen’s movie, Being Frank, on Freevee via Amazon Prime. WATCH IT NOW!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: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • 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 is a TableCakes podcast.
Green Acres Meets a Woman Named Ralph
“What’s in a Name?” (February 16, 1966)
On a show all about the zany inhabitants of Hooterville, Ralph Monroe (Mary Grace Canfield) stands out because the most unusual thing about her is her name. She works as a carpenter and dresses for her work, but that name alone is enough that most Hootervillians don’t know what pronoun to use for her. As we discuss with special guest Josh Trujillo, Ralph is not a trans character, but this episode about her seeking a new name so she can get married, offers enough to qualify her as interesting enough to merit her own episode of this podcast… darling.
Pre-order Josh's book, WASHINGTON'S GAY GENERAL.
You can now watch Glen’s movie, Being Frank, on Freevee via Amazon Prime. WATCH IT NOW!
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: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • 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 is a TableCakes podcast.
Weirdest Episode Ever: Darkwing Duck Goes to Twin Peaks
This is a preview for the Weirdest Episode Ever about the time Darkwing Duck did a parody of Twin Peaks. The full episode is an exclusive for patrons pledging $5 or more a month, but this preview is going on the free feed both as an enticement and also because I share some quotes from Tad Stones, creator of Darkwing Duck, about how this strange piece of TV came to be. If you want to hear the full episode, head over to our Patreon and pledge at the $5-a-month level; you’ll not only get all WEEs so far but also every episode of the new miniseries, Backdoor Pilots, launching next month.
Let’s get dangerous!
For a history of the Scrooge McDuck comics and how they ended up onscreen as Ducktales, listen to the What a Cartoon episode about it. Why yes, Drew did in fact compile a list of all the instances of doubling on the original Twin Peaks. Watch Sesame Street’s own Twin Peaks parody, which is also called Twin Beaks.Bosom Buddies Never Did a Gay Episode
“Sonny Boy” (February 12, 1981)
Is it surprising that TV’s most famous drag sitcom never dared to do anything actually gay? It shouldn’t be! And for all that could end up going wrong with this premise, this episode, concerning Peter Scolari’s character having to explain to his mother why he’s wearing a dress, weirdly (and probably accidentally) gets a lot right about coming out. It’s a story about someone saying it doesn’t matter whether anyone understands your decision. As Billy Joel once said, “I don't care what you say anymore / This is my life / Go ahead with your own life / Leave me alone.”
Since Bosom Buddies isn’t streaming anywhere, you can watch this episode on our Vimeo.
You can now watch Glen’s movie, Being Frank, on Freevee via Amazon Prime. WATCH IT NOW!
Listen to Drew talk about R.L. Stine with Kelly Nugent on the Teen Creeps podcast and talk about Jack Hill with James Eldred on the Cinema Oblivia podcast.
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This is a TableCakes podcast.
Parks & Recreation Marries Gay Penguins
“Pawnee Zoo” (September 17, 2009)
Okay, fine, we did the Parks & Rec episode you asked for, but here’s the thing: The one were Leslie Knope marries gay penguins is not the pro-gay piece of TV history you think it is. Nowhere in this episode does Leslie ever say she gives a dirty squirt about gays or same-sex marriage. The episode never takes a position, and the fact that it won a GLAAD Media Award makes it all the more galling that “Pawnee Zoo” plays out as Leslie liking positive attention but never saying a single nice thing about gay people.
Rate and review us on Apple Podcasts and we’ll read reviews on next week’s ad. YOU CAN MAKE US SAY WHATEVER YOU WANT!!!
You can now watch Glen’s movie, Being Frank, on Freevee via Amazon Prime. WATCH IT NOW!
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John Goodman Played Gay on Normal, Ohio
“Caught on Tape” (November 15, 2000)
John Goodman’s follow-up sitcom to Roseanne was Normal, Ohio, which only lasted seven episodes before Fox yanked it from its schedule in late 2000. Unfortunately, the take-away from its failure was that audiences wouldn’t buy a guy like Goodman playing gay, which is perhaps not one of the problems this show needed to fix? This week, special guest / homosexual academic Hollis Griffin joins us to discuss why this show didn’t work and why it’s still worth discussing as a failed imitator to Will & Grace.
You can now watch Glen’s movie, Being Frank, on Freevee via Amazon Prime. WATCH IT NOW!
Watch the episode we’re discussing on YouTube. Also watch Don’t Ask, the unaired pilot that eventually became this show.
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This is a TableCakes podcast.
Brothers Brings a Sitcom Sensibility to Gay Bashing
“It Only Hurts When I’m Gay” (October 25, 1985)
On paper, the idea of a sitcom taking on the subject of gay bashing seems like the worst idea, but somehow Brothers — TV’s first gay sitcom — manages to tell a real story about violence against gay people while avoiding the hokey “very special episode” tropes. We’re as shocked as anyone how good this turned out, and what’s more, it’s genuinely funny without underselling the gravity of the attack.
You can now watch Glen’s movie, Being Frank, on Freevee via Amazon Prime. WATCH IT NOW!
Please, watch this episode (and other Brothers episodes!) on YouTube. The posting we used to do this episode only had 36 views as of the time this GEE went live!
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This is a TableCakes podcast.
Barney Miller Protects the Rights of Gay Parents
“The Child-Stealers” (January 24, 1980)
A hundred episodes and one pandemic later, we’re finally returning to the least offensive police precinct in TV history. This sixth-season episode sees the return of Marty and Daryl, the recurring homos at the center of the previous Barney Miller we covered. What results is an interesting look at how police are able and sometimes unable to intervene with homophobia keeps a parent from seeing their child.
Listen to our previous Barney Miller episode.
Regarding the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure recommendation at the end of the episode, check out the Retronauts episode that relaunched Drew’s enthusiasm for this series. Also check out the JoJo’s Bizarre Explainer podcast.
Listen to Smart Mouth’s popcorn episode and listen to Monday Afternoon Movie’s two-parter with special guest Julie Brown!
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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 is a TableCakes podcast.
Miss Piggy Is a Gay Icon
“Miss Piggy’s Hollywood” / “First Show” (May 14, 1989)
Better known by the segment title, Miss Piggy’s Hollywood, this mostly forgotten bit of TV history aired on NBC in 1989 and more or less works out to be the thing Drew and Glen dreamed into existence: The Comeback but with Miss Piggy. In this half-hour, you see Miss Piggy repeatedly try to assert herself in Hollywood, only to be knocked down every time. Gee, is there a reason gay men are drawn to this character who’s seeking acceptance from a society that refuses to give it to her?
Watch Miss Piggy’s Hollywood right now on YouTube.
Listen to the Maintenance Phase episode about Elizabeth Taylor’s diet book.
Watch: Miss Piggy and Joan Rivers and also Miss Piggy and Herb Alpert.
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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 is a TableCakes podcast.
Weirdest Episode Ever: Lucy Gets Eaten by a Dragon
“Lucy Goes to Scotland” (January 6, 1956)
It’s our second I Love Lucy episode and also our second “It was all a dream!” installment of Weirdest Episode Ever. So what is to be made of a dream sequence where Lucy Ricardo is ultimately fed to a dragon? Perhaps not much, but if you want to approach it from a perspective of dream analysis, it’s very likely that Lucy’s sacrifice has something to do with Lucille Ball’s impending divorce and her allowing celebrity to triumph over her personal life. And that’s not even saying anything about Vivian Vance and William Frawley playing a two-headed dragon that can’t stand being yoked to its other half.
Listen to our previous I Love Lucy outing, about how it just might have made the first gay joke in sitcom history.
The logo for Weirdest Episode Ever was designed by Ian O’Phelan. The theme music was composed by Nick Loiacano.
Weirdest Episode Ever: The Cosby Show Has a Nightmare — This Time With Muppets!
Heads up! We’re talking about The Cosby Show in this episode, and therefore we’re talking about Bill Cosby’s alleged sexual misconduct. We don’t spend too much time on it. That’s mostly addressed in a different Patreon-online episode, which people supporting us at the $5 level or higher can listen to here.
This is actually the tenth installment of Weirdest Episode Ever, our newest bonus miniseries. It’s going on the main feed for scheduling reasons I explain in the intro but also this will serve as a nice intro for the next regular GEE we will be recording.
“Cliff’s Nightmare” (January 11, 1990)
How do you follow up an mpreg fantasy that also functions as a subconscious exploration of Bill Cosby’s alleged misdeeds? How about an aborted crossover intended to promote Jim Henson’s strangest TV experiment? We couldn’t get to the bottom of exactly how this Cosby Show episode came to be and then came to air, but we can safely say that we understand why Digit and Leon didn’t crossover into the larger Muppet universe.
Watch the first episode of The Jim Henson Hour here. And watch the “lost” episode here.
Watch the video that Glen couldn't be bothered to find here.
The Weirdest Episode Ever theme music was composed by Nick Loiacano.
Night Court Did a Trans Episode, But Let’s Talk About This Episode Instead
“Bull Gets a Kid” (November 8, 1984)
For our second look at Night Court, we opted not for the so-so trans episode “Best of Friends,” which doesn’t really improve on the “my buddy is in town and it turns out is trans” plotline done so well by The Jeffersons. Instead, we are looking at a non-gay, non-trans episode guest starring Bobby Hill herself, Pamela Adlon, as a young girl who pretends to be a boy. There’s actually a lot going on here about gender norms that makes for a more interesting talk than if we have done the explicitly trans episode, we say. Markie Post, we’ll get to you one day.
Listen to our previous Night Court epsiode. Also watch the "full cast" opening credits to Night Court, made for the GEE TV episode.
Talking Simpsons’ What a Cartoon podcast watched Capitol Critters so you don’t have to.
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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 is a TableCakes podcast.
Before Balki, Bronson Pinchot Played Gay on Sara
“You Can’t Win ’Em All” (February 27, 1985)
Sara is a one-season sitcom that first came to our attention via a gag on The Simpsons, the context being that it wasn’t a show worth remembering. The Simpsons was wrong, however, and this Geena Davis vehicle does a lot of what we think ’80s sitcoms don’t do. Namely, it has an out gay character who is allowed to have a sex drive. He’s also more than a set of stereotypical mannerisms but he still reads as gay. And Bronson Pinchot, who one year later would become a sitcom star as Balki on Perfect Strangers, does a great job bringing dimension to this character who should have been on TV for a lot longer.
Many thanks to Steven Capsuto for collecting historical context around Sara in his amazing book, Alternate Channels: Queer Images on Twentieth-Century TV, which is a great resource for anyone studying LGBTQ representation in media. Also listen to the episode Steve did with us about Love, Sidney.
Thanks to Zach Wilson for giving us access to the video of this ep! You can watch the entire episode on the GEE Vimeo here.
Watch the credits to the also short-lived sitcom DREAMS.
Read the LA Times piece about the production of Sara.
And also have a look at the Pop Trash Museum article about Sara.
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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 is a TableCakes podcast.
Golden Girls Celebrates Valentine’s Day With Gay Guys, Dick Jokes and Condoms
“Valentine’s Day” (February 11, 1989)
Consider this a special Valentine’s present from us to you: your regular weekly episode, one day early! Feb. 14 marks a truly terrible holiday that we’d normally encourage you all to ignore. However, it so happens that just in time for 2023’s Valentine’s Day we were reminded of a Golden Girls episode that spins not one but four tales about this wretched holiday. Believe us: They do it about as good as any TV show ever could.
Watch Matt Baume’s video that inspired this episode, “Why Do Gay Guys Love The Golden Girls?”
Listen to “Glen Writes a Golden Girls,” which is maybe one of the best things we’ve done with this podcast, as well as all the previous Golden Girls episodes.
Submit your own suggestions for Box of Compliments compliments here.
Confused about Dana Jean Harley and fat country babies eating peaches off a hardwood floor? Watch SNL’s “Country Roses” sketch here.
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Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • 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 is a TableCakes podcast.
A Gay Alien Makes American Dad a Good Show
A heads up: This episode discusses sexual assault in the context of it being something that would get referenced in mid-2000s shows as a marker of being “edgy.” Also, there is a discussion of anal probing in the context of alien abduction, not to be funny but to try and understand why this is a concept that shows up on sitcoms.
“Roger ’n‘ Me” (April 23, 2006)
As a follow-up to last week’s Great Gazoo episode, we return to American Dad to try to explain why Roger the alien is such a successful character and, really, a likely reason why American Dad show succeeds. This is an early episode exploring Roger’s relationship with Stan. And while the show suffers from being more like Family Guy than it would be even a year later, there is surprisingly nuance to the way the show deals with these two sharing what amounts to a sexual experience.
Listen to our previous episode on American Dad.
Listen to the episode of Monday Afternoon Movie about The UFO Incident, with special guest Scott Philbrook from Astonishing Legends.
Read the Reddit thread “How did anal probing become associated with alien abductions?”
Listen to the Our Strange Skies podcast’s series on Whitley Strieber.
Submit your own suggestions for Box of Compliments compliments here.
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Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • 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 is a TableCakes podcast.
A Gay Alien Ruins The Flintstones
“The Great Gazoo” (October 29, 1965)
Not only did the Great Gazoo mark the “jumping the shark” point for The Flintstones well before that was a term that meant anything in TV studies, but also there’s a whole queer backstory for this green imp, who’s allegedly inspired by a guy who taught a legendary class of CalArts animators who went on to make most of the top-grossing cinematic cartoons of the last fifty years. The fact that there’s next to nothing available online about Bill Moore only makes the mystery more enticing. We truly will have a gay old time.
Read the Vanity Fair piece on CalArts in which Brad Bird identifies the Great Gazoo as being inspired by Bill Moore.
Listen to Talking Simpsons’ What a Cartoon episode about this Flintstones milestone.
Watch the Stone Age Cartoons short “Granite Hotel,” which seems like a predecessor for The Flintstones.
Read the MeTV article about sitcom couples sharing a bed.
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Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • 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 is a TableCakes podcast.
Kramer Gets Bullied by Mean Gays
“The Sponge” (December 7, 1995)
You know one thing Seinfeld did right that many of its metropolitan sitcom imitators didn’t? It had mean gays — specifically Bob and Cedric, a gay couple that shows up three times throughout the series run to exert queer menace on Kramer. They figure into a plot that’s otherwise centered on Elaine’s birth control, and their demand that Kramer wear an AIDS ribbon allows us to discuss various issues related to virtue signaling, talking talks vs. walking walks and getting called out online.
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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 is a TableCakes podcast.
The Cartoons That Made Us Gay: Sailor Moon
“The Shining Silver Crystal: The Moon Princess Appears” (November 28, 1992)
It's the only Sailor Moon episode of a podcast you will hear this week featuring a surprise cameo by Mia Farrow.
About a year ago, we covered Sailor Moon on our bonus podcast, The Cartoons That Made Us Gay. We kicked off 2023 by returning to Sailor Moon, and so we decided to pop the original one onto the main feed. This one is all about the first-season same-sex couple, Kunzite and Zoisite, but if you’re into it, right now on Patreon there is a whole second episode about the other famous same-sex couple from this series, Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune. Listen to that here.
And GEE will be back with a brand-new Seinfeld outing in two weeks! But if that’s too long for you, don’t forget that new episodes premiere on the Patreon feed one week early!
Miscellaneous notes:
- Yes, there is a substantial parallel between Sailor Moon and Buffy, though we’d hesitate to declare it more than a coincidence
- Kotaku’s post on the abomination that is the American pilot for a live action Sailor Moon remake
- Hello Kitty is not a cat
- Read Drew’s Thrilling Tales of Old Video Games post if you want to know how the connection to Rose of Versailles
- And check out the lengthy Twitter thread posted in response to the first Sailor Moon episode, about why it wasn’t surprising to have a same-sex couple in the first season of the show
- Watch the clip comparing Molly’s original DiC accent to Mia Farrow’s
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Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • 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 is a TableCakes podcast.
Weirdest Episode Ever: The Facts of Life Goes to the Twilight Zone
Greetings! We are combatting the dead zone that is the holidays with a bonus episode: the fourth of Weirdest Episode Ever, our new Patreon series looking at sitcoms that venture into sci-fi, horror and fantasy. If you like this, you can listen to three other episodes on Patreon, with another six to come in early 2023. They’re available for people supporting us at the $5 level or higher.
Here’s the full list of episodes we have done/will be doing:
- The Cosby Show, "The Day the Spores Landed" (a.k.a. the male pregnancy episode)
- I Love Lucy, “Lucy Goes to Scotland" (a.k.a. Lucy gets fed to a dragon)
- Perfect Strangers, "Aliens" (a.k.a. Balki is an alien)
- The Facts of Life, "Seven Little Indians" (a.k.a. the Twilight Zone parody)
- A Family Matters, "Stevil" (a.k.a. Steve Urkel gets a murderous puppet doppelganger)
- Benson, "Death in a Funny Position" (a.k.a. serial killer cruise ship)
- Day By Day, "A Very Brady Episode" (a.k.a. a very strange venture into Brady Bunch land)
- Two Guys a Girl and a Pizza Place, "Two Guys a Girl and a Psycho Halloween" (a.k.a. Ryan Reynolds murders everyone)
- Punky Brewster, "The Perils of Punky" (a.k.a. the cave of horrors)
- The Cosby Show, "Cliff's Nightmare" (a.k.a. Cliff Huxtable vs. Muppets)
Here are the details on this Facts of LIfe episode:
“Seven Little Indians” (January 3, 1987)
It would be ambitious for any sitcom, much less Facts of Life specifically, to attempt a weird episode that not only satirizes 1980s slasher movies but also murder mysteries and also The Twilight Zone. For all that being packed into one 22-minute format, this one actually works pretty well. Lisa Whelchel as Blair — big-haired, wild eyed and caked with makeup — makes for a striking visual that probably traumatized a few kids back in the day.
The Facts of Life, previously:
The logo for Weirdest Episode Ever + the rad art of psycho killer Blair Warner was designed by Ian O’Phelan. The theme music was composed by Nick Loiacano.
It’s a Will & Grace Christmas 2: The Revenge
“Jingle Balls” (December 13, 2001)
We are closing out the year by returning to the only sitcom whose every Christmas episode is also gay: Will & Grace. It’s not great, people. And while this Laura Kightlinger-penned season for ep shows promise, it ultimately pulls back from exploring subjects that it could have done interesting work with: Will’s apparent embarrassment at dating a more effeminate man and Jack’s misguided belief that being gay means he can do design work. At least Parker Posey saves the day with unrestrained homophobia.
Got a question you want to ask Drew? Ask anonymously here. Details for how to watch the answering session to follow.
Will & Grace, previously:
- Will and Jack Kiss on Live TV
- Will and Jack Embrace Every Gay Stereotype
- It’s a Will & Grace Christmas!
BTW, the neurological condition Drew mentions in this episode is real and is called witzelsucht.
Check out our sponsor, Spaces! And join our spaces for Gayest Episode Ever and Cartoons That Made Us Gay. And yes, it’s now available for Android!
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Talk to other GEE listeners on the GEE Discord!
Follow: GEE on Facebook • GEE’s Facebook Group • GEE on Twitter • GEE on Instagram • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • 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 is a TableCakes podcast.
The Goode Family Meets Two Types of Lesbians
“A Tale of Two Lesbians” (June 19, 2009)
It’s not exactly incorrect that you can summarize The Goode Family as “What if King of the Hill but liberal?” But that description makes it seem like Mike Judge’s follow-up to KotH didn’t have potential. It did, and just a few episodes in, it was world-building in a way few other series did, by giving viewers not just one lesbian couple but two — and they were nothing alike either! Imagine! Multiple representations of female queerness onscreen at the same time! We’re joined by longtime friend of the pod Mir Knight to discuss why this series didn’t succeed.
Listen to the free preview of our first installment of Weirdest Episode Ever here.
Check out our sponsor, Spaces! And join our spaces for Gayest Episode Ever and Cartoons That Made Us Gay.
Go shop at our TeePublic store!
Talk to other GEE listeners on the GEE Discord!
Follow: GEE on Facebook • GEE’s Facebook Group • GEE on Twitter • GEE on Instagram • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • 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 is a TableCakes podcast.
We Finally Do Soap
Content warning: In discussing plotlines on Soap, we do bring up suicide and, very briefly, sexual assault.
"Episode 4.1" (November 12, 1980) *
Finally! It's one of the biggest cult favorite sitcoms of all time *and* it's also a show famous for having a LGBT character in the main cast. The only reason it's taken us this many years to tackle Soap is that it's so much more serialized than mostly anything else we cover, so while we focus on one particular episode, we're also discussing the entirety of Billy Crystal's gay character, Jodie Dallas. Good thing we have longtime Soap fan and TableCakes' Katherine Helmond correspondent Gwynedd Stuart on hand to discuss the show in general and the awesomeness of Jessica Tate in particular.
Check out our sponsor, Spaces! And join our spaces for Gayest Episode Ever and Cartoons That Made Us Gay.
Also check out Gwynedd's work on Sporked.
Listen to Gwynedd’s episode of Monday Afternoon Movie about The Legend of Lizzie Borden.
See the full text of "the Soap memo." And then read the full piece on Newspapers.com (subscription required).
The Susan Harris quotes in this piece come from this 2018 Yahoo interview.
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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 is a TableCakes podcast.
* By some counts, this is actually episode 3.22.
Who’s the Boss? Just Basically Admits That Jonathan Is Gay
“Jonathan the Gymnast” (November 18, 1986)
Technically, Who’s the Boss? never did a gay episode, but because Danny Pintauro’s sexuality looms large over this sitcom, many episodes seem a little gayer as a result — and this episode especially so. In it, Tony and Angela step into the kitchen to have a frank discussion of why Jonathan is not like other boys, and it really comes off like Who’s the Boss? is asking viewers to overlook this aspect of the character. It’s fucked up that this happened, and it’s one of several occurrences that make Drew utter the phrase “Poor Jonathan.”
Check out our sponsor, Spaces! And join our spaces for Gayest Episode Ever and Cartoons That Made Us Gay.
Listen to the episode of Monday Afternoon Movie about The Legend of Lizzie Borden — starring Katherine Helmond but also featuring as a guest Gwynedd Stuart, who will be our guest next week to discuss Soap.
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Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • 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 is a TableCakes podcast.
Wings Flies Its Gay Character Back to Nantucket
“Sons and Lovers” (January 16, 1996)
This is an honest-to-God follow-up to our previous Wings episode, which was all about the series antagonist, Roy Biggins, finding out his son was gay. Five seasons later, someone at Wings thought to ask “Hey, what if that gay character didn’t cease to exist the moment that first episode ended?” This episode marks one of the few times that a one-off gay character actually got to return. And yeah, we’re re-joined by Massachusetts correspondent Jonathan Bradley Welch. It’s a real journey for us all.
Check out our sponsor, Spaces! And join our spaces for Gayest Episode Ever and Cartoons That Made Us Gay.
Watch what remains of the attempted British remake of Wings.Buy the new issue of Beyond Sunset here.
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Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • 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 is a TableCakes podcast.
The Crew Was Fox’s Queer-Inclusive Alternative to Friends
“The Man We Love” (June 30, 1996)
Last week, we looked at Married… With Children’s take on an anti-Friends. This week, we decided to look at the last episode of a show that aired the previous season on Fox. While it was not designed as a response to Friends, it nonetheless managed to solve some of that show’s major problems. Namely, it’s racially diverse, there’s a queer character in the opening credits, and the characters actually work. It’s also funny, and having been co-created by writers who cut their teeth on The Golden Girls, that’s no surprise. What’s more, this show features an explicitly bi character — and this is something sitcoms almost never did and still don’t.
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Watch episodes of The Crew on archive.org. And while you’re at it, watch The Five Mrs. Buchanans too.
Read Drew’s interview with Golden Girls writers, including Jamie Wooten and more.
Check out Katherine’s new food venture, How to Eat L.A.
Support Glen’s LEGO DnD build by leaving a comment on the LEGO website.
Listen to Drew’s episode of Queer Quadrant, all about The Brady Bunch Movie — on Apple Podcasts and on Spotify.
Buy the new issue of Beyond Sunset here.
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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 is a TableCakes podcast.
Backdoor Pilots: Married… With Children Tries to Make the Anti-Friends
“Enemies” (April 14, 1996)
You may recall a late-series installment of Married… With Children that shifted focus away from the Bundys and onto an apartment of young sexy people who apparently despised each other. This was “Enemies,” a kinda-sorta send-up of Friends that never saw the light of day beyond this one episode. Our theory is that it was a reformatted spinoff that at one point was going to star Christina Applegate and that also features a guy who’s totally a stand-in for Matt Le Blanc.
All of this is our take on what would be the Backdoor Pilots Patreon-only bonus podcast that we’re starting this month. Should we do this one? Or should we do Weirdest Episode Ever?
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According to Pop Culture References, it looks like The Bob Cummings Show was the first TV show to do a backdoor pilot.
And here’s that 1996 Levi’s commercial that Drew thinks this episode is reacting to.
Buy the new issue of Beyond Sunset here.
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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 is a TableCakes podcast.
Weirdest Episode Ever: Dick Van Dyke vs. Space Aliens
The Addams Family Considers Conversion Therapy
“Morticia and the Psychiatrist” (September 25, 1964)
This year, we’re celebrating Halloween with one of the two most Halloween-tastic TV families of all time — and no worries, because we talk plenty about the other one too. Joining us to discuss the second episode of The Addams Family is Ted Biaselli, director of original series at Netflix, who shares some of his experience developing the new Addams Family reboot, Wednesday, and his lifelong relationship with the creepiest and kookiest family in sitcom history.
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Listen to Ted’s previous episodes, The Cartoons That Made Us Gay and Glen Writes a Golden Girls.
Also, here is the blog post Drew references as identifying the Addams Family as east coast while the Munsters are west coast.
Also:The new Halloween episode of Singing Mountain The Square Roots podcast
Buy the new issue of Beyond Sunset here.
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Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • 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 is a TableCakes podcast.
Modern Family Meets a Gay Clown
“Fizbo” (November 25, 2009)
People have been asking us to cover this show basically since we started the podcast, and so this week we finally decided to cover it… by looking into an episode no one wanted us to do. In our heads, the most interesting part of the show is Cam and Mitchell, and the most interesting part of Cam and Mitchell is Eric Stonestreet’s portrayal of Cam. He’s straight, but we say he delivers a nuanced character who both embraces and defies stereotypes. Also, he’s a clown, it turns out. Which may be appropriate, depending on your point of view.
Check out our sponsor, Spaces! And join our spaces for Gayest Episode Ever and Cartoons That Made Us Gay.
Buy the new issue of Beyond Sunset here.
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Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • 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 is a TableCakes podcast.
Archie Bunker Goes to a Gay Bar
“The Boys’ Night Out” (February 13, 1983)
More than a hundred episodes later (of All in the Family but also of this podcast), we return to the Archie Bunker primary universe to find out if everyone's favorite bigot got over his homophobia. The answer: kind of? But that is probably just the result of season after season of broadcast TV sanding off his rougher edges.
Check out our sponsor, Spaces! And join our spaces for Gayest Episode Ever and Cartoons That Made Us Gay.
Listen to Drew talk Street Fighter II and Thrilling Tales of Old Video Games on the Video Game History Hour podcast.
Media of note:
- The Hollywood Reporter interview with Norman Lear about Carol O'Connor
- Washington Post article on the cancelation of Archie Bunker's Place
- The “Night of a Thousand Stars” video
- Beverly LaSalle, RIP (part one) as explained by the Totally Trans podcast
Buy the new issue of Beyond Sunset here.
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: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • 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 is a TableCakes podcast.
The Gay Pre-History of Mama's Family
“There Is Nothing Like the Dames” (February 17, 1990)
Believe it or not, Mama’s Family has a deeply queer history. While the final result of — the syndicated revival that returned to TV after NBC canceled the it — bears little of that, this episode goes over all the ways a recurring sketch on The Carol Burnett Show originally told the story of a queer-coded artist who can’t relate to his family back home. It’s all the stranger to consider that Mama’s Family never did an explicitly queer episode, even with all those Bob Mackie costumes.
Check out our sponsor, Spaces! And join our spaces for Gayest Episode Ever and Cartoons That Made Us Gay.
Buy the new issue of Beyond Sunset here.
Read the article in which Bubba actor Allan Kayser talks about his famously tight jeans.
Vicki Lawrence sings the original, non-instrumental version of the Mama’s Family theme song. But also listen to her disco banger “Don’t Stop the Music” and the no. 1 murder mystery pop hit “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia.”
Watch the brilliant 1982 TV movie adaptation of the Harper family saga, Eunice. Also watch The Carol Burnett Show’s famous “Went With the Wind” sketch. But most importantly watch the original sketch version that led to Mama’s Family, when it was just called “The Family.” It made Drew way more sad than sketch comedy usually does. 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: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • 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 is a TableCakes podcast.
30 Rock Questions Its Sexuality
“Cougars” (November 29, 2007)
As comedically successful as it might be, 30 Rock is a very straight show. That’s why our best pick for a queer episode is one where the sexually interesting narrative is the C plot and it ends with Judah Friedlander’s Frank convincing himself he can’t like guys because he doesn’t fit prescribed definition of gay. This episode is ultimately harmless but indicative of some traps later Tina Fey efforts would fall into. But hey — it’s got “Muffin Top.”
Check out our sponsor, Spaces! And join our spaces for Gayest Episode Ever and Cartoons That Made Us Gay.
Buy the new issue of Beyond Sunset here.
Listen to Drew and Glen talk Teen Angel on Talking Simpsons.
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Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • 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 is a TableCakes podcast.
Nikki Explores the Gay Side of Pro Wrestling
“Stealing Nikki” (November 26, 2000)
Go figure: It’s our longest episode yet, and it’s about a show you might not even remember!
We were fortunate enough to get Talking Simpsons co-host Henry Gilbert back for a second go-around, and we decided to make use of his encyclopedic knowledge of professional wrestling. Lucky for us, there is in fact a sitcom that discusses pro wrestling and queerness in the same context, and it’s Nikki Cox two-season comedy series, which could not be more early 2000s. Even better? It aired on The WB, which allows us to discuss that netlet’s role in TV history.
Listen to Talking Simpsons, because we ripped it off in making this show.
If you haven’t yet, treat yourself to GLOW: not the Netflix version (which is also good!) but the original syndicated 80s Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling show.
Read the 2006 Outsports interview with Kevin Nash, this episode’s guest star, where he daringly shares his progressive views on gay people.
Check out our sponsor, Spaces!
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: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • 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 is a TableCakes podcast.
Bill Dauterive Is Gay for Pay
“My Hair Lady” (February 15, 2004)
Welcome to season six of Gayest Episode Ever! True, season don’t really mean anything on this kind of podcast, but we are back from our summer hiatus and we’re super eager to get back into talking sitcom queerness.
We’re kicking off this season with our fourth look at King of the Hill. It’s an interesting one in that it has (presumably) straight writer Wyatt Cenac telling a story about Bill pretending to be gay, yet it’s pretty well done, in that both Glen and Drew walked away not being offended or annoyed by anything Bill says or wears. This is actually high praise for us.
Check out our sponsor, Spaces!
Listen to the Teen Creeps episode about Cherry Falls here.
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: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • 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 is a TableCakes podcast.
Wings Meets a Gay
Hi. This is the fourth and final installment of our summer rerun series wherein we send out old episodes that we think are good but perhaps didn’t get all the attention they should have. This Wings episode is actually our least-listened-to episode, and we’re pretty sure that is a result of Drew naming it originally “Roy Biggins Has a Big Gay Son.” We’re betting that forefronting the fact that it’s Wings will help more people listen to it, because you’re more likely to know what Wings is than you are to remember who Roy Biggins was. Either way, this is an episode we will be revisiting in the not-too-distant future when we do the episode where Roy’s gay son comes back to the show!
See you in September with new episodes!
“There’s Always Room for Cello” (December 14, 1990)
Roy Biggins is the chuckling villain of Wings, an NBC sitcom that is a solid B but which has a reputation for being a C minus. In the second season, Roy’s son came out and Roy was given — and totally biffed — a chance to act like a grown-up. Jonathan Bradley Welch, host of that *other* gay TV podcast, A Special Presentation, is on hand to discuss growing up in Massachusetts, the charms of Crystal Bernard and which Hackett brother is hotter.
Listen to Jonathan’s gay TV podcast, A Special Presentation, and listen to the episode Drew did about Animaniacs.
Read the transcript for this episode here.
Support us on Patreon!
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Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
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.
Married With Children Lets Its Out Star Play Gay
It's another summer rerun! This time, of our 17th episode, which never really pulled in the numbers we thought it should. We swear it doesn't suck!
“Lez Be Friends” (April 28, 1997)
For many kids watching sitcoms in the 90s, Amanda Bearse would have been one of the first actors they would have known to be openly gay. That’s what makes this episode so special. She’d put in her time on Married… With Children season after season, playing Al Bundy’s sparring partner, Marcy D’Arcy. So it’s sweet that toward the end of the series, she got to play Marcy’s cousin Mandy, who is so down to hang that Al actually likes her — and she’s openly gay.
Are there more than two gay episodes of Married… With Children? Because we did the one where Al and Peggy meet a gay couple. So if you’ve got any suggestions for additional Married… episodes, we’re all ears.
Support us on Patreon!
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Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
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.
Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy Are Domestic Partners
This is a summer rerun of an episode that originally aired July 30, 2018. We're posting not only because Harley and Ivy went from subtextual lovers to full on romantic partners on the HBO Max series but also because we've got a new Batman: TAS episode of Cartoons That Made Us Gay, which you can listen to here.
Excuse the echo! It was 2018 and we didn't know better!
"Harley and Ivy" (January 18, 1993)
In GEE’s first bonus episode, Glen and Drew focus on something that's not a sitcom but is nonetheless pretty damn gay — the Batman: The Animated Series installment that put a lesbianish aura around Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn, which extended to the comics and ultimately made the duo a full-fledged couple years later.
Support us on Patreon!
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Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
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.
Sanford Arms Meets a Gay — And He’s Black!
“Phil’s Assertion School (September 23, 1977)
Sanford Arms was NBC’s attempt to continue the world of Sanford and Son without either Sanford or the Son. It didn’t work, and of the eight episodes produced, only four ever aired. That said, it’s second ever installment not only introduced a gay character but also it became the first black cast sitcom to ever do a gay episode with an out gay person of color. So while this attempt at a Sanford spinoff didn’t work, it still landed its place in history. We’re joined again by Dr. Alfred L. Martin to discuss.
Buy Alfred’s book, The Generic Closet: Black Gayness and the Black-Cast Sitcom.
Listen to our previous Sanford and Son episode.
Watch this episode of Sanford Arms on Vimeo.
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Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • 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 is a TableCakes podcast.
Sanford Thinks His Son Is Gay (And Vice-Versa)
It's our first-ever summer rerun! And we're doing this one in preparation for a full-length, main feed bonus episode next week, where we're talking about Sanford Arms, the sequel series to Sanford and Sun. Enjoy!
“Lamont, Is That You?” (October 19, 1973)
Norman Lear for the win! This podcast probably won’t go in depth on ’90s classics like Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Family Matters or A Different World because many black sitcoms of that era didn’t do gay episodes. Back in 1973, Sanford and Son did, however, and the result is classier and more interesting than what you’d see on shows ten and twenty years later.
Check out A Love Bizarre, Los Angeles’ new queer art space:
Support us on Patreon!
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Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • 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 is a TableCakes podcast.
Al Borland Is a Model for the Modern American Gay Bear
“Roomie for Improvement” (November 4, 1992)
Al Borland is not gay. This episode makes a point of saying that he is a heterosexual, despite how many of his (comparatively) immasculine qualities might indicate otherwise. However for some, Richard Karn’s sensitive flannel man is an example of a kind of guy some of us would grow up to like and some of us would grow up to be: big, bearded, and free to be ourselves regardless of where on the gender spectrum we ended up being. Nick Del Prince joins Drew and Glen to discuss Home Improvement, one of the most successful shows this podcast has examined so far — and easily one of the straightest.
And here’s the queer SNL think you may recognize Nick from.
Ask Harriet? No thank you, we won’t be asking her anything?
Tim Allen has never looked sexier than he does in his mug shot.
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Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • 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 is a TableCakes podcast.
The Nanny Has Bad Gaydar
“A Fine Friendship” (February 6, 1995)
One hundred episodes later, we return to The Nanny to find out what happens when Fran Fine mistakes a straight guy for a gay guy. This episode essnetially works as an inverse to the first Nanny episode we covered, right down to Fran being horrified by a gay-seeming person being straight rather than delighted by a straight-seeming person being gay.
Watch Matt Baume’s video on LGBTQ representation on The Nanny
Watch Fran Drescher’s TikTok on why The Nanny had a gay sensibility
Read Brett White’s column “‘The Nanny’ Is a Crucial Gay Text That Must Be Preserved and Celebrated”
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: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • 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 is a TableCakes podcast.NewsRadio Never Did a Gay Episode
“Halloween” (October 30, 1996)
Considering that every other major Must See TV sitcom did at least one gay episode, it’s surprising that NewsRadio didn’t — especially when you consider the fact that its lead actor, Dave Foley, jumped straight to NBC from Kids in the Hall, which experimented with gender and sexuality a lot more freely. This episode was as close as we could find to a real gay episode. And while it does feature Dave Foley donning drag once again, there’s a lot more weird stuff going on, including Phil Hartman’s character getting a premonition of his own death — about a year and a half before he’d die in real life. All this plus Andy Dick and Joe Rogan! Yeah, this is a weird episode!
Read:
Uproxx’s oral history of NewsRadio
The interview where the NewsRadio creator compares Must See TV Thursdays to a “shit sandwich”
Watch:
Listen:
American Hysteria, the podcast all about moral panics, urban legends and conspiracy theories — and how they shape culture.
The Science Versus episode on Joe Rogan
The Astonishing Legends episode on the alien autopsy video
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: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • 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 is a TableCakes podcast.Rosa Diaz Is Bi... And Brooklyn Nine-Nine Is Copaganda
Right off the top of the bat, we need to admit that yes, Brooklyn Nine-Nine is a show about cops. There’s no getting around that. We try our best to discuss how to weight its copaganda status against every other aspect of the show, and while we’re not going to try to sell anyone on this show, we will say that dismissing it means skipping over one of the better episodes of a sitcom ever to address bisexuality head-on. Speaking of addressing bisexuality head-on, we’re joined by Queer Quadrant co-host Brooke Solomon to discuss the Michael Schurverse, Eleanor Shellstrops on other shows and why Stephanie Beatriz is awesome.
Follow Queer Quadrant on Twitter
Also listen to American Hysteria, a podcast all about moral panics, urban legends and conspiracy theories — and how they shape culture.
Watch the weird, Latina-free Quebecois remake of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Escouade 99.
Listen to Stephanie Beatriz’s episode of Nicole Byer’s Why Won’t You Date Me?
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: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • 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 is a TableCakes podcast.Troy McClure Isn’t Gay, But…
- The strange history of the 2019 film Yesterday and Jack Barth, the screenwriter who wrote this Simpsons ep
- Mel Magazine’s history of the Richard Gere gerbil story
- Did Sylvester Stallone start the Richard Gere gerbil rumor?
- Talking Simpsons’ take on A Fish Called Selma
- The You Must Remember This episodes about American Gigolo and Body Double
Trailer 3.0
It's just a new trailer, for promotional purposes. Please go about your day.
Janet from The Good Place Is a Nonbinary Icon
The 150th Episode Spectacular: Hot Takes
Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • 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 is a TableCakes podcast.
Coach Meets a Gay Guy
Follow: GEE on Facebook • GEE’s Facebook Group • GEE on Twitter • GEE on Instagram • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • 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 is a TableCakes podcast.
Girlfriends Hosts a Lesbian Baby Shower
“And Baby Makes Four” (November 3, 2003)
Before she was the literal mom on Blackish, Tracee Ellis Ross was the glue holding the figurative family together for eight seasons on Girlfriends. Drew and Glen are joined by Jennifer Eden to discuss why Ross is maybe one of the better examples of showbiz royalty and why this episode of TV is unique in offering viewers two black queer women in a relationship (guest stars Dawnn Lewis and Samaria Graham). Also: William is THE WORST.
When they reunited for Blackish, the Girlfriends cast explained how their show ended the way it did.
BTW: Two more viewing suggestions beyond Girlfriends: the “Feminisn’t” episode of Blackish featuring that reunion and the “There’s Something About Dr. Mary” episode of Frasier.
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: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • 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 is a TableCakes podcast.
Madame’s Place Was TV’s First Gay Puppet Sitcom
“#001” (September 20, 1982)
Look, Madame’s Place wasn’t a good sitcom, but it was the gayest puppet-focused sitcom and also a contender for one of the first gay sitcoms, on account of its draggy sensibility and the fact that the man behind Madame was one of the first openly gay entertainers. Drew and Glen discuss how weird this show is, including the fact that its antagonist is a TV executive who’s literally missing a face and who can control the weather. All this plus dick jokes.
Read a 1985 L.A. Times interview with Wayland Flowers.
Decades before Joan Rivers, Faye Emerson might have been the first female late night talk show host — and also the first late night host of any gender identity.
Watch: Bea Arthur vs. Madame and Playboy's Roller Disco & Pajama Party.
Listen to the Round Springfield episode where Jeff Martin discusses naming Waylon Smithers after Wayland Flowers.
The anime Glen fails to name, BTW, is The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.
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: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • 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 is a TableCakes podcast.
Just the Ten of Us Almost Did a Gay Episode
“Betrayal” (September 13, 1989)
You might classify Just the Ten of Us with rest of the TGIF also-rans, but trust us: this show was better — funnier, edgier and with two actual, explicit gay jokes that ran on the same night as Urkel, to say nothing of the fact that its four sexy teenage daughters gave little gay boys a favorite no matter what kind of diva they’d end up worshipping. Frankie Frascatore joins us to talk about the Nightmare on Elm Street connection, the WandaVision connection, how this one particular outing almost becomes a gay episode and why it’s maybe notable that a show about a Catholic family punishes the most religious child for being a judgmental scold.
Listen to Frankie’s episode of Sam Pancake Presents the Monday Afternoon Movie.
Here’s one of the sites claiming that JTTOU’s cancelation happened because it was the only non-Miller Boyet production in the TGIF block.
Watch the intro to Going Places, which didn’t.
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: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • 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 is a TableCakes podcast.
3rd Rock from the Sun Goes to a Gay Bar
Peggy Hill Had Sex With a Gay Guy
“Luann Virgin 2.0” (March 11, 2001)
We’re very happy to return to Arlen, Texas, to discuss a King of the Hill episode that has a small gay subplot: Peggy technically lost her virginity before she met Hank to a friend who needed to figure out if he was gay. However, in having that thread introduce a discussion of what’s reason enough for good, red-blooded heterosexual Christians to get married, this episode (accidentally?) also makes a good argument in favor of the reasons same-sex couples wanted to get married. Wayne Trotter, we wish we’d met you.
This episode begins with a discussion of the Screenrant article that argued why Peggy Hill is a bad mom. You don’t need to read the piece to understand what we’re talking about, but if you really feel like you must there it is.
Listen to our previous King of the Hill episodes:
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: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • 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 is a TableCakes podcast.The Cartoons That Made Us Gay: Gargoyles
Yes, we said there was no episode this week, but then we realized that we had all these bonus episodes just lying around on Patreon, so here is one of those. BTW, listen to more queer readings of old cartoons here for just $1 a month.
“The Mirror” (September 11, 1995)
It is technically possible that someone could have watched Gargoyles and not realized that it was one of the horniest animated series ever. We think this episode — which has a very fey Puck teaming up with Demona to turn our heroic gargoyles into humans, loincloths still in place — helps demonstrate just how much homoeroticism was going on, both in the minds of viewers and the minds of people Want to spend more time with Goliath? Then listen to the What a Cartoon podcast's take on this very same episode of Gargoyles. (We will assert that ours is at least marginally gayer.)
Read the Polygon article about the extended Gargoyles universe that could have been. Also read about the plans for the live-action movie.
When did English-speakers decided that fairies = gay? Also read about the difference between gargoyles and grotesques. (This show should technically be called Grotesques.)
Goliath : Eliza :: Bonkers : Miranda
Watch a commercial for 1985’s English language dub, Captain Harlock and the Queen of a Thousand Years.
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: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • 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 is a TableCakes podcast.
Oscar From The Office Comes Out
Gomer Pyle Writes Gay Love Letters
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 • GEE on Instagram • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • 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 is a TableCakes podcast.
Becker Meets a Trans Woman
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Follow: GEE on Facebook • GEE’s Facebook Group • GEE on Twitter • GEE on Instagram • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • 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 is a TableCakes podcast.
Philip J. Fry Accidentally Kills His Gay Grandpa (But Saves the Universe)
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 Floss article, which sadly does not cite its sources.
Listen to Astonishing Legends breakdown of the Alien Autopsy hoax.
Listen to Smart Mouth’s episode about how World War II made American children eat like they were going to war.
Read about the history of Japanese hydrogen balloon bombs.
Read about how studying after a test can make you retroactively do better on it, time causality be damned.
No, microwaved water is not toxic and neither are microwaves.
And listen if you dare to Tom Arnold’s rendition of “I’m My Own Grandpa” from the movie The Stupids.
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: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • 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 is a TableCakes podcast.
The Jeffersons Meet a Trans Woman
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 TableCakes podcast hosted by Lindsey Deaton and featuring a weekly guest. Follow on Twitter, on Apple Podcasts or on Spotify.
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: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • 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 is a TableCakes podcast.
Ross Geller Brings Gay Panic to The Single Guy
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 by Rob Wilson. This episode’s art was designed by Ian O’Phelan. This is a TableCakes podcast.
I Dream of GEE-nnie
“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 Afternoon Movie about the Barbara Eden movie The Stranger Within, in which Sam followed up having Drew and Glen as guests with founding SNL star Laraine Newman, making us look like real chumps
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 by Rob Wilson. This episode’s art was designed by Ian O’Phelan. This is a TableCakes podcast.
Happy Endings Explores Gay Subcultures
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 of Drew and Glen’s 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 by Rob Wilson. This episode’s art was designed by Ian O’Phelan.
This is a TableCakes podcast!
Rose Nylund vs. the Stigma of AIDS
- Rest in Peace, Phyl Petrillo
- The Golden Girls Meet a Trans Man
- Glen Writes a Golden Girls (a.k.a. “Vince Meat”)
- The Golden Girls Had a Gay Live-In Cook
- Blache’s Homo Brother Wants to Get Gay Married
- Blanche’s Brother Is a Homo
- Dorothy’s Friend Is a Lesbian
The Cartoons That Made Us Gay: Jem & The Holograms
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 main theme for the anime Project A-ko.
Read the L.A. Times story on Barbie’s victory over Jem.
Read all about Bill Sanders, creator of Jem and (we’re guessing) a gay person.
Queer readings of kids shows, previously:
- He-Man with special guest Henry Gilbert
- Fraggle Rock with special guest Matt Baume
- Dungeons & Dragons
- Dinosaurs
- 80s Cartoons with special guest Ted Biaselli
- Batman: the Animated Series episode “Harley and Ivy”
The logo for The Cartoons That Made Us Gay was designed by Jeff Hinchee. This is a TableCakes podcast.
It’s a Will & Grace Christmas!
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 titled “My Save Point Is a Hot Shower.”
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 episode transcripts courtesy of Sarah Neal. Our logo was designed by Rob Wilson. This episode’s art was designed by Ian O’Phelan.
This is a TableCakes podcast.
Totally Trans Talks All in the Family and Beverly LaSalle
Also follow Totally Trans on Twitter support them on Patreon!
Out of This World Does a Gender Swap Episode
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: 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 was edited by Meika Grimm.
This is a TableCakes podcast.
Mad About You Hijacks a Coming Out Storyline
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 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 is a TableCakes podcast.
Empty Nest Uses the F-Slur
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 • 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 was edited by Meika Grimm.
This is a TableCakes podcast.
Bob Belcher Is Bi
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 was edited by Meika Grimm.
This is a TableCakes podcast.
Michelle Tanner Meets a Yankee Doodle Dandy
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 • 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 was edited by Meika Grimm.
This is a TableCakes podcast.
Smithers Has a Boyfriend (Interview with Rob and Johnny LaZebnik)
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 main website. It’s by Ian O’Phelan, who has done all the episode art this season and whom you should hire to draw more cool stuff. Check out his art here.
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 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 was edited by Meika Grimm.
This is a TableCakes podcast.
Jo Polniaczek Is a Lesbian Heartthrob
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 blair get together (aka the /real/ facts of life)”
Willona vs. Chip Fields on Good Times
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 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 was edited by Meika Grimm.
This is a TableCakes podcast.
The Cartoons That Made Us Gay: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
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 we did.
Coming up next: Jem and The Holograms!
The logo for The Cartoons That Made Us Gay was designed by Jeff Hinchee.
Show notes that will make more sense if you listen to the full episode on Patreon:
In case you're not familiar with the “Asian cliche” musical motif
Listen to Matt Baume’s interview with Cam Clarke
Was April O’Neil whitewashed?
Queer readings of kids shows, previously:
- He-Man with special guest Henry Gilbert
- Fraggle Rock with special guest Matt Baume
- Dungeons & Dragons
- Dinosaurs
- 80s Cartoons with special guest Ted Biaselli
- Harley & Ivy
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. This episode was edited by Meika Grimm. This is a TableCakes podcast.
Paul Lynde Makes Halloween Gayer
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 Halloween finale
Listen to Smart Mouth episodes: Circus Peanuts / Persimmons / Chocolate Chip Cookies / Ice Cream Floats
Listen to the previous GEE episodes about Jennifer Slept Here and Bewitched.
Also here is the clip from The Critic that Drew mentions.
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 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 was edited by Meika Grimm. This is a TableCakes podcast.Weirdest Episode Ever: The Terror of Zombie Sandy Duncan
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 • 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 is a TableCakes podcast.
Gloria Vane Is a Part of Frasier’s Queer History
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 episode transcripts courtesy of Sarah Neal. Our logo was designed by Rob Wilson. This episode’s art was designed by Ian O’Phelan. This is a TableCakes podcast.
Mr. Furley Tries to Convert Jack
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 • 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 is a TableCakes podcast.
Frasier’s Dad Is Dating Frasier’s Brother
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:
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.
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 courtesy of Sarah Neal. Our logo was designed by Rob Wilson. This episode’s art was designed by Ian O’Phelan. This is a TableCakes podcast.
The Other Two Finds a Daddy
“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.
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 courtesy of Sarah Neal. Our logo was designed by Rob Wilson. This episode’s art was designed by Ian O’Phelan. This is a TableCakes podcast.
Elaine Dates a Gay Guy
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 courtesy of Sarah Neal. Our logo was designed by Rob Wilson. This episode’s art was designed by Ian O’Phelan. This is a TableCakes podcast.
He-Man Fights a Gay Bunny-Man
“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 Dazzler movie that never was.
Read all about Plundor the Spoiler, and here’s the source for Paul Dini basing Plundor off Binky from Life in Hell.
Watch the “Laughing Prince Adam” video. In fact, what the episode we’re discussing right now, for free and fully legal, on YouTube.
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
Did Fraggle Rock Do an Episode About AIDS?
”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 the video for Ben Folds’ “Do It Anyway” — featuring the Fraggles!
Watch Jim Henson’s memorial service, where Richard Hunt makes a prescient speech
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
Marge Simpson Is a Homophobe and a Transphobe
“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:
Read the New York Times article “The Secret History of Leviticus” — the "exception that proves the rule" article about the old testament outlawing homosexuality.
Listen to the summer/pride episode of Deep Cuts and Superficial Wounds, Drew’s 80s music podcast.
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
This episode’s outro track is “Summer Time” by Plastic Mode: Apple Music • Spotify
Peter Griffin Becomes a Gay
“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: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
The episode’s outro track is “Desire” by Yoh-Yo, which is not on any of the streaming services so why not listen to it on YouTube?
The Naked Truth Has Two Pretend Gays (Zero Actual Gays)
“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 on any of the streaming services so why not listen to it on YouTube?
Boy Meets World Accidentally Does a Trans Episode
“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 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 “I Never Dance” by Crysalis, which is not on any of the streaming services so why not listen to it on YouTube?
Kate & Allie Meet a Lesbian Couple
“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 Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
This episode’s outro track is “I Can’t Love (Female Version)” by Charley, which is not on any of the streaming services so why don’t you listen to it on Youtube?
Love, Sidney May Just Be the First Gay Sitcom
“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.
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
This episode’s outro track is “Love Resurrection” by Allison Moyet: Apple Music • Spotify • Amazon Music
Family Matters Never Did a Gay Episode
“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 Payton leave Family Matters midway through the last season?
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
This episode’s outro track is “A Full Rotation” by Repetition, which is not on any of the streaming services so may just listen on YouTube?
Batgirl Is a Little Gay Boy’s Fantasy
“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 and Burt Ward re-team for a 1974 PSA about equal pay for female employees.
Watch Lesley Gore rock a taupe turtleneck while performing “Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows” in the Yvonne Craig film Ski Party.
Enjoy Burgess Meredith’s performance as Golobulus in G.I. Joe: The Movie.
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
This episode’s outro track is “Give Me the Night” by Facts and Fiction: Apple Music • Spotify • Amazon
Brothers May Just Be the First Gay Sitcom
“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 episode with Baby Doll, voiced by Alison LaPlaca.
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
This episode’s outro track is “Brother Louie” by Modern Talking: Apple Music • Spotify • Amazon Music
Interview: Great North Writer Charlie Kelly
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
Bob Newhart Treats a Gay
“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 right now!
Xuxa has a heart AS BIG AS THE WORLD!
Bears in Games explains why Final Fight is one of the gayest video games ever.
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
This episode’s outro track is “Delirio Mind” by Scotch: Apple Music • Spotify • Amazon Music
The Great North’s Ham Tobin Is a Well-Rounded Gay Teen
“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”
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
This episode’s outro track is “Lady of Ice” by Fancy: Apple Music • Spotify • Amazon Music
Is It Transphobic? Talks King of the Hill
Hey, remember when Drew and Glen discussed that one episode of King of the Hill where Peggy meets a drag queen and halfway through we realized there was a trans reading to this character that probably should be explored in greater depth than two cisgender guys were capable of?
Well, we had always regretted falling short in that respect and had even talked about revisiting the episode with a trans guest. However, this weekend Is It Transphobic? — the podcast hosted by previous GEE guest Ashley Lauren Rogers — covered “The Peggy Horror Picture Show” and did such a good job exploring all the ways to interpret Carolyn and her friendship with Peggy that we just asked Ashley if we could post an intro to the episode on our feed in hopes that you all would want to listen to the full version on the Is It Transphobic? Feed.
This is that! This preview of IITP’s episode ends 24 minutes and 32 seconds into their original episode, and you can listen to the full version of the episode here.
Subscribe to IITP: Apple Podcasts • Google Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher
Also please do support Ashley’s show on Patreon. And if you haven’t yet listened to Ashley’s episode of GEE, you can listen to that here.
Jason Bateman Played a Gay for Five Whole Episodes
“Pilot” (February 28, 2001)
In the wake of Will & Grace’s success, the other broadcast networks each made efforts at their own homo-centric TV shows, and the CBS twist on this formula was Some of My Best Friends, which lasted only five episodes. The show was an adaptation of the indie comedy Kiss Me Guido, and it starred Jason Bateman and Alec Mapa as its resident gays. Guy Branum — stand-up comedian, funny book-writing person and all-around good opinion-haver — joins us to talk about this pop culture also-ran, twenty years after the fact.
Buy Guy’s book, My Life as a Goddess.
Listen to the latest episode of Katherine’s podcast Smart Mouth, where she tells Molly Lambert all about the history of enchiladas.
Listen to Alec Mapa’s episode of Sam Pancake Presents the Monday Afternoon Movie.
Also listen to the latest episode of Drew’s 80s music podcast, Deep Cuts & Superficial Wounds.
Recommended viewing:
- The pilot for Some of My Best Friends
- The pilot for Lipshitz Saves the World
- The pilot for High School USA
- The pilot for The Crew
- A selection of episodes of The Five Mrs. Buchanans
- The opening credits to Where’s Rodney?
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
This episode’s outro track is “Frogs in Spain” by FAKE: Apple Music
Liberace Hosts The Muppet Show
“Liberace” (October 14, 1978)
After a suggestion by Drew’s heterosexual acquaintance, we’ve decided to discuss the gayest episode of The Muppet Show we could find. Tony Rodriguez joins us for a discussion of Muppets but also a fairly obscure FCC ruling that shaped prime time television for every child who grew up in 80s and 90s America, plus a rundown of why Liberace is awful. There is a lot going on in this episode, but that seems appropriate given the bonkers chaos that is the Muppets.
Yes, there is a “lost” TableCakes podcast you may never have heard: You Have to Watch This Movie, which is not technically defunct and which was hosted by Tony and which featured guests such as Nicole Byer, Lennon Parham and Beth Dover.
Listen to the episode of Smart Mouth where Katherine talks with Jeremy Bowditch about the history of breadlines in the United States.
The article Drew mentions is “The Performance of Non-Conformity on The Muppet Show – or, How Kermit Made Me Queer” by Jordan Schildcrout. It doesn’t seem like it’s posted online for free anywhere but if you access to various academic journals you can probably read it. Alternatively you can also just pay to read it here.
Listen to the Bad Gays podcast’s episode about Liberace for more details about his biography.
Watch “My Muppet Valentine,” the Muppet Babies episode Glen mentions about Rowlf making everyone think he is depressed. Also watch the dark and violent Jim Henson-produced ads for Wilkins Coffee. But maybe don’t watch SNL’s Muppet-starring “Land of Gorch” sketches because they are just strange.
Read the Stater & Waldorf gay fanfiction that went viral.
Swedish people do not think the Swedish Chef is funny and also don’t think he sounds Swedish.
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
This episode’s outro track is “I Like Chopin” by Gazebo: Apple Music • Spotify • Amazon
Drew and Glen Don’t Talk About Any Episode in Particular
Whelp, we’ve made it: one hundred episodes. By which I mean that we actually hit that mark several episodes ago, by various standards, but this is when we are actually observing that this is a thing we have done repeatedly over a set amount of time. For this episode, Drew and Glen talk about what this podcast has ended up doing in contrast to how they thought it would work when it launched. Also discussed: WandaVision (finally!) in some depth that you may regard as spoilerish if “Agatha All Along” has not already spoiled it, which is to say you are probably fine.
And yes, Drew did once compile “Every Instance of Doubling on Twin Peaks.” It is a thematic forerunner to every LGBT joke ever on The Simpsons.
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
This episode’s outro track is “Inside Out” by Martin Dupont: Apple Music • Spotify • Amazon
Did Gayest Episode Ever Get Tony a Job on The Simpsons? (Yes, It Totally Did)
We are very pleased to congratulate Tony Rodriguez, our friend and the most-frequently occurring guest on Gayest Episode Ever on his new job: voicing Julio on The Simpsons. Tony is a gay Cuban-American and Julio is a gay Cuban-American, so it’s just too perfect that the former made his debut on The Simpsons on last Sunday’s episode, “Uncut Femmes.” Before he goes too Hollywood, we managed to get him to talk with us about how he became the new Julio, which we are calling “Newlio.”
Follow Tony Rodriguez on Twitter. And while you’re at it, follow Christine Nangle and Matt Selman on Twitter too.
Watch the video Tony made of him showing off his best Julio.
Watch the video that helped made this happen: Drew’s compilation of every LGBT joke ever on The Simpsons.
Also 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
This episode’s outro track is “¿Que sucede ahora?” by Vocoder, which is not streaming anywhere so just listen to it on YouTube.
Rest in Peace: Phyl Petrillo, Dorothy Zbornak’s Trans Sister
Heads up: This episode revolves around a funeral for a character that we are reading as trans. The humor had at the expense of the deceased may be difficult for some audience members to hear.
”Ebbtide’s Revenge” (December 15, 1990)
If you’re reading this episode title and saying, “I’ve seen every Golden Girls, and I’m pretty sure Dorothy doesn’t have a trans sister,” we’ve got a guest to respond with “Are you sure about that?” Dr. Ada-Rhodes Short, mother of robots and co-host of the Totally Trans podcast, joins us to talk about trans lesbians and why a few TV characters, Phyl Petrillo included, speak to a trans experience, and why Phyl’s funeral speaks to a trans nightmare.
Listen to our previous Golden Girls episodes:
- The Golden Girls Meet a Trans Man (with Ada’s co-host, Henry Giardina)
- Glen Writes a Golden Girls (a.k.a. “Vince Meat”)
- The Golden Girls Had a Gay Live-In Cook
- Blache’s Homo Brother Wants to Get Gay Married
- Blanche’s Brother Is a Homo
- Dorothy’s Friend Is a Lesbian
You should subscribe to Ada’s podcats, Totally Trans! Do it now!
And listen to the Totally Trans episodes we mention in our talk:
- Ariel from The Little Mermaid is a trans girl
- Pinocchio is a trans boy
- That time Golden Girls was totally transphobic
Also have a listen to the Bone & Sickle episode about Medusa that Drew somehow found a way to bring up.
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
This episode’s outro track is “Don’t Treat Me So Bad” by Linda “Babe” Majika: Apple Music • Amazon Music • Spotify
Doogie Howser’s Best Friend Is a Homophobe
“Spell It M-A-N” (January 6, 1993)
You might be surprised to learn that Doogie Howser M.D. only lasted four seasons and 97 episodes, but perhaps because Neil Patrick Harris has continued to be famous ever since, the show casts a lot longer of a shadow than it might otherwise. This fourth-season episode deals with Vinnie (Max Casella) being horrified to learn that his college roommate is gay, and because NPH is himself an out gay man, it plays out a lot different today. All this plus a special appearance by Teen Witch herself, Robyn Lively!
Listen to the episode of Smart Mouth explains the history of Pocky to food writer Tien Nguyen.
Listen to Monday Afternoon Movie’s special tribute to the late, great Cloris Leachman.
Listen to Drew’s 80s music podcast and its new episode about South African synthop.
Drew was on this week’s Talking Simpsons, discusses Sophie Krustofsky and Drew Barrymore.
And finally, if you want to know what the hell Drew was talking about at the end of this one, listen to Astonishing Legends’ series on the Black-Eyed Kids... if you dare.
You can actually watch the entirety of Neil Patrick Harris cinematic masterpiece Purple People Eater right now on YouTube.
Check out the cover art they picked for the very not gay third season of Doogie Howser.
There is not a single accepted explanation for what prostitutes have to do with pasta puttanesca, and don’t believe anyone who tells you otherwise.
Before there were The Croods, there was Cro.
This is the Drider of which Glen speaks.
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
This episode’s outro track is “Song of Arabia” by Clad, which is actually not available on any streaming service but maybe just listen to it on YouTube?
Al and Peg Bundy Meet a Gay Couple
“The Dance Show” (October 21, 1990)
Given the reputation of Married… With Children, you might be surprised to know that its treatment of a same-sex married couple is actually rather progressive. But yeah, in spite of his many hang-ups, Al Bundy seems unbothered by the prospect of two guys being married, even if the part that impresses him most is dedicated food preparation. We’ll take what we can get, and at least comedy-wise, this fifth-season episode is firing on all cylinders.
Listen to Smart Mouth’s new episode on the history of breakfast with comedian Kate Willett.
Watch Matt Baume’s Culture Cruise video on this Married… With Children episode, which we cite several times in this episode.
Listen to the What a Cartoon episode on TailSpin, which talks about Sally Struthers in addition to many other things.
Read the Vulture piece on the “lost roles” of Married… With Children.
Watch the Television Academy video in which Michael Moye talks about 227.
Shop for Gayest Episode Ever shirts, totes and more on our TeePublic page.
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
This episode’s outro track is “Girl Dream” by Connie Hyland, which is actually not available on any streaming service but maybe just listen to it on YouTube?
Cybill Befriends the Gay Waiter
“Three Women and a Dummy” (May 13, 1996)
Alongside Murphy Brown, Designing Women and The Nanny, Cybill was one of CBS’s female-forward heavy-hitters in the 1990s. It didn’t last as long as the other three — and yes, there’s quite the story there — but in its four seasons it did manage to give us the Waiter. Played by Tim Maculan, he’s one of the more important queer characters to recur on a popular sitcom in the decade. We discuss this, plus Alan Ball’s involvement, the whole Cybill vs. Baranski controversy and whether this show was a remake of Absolutely Fabulous or not.
Listen to Smart Mouth’s episode with Nicole Georges, all about the history of tabouleh. Also listen to the new episode of Singing Mountain, Drew’s video game music podcast.
Read Linda Bloodworth Thomason’s article recounting her experiences with CBS boogeyman Les Moonves.
Listen to You Must Remember This’s season dedicated to Polly Platt.
Glen is right: There was a Moonlighting-inspired episode of Alvin and the Chipmunks.
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
This episode’s outro track is “Maria Magdalena” by Sandra: Apple Music • Amazon Music • Spotify
Interview: Demetrius Andre Bady
Moesha Meets a Gay Guy
“Labels” (October 1, 1996)
It’s the tale of two sitcom episodes. Depending on who you are, this is either an episode about Moesha meeting a gay teen who’s scared to come out, or it’s an episode about the dangers of gossip. Maybe it’s both. We are joined once again by Dr. Alfred L. Martin Jr. to discuss the importance of Moesha, why this episode of TV is utterly unique and who the cutest boy at Crenshaw High School is. (Spoiler: It’s Omar.)
Listen to our previous outing with Alfred, about Roc’s gay wedding episode.
Read more about Alfred’s work on his faculty page. Also read his essay about Omar for Flow.
Watch the trailer for or rent Tongues Untied, the 1989 art film by Marlon T. Riggs about black queer life during the AIDS epidemic.
Listen to Smart Mouth’s episode on coconut shrimp with Julia Loken — and check out the show’s new swag: a to-go cutlery set.
Shop for Gayest Episode Ever shirts, totes and more on our TeePublic page.
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
This episode’s outro track is “Evolution” by Sheryl Lee Ralph: Apple Music • Amazon Music • Spotify
Roseanne’s Friend Is a Lesbian (Later Bi)
“Ladies’ Choice” (November 10, 1992)
Ninety episodes later, we dared to venture back to Roseanne. How does its legacy of LGBT advocacy hold up all these years later — and in light of the show’s namesake’s hard right turn into all manner of Trumpy badness? Glen and Drew have their takes, but that ultimate decision is up to you. However, this episode represents a milestone in representation as it makes Sandra Bernhard’s Nancy a queer part of the show for seasons to come.
Listen to our previous episode about Roseanne.
Listen to Roseanne writer Stan Zimmerman share his stories about Sandra Bernhard in our interview with him.
And if you need more Morgan Fairchild in your life, listen to the Monday Afternoon Movie episode about The Initiation of Sarah. Also listen to the two final installments of Sam Pancake Presents the Monday Afternoon Movie’s mini-season about the made-for-TV sequels to The Stepford Wives: The Stepford Husbands with Greta Titleman and The Stepford Children with Tim Murdock. In fact, Tim hosts his own queer horror podcast, Happy Horror Time. There’s a promo in this week’s episode and you can listen to episodes of his show here.
Shop for Gayest Episode Ever shirts, totes and more on our TeePublic page.
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
This episode’s outro track is “Pistol in My Pocket” by Lana Pellay, which despite being a total banger doesn’t seem to be streaming anywhere, so I guess just listen to it on YouTube? Or maybe on Drew’s 80s music podcast?
Phyllis Dates a Homo
“Out of the Closet” (November 1, 1976)
Rest in Peace, Cloris Leachman. She leaves behind a legacy that includes such sitcom greats as The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Facts of Life, The Simpsons, Malcolm in the Middle and Raising Hope, as well as a great body of other acting work. For two seasons, she also starred in a spinoff to Mary Tyler Moore that had Phyllis Lindstrom starting over in San Francisco. And in the second season of that show, she dated a man who turned out to be gay.
Listen to our season one episode about The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
Listen to episodes of Katherine’s podcast, Smart Mouth, including being vegan in Iceland and the history of department store lunch counters.
Listen to part one of Monday Afternoon Movie’s look at the made-for-TV sequels to the Stepford Wives.
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 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
This episode’s outro track is “San Salvador” by Azoto: Apple Music • Amazon Music • Spotify
Patty Bouvier Has a Girlfriend + Every LGBT Joke on The Simpsons Ever
“Livin’ la Pura Vida” (November 17, 2019)
The Simpsons are going to Costa Rica! Gayest Episode Ever returns for its fourth season with an installment of The Simpsons that demonstrates how much the show has evolved in 31 seasons. But that’s not all! In addition to discussing Patty’s first functional relationship, we’re also introducing a new side project: “Smithers & Beyond: Every LGBT Joke on The Simpsons Ever.” Assembled over the course of the last year by Drew, it shows not just every “Smithers is gay” joke but how the shows approach to LGBT topics reflects the changing American conversation about queer people and queer issues.
We discuss the “Smithers & Beyond” at the top of the episode, but you can watch the video here.
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 Facebook • GEE’s Facebook Group • GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
This episode’s outro track is “Get Dancin’” by Disco Tex and His Sexolettes (a.k.a. Hooray for Everything)
Frasier Dates a Gay Guy
“The Doctor Is Out” (September 30, 2003)
Three episodes into its final season, the gay subtext of Frasier comes to a climax, so to speak, when a dashing opera director played by Patrick Stewart becomes infatuated with Dr. Crane — and Frasier goes along with it about as far as a confirmed hetero can. This is our final episode of the year! We did so many episodes! Isn’t it amazing what you can do when sex and socializing are completely off the table? AUGH!
Listen to our previous Frasier episodes: Frasier’s Boss Is Gay (our first episode ever!) and Frasier Has a Gay Dream.
And special thanks to Matt Baume whose Culture Cruise installment about this episode pointed out the relationship between it and the dawn of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and the perception that gay men can be a heterosexual’s guide to the finer side of life.
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 Facebook • GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
This episode’s outro track is “Take It as a Game” by Evelyn Barry: Apple Music • Amazon Music • Spotify
Will & Jack Embrace Every Gay Stereotype
“Fagmalion, Part Two: Attack of the Clones” (January 30, 2003)
We’re covering part two of a four-part Will & Grace arc, but it actually make sense in that this itself is part two of two-part crossover with Kyle Getz and Mike Johnson from the podcast Gayish, which is all about the stereotypes that surround gay identity. Is this Will & Grace a carnival of gay horrors? Yes, but that doesn’t mean this show isn’t worth examining.
If you’re Gayish-curious, check out their late bloomers episode or their sex hotel episode with Davey Wavey. But more importantly listen to the episode where we’re guests!
Also listen to Henry Giardina’s new podcast, Totally Trans.
The article conjecturing a link between Young Frankenstein and the gay practice of woofing.
The connection between Matt Gorening and the L.A. gay bar Akbar.
Glen Weldon’s complete history of gay subtext in Batman, which predates this Will & Grace joke by a long time.
Greek mythology and robots: a short, weird history.
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 Facebook • GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
This episode’s outro track is “Love Dawn” by Sylvi Foster: Apple Music • Amazon Music • Spotify
A.C. Slater Was Gay for Zack Morris… for Five Seconds
“The Zack Tapes” (December 2, 1989)
What’s gay about Saved By the Bell, aside from Slater’s singlets and Tori’s leather jacket? Well, there is one episode that very briefly demonstrated that same-sex attraction was a thing — on Saturday morning, no less. It’s all he more surprising because the new Saved By the Bell manages to make amends for all the things the original series did wrong except feature any kind of same-sex love. And yes, we’re doing this episode because we really dug the reboot anyway.
Watch the little-seen original pilot for Good Morning, Miss Bliss here, and watch the very un-Saved By the Bell opening credits here.
The Neverending Story theme as performed by Kids Incorporated is as weird as Glen remembers.
Watch Leanna Creel appear alongside her triplet sisters in The Cell, the one movie they made together that didn’t star Hayley Mills.
Also check out these promo photos of Tori, Jessie and Kelly all in the same place at the same time, thereby nullifying the Tori Paradox.
Listen to Go Bayside, the SbtB podcast that inspired Talking Simpsons, which in turn inspired this show.
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 Facebook • GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
The outro track for this episode is “Go for It” by the little-known Los Angeles girl group Hot Sundae. Listen to it on YouTube here.
The Golden Girls Meet a Trans Man
“Strange Bedfellows” (November 7, 1987)
The Golden Girls is beloved by many in the queer community, and for good reason, but the series is not batting a thousand when it comes to LGBT representation. This third season episode features a character who may just be the first trans man character on American TV. It’s… not great, but not wholly a disaster, and writer Henry Giardina is here to offer the perspective of a GG newbie.
Listen to our previous Golden Girls episodes:
- Glen Writes a Golden Girls (a.k.a. “Vince Meat”)
- The Golden Girls Had a Gay Live-In Cook
- Blache’s Homo Brother Wants to Get Gay Married
- Blanche’s Brother Is a Homo
- Dorothy’s Friend Is a Lesbian
Subscribe to Henry’s newsletter, Less Art. Read Henry’s NewNowNext piece where he interviews Glen and Drew. And here is the Mary Ann Doane article Henry mentions.
If you are a big Golden Girls fan, check out Jim Colucci’s book on every episode of the show, Golden Girls Forever. But also here is Drew’s interview with the Golden Girls writers.
Subscribe to Katherine’s food history podcast Smart Mouth and hear Drew’s episode next week, where he talks all about egg nog, the noggiest holiday drink ever.
Listen to Double Threat’s Halloween special with Butch Patrick. But also listen to Julie Klausner’s episode of Good One, where she goes in depth about a single pussy joke.
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 • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn • SoundCloud
This episode’s outro track is “Around My Dream” by Silver Pozzoli: Apple Music • Amazon Music • Spotify
ALF Never Did a Gay Episode
“We Are Family” (May 2, 1988)
Finally, at long last, ALF! This is the first in a new series where Drew and Glen discuss shows that never did a gay episode. “But wait, Drew and Glen! You have done episodes that weren’t explicitly gay before,” you may be saying. This is true, but at the very least we could pretend that the writer maybe-kinda-sorta had some gay metaphor in mind. This new series is for all the shows that never even treaded that far, but we think there’s something to talk about anyway. In this episode, ALF contemplates coming out as an alien, even if going public might poses risks to his personal liberties. Sandy Duncan does and does not make a cameo.
Purchase Glen’s iconic “ALF Says ‘Gay Rights’” design at our Teepublic store and improve your overall quality of life.
Watch NBC’s 75th anniversary special, where ALF makes a cameo and, in doing so, pissed off Tina Fey.
The false binary of hefty vs. wimpy
Listen to Drew’s new 80s music podcast, Deep Cuts and Superficial Wounds: Mixcloud • iTunes • Stitcher • Libsyn • Google Podcasts
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 • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn • SoundCloud
This episode’s outro track is “Hallo ALF, Hier ist Rhonda” by Tommi Piper with Amélie Sandmann, which is perhaps not surprisingly unavailable on all the American streaming services.
Spin City Stumps for Same-Sex Marriage
“Grand Illusion” (October 29, 1996)
Because this is either the episode you’re getting immediately before the election (if you’re on the Patreon feed) or directly after (if you’re on the main feed), we decided we’d try for something political. No, we don’t know why we attempted this, but we ended up picking the first LGBT-themed episode from Spin City, which is arguably the most politically focused sitcom of late. And while this episode should focus more on the out gay character, Michael Boatman’s Carter Heywood, it instead shifts the spotlight to Connie Britton’s Nikki, which Drew thinks is lame.
Poobala.com is the website that charts TV crossovers in considerable detail, and you could definitely get lost there if you love TV trivia. And here is the clip of Matlock in a gay bar along with Lea Delaria in pearls.
Listen to Drew’s new 80s music podcast, Deep Cuts and Superficial Wounds: Mixcloud • iTunes • Stitcher • Libsyn • Google Podcasts
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 • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn • SoundCloud
This episode’s outro track is “Yes, Sir, I Can Boogie” by Baccara: Apple Music • Amazon Music • Spotify
Jennifer Slept Here Is a Little Gay Boy’s Fantasy
“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 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 • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn • SoundCloud
This episode’s outro track is “Crazy” by Daydream: Apple Music • Amazon Music
It’s a Living Waits on a Trans Woman
“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!
Follow: GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn • SoundCloud
This episode’s outro track is “Isadora” by the Isadora Juice, which does not seem to be on any streaming service at the moment. Oh no.
Penelope Alvarez Is the Mother of a Queer Teenager
“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: GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn • SoundCloud
This episode’s outro track is “Cuba” by the Gibson Brothers: Apple Music • Amazon Music • Spotify
Julia Sugarbaker Dates a Possible Homosexual
“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 the L.A Times article on Jean Smart’s far-less dramatic exit.
Listen to Gayish’s episode on bisexuals.
The Slate article on the political affiliation of various TV characters.
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 • 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.
This episode’s outro song is “In the Evening” by Sheryl Lee Ralph: Apple Music • Amazon Music • Spotify
The Dream On Guy Has a Gay Dad
“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 • 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.
This episode’s outro track is “Baby Baby” by Daydream: Spotify • Amazon Music
Rachel Kisses a Lesbian
“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 a heart as big as the world. It remains to be seen if Xoxchitla does as well.
Buy Gayest Episode Ever shirts, totes and more on our TeePublic page.
Watch 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 designed by Rob Wilson. This is a TableCakes podcast.
This episode’s outro track is "Will You Remember?" by Eighth Wonder: Apple Music • Spotify • Amazon Music
Diane Chambers Revisited (An Episode That Glen Can Actually Listen To)
”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 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 designed by Rob Wilson.
This is a TableCakes podcast.
Mike Seaver Actually Said the Word ‘Gay’
“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.
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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 designed by Rob Wilson.
This is a TableCakes podcast.
This episode’s outro track is "Gimme Love" by Cristina: Apple Music • Spotify • Amazon Music
Norm Peterson Is Gay for Pay
“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 weird.
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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.
This episode’s outro track is "Southpaw" by Pink Lady: Apple Music • Spotify
In the House Made RuPaul Play a Heterosexual
“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 Valerie Harper menaced by a child wielding a rolling pizza cutter. It’s weird!
The Easy Spirit Playoffs: Purple vs. Metallic!
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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.
This episode’s outro track is Black Book’s “You Must Change (Mystery Woman),” which isn’t on any of the streaming services so maybe just listen to it on YouTube?
Introducing the Shelley Longcast!
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!
Finch’s Buddy Is Trans
“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 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 designed by Rob Wilson. This is a TableCakes podcast.
The episode’s outro track is “Living on Video” by Trans-X: Apple Music • Spotify • Amazon Music
Alice Dates a Homo
“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 designed by Rob Wilson.
This is a TableCakes podcast.
The episode’s outro track is “Don’t Tell Me This Is Love” by Alice & The Wonderboy, which doesn’t seem to be on any of the music streaming services, so I guess just listen on YouTube?
Eric Forman’s New Buddy Is a Homo
“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.
Tanya Roberts’ Tahiti Village.
Donna’s dad plays an L.A. gang tough in 1975’s Switchblade Sisters, which is a weird, wild thing to behold.
And the whole of Bad Gays is pretty interesting, but their episode about Oscar Wilde’s Bosie is especially good.
Buy Gayest Episode Ever shirts, totes and more on our TeePublic page.
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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.
The episode’s outro track is “Bite the Apple” by Rainbow Team: Apple Music / Spotify / Amazon Music
Trailer 2.0
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.
Superstore Is Queerer Than You Think
“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 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.
The episode’s outro track is “Baby on Fire” by Ottomix and P.K. Seigel. (Apple Music / Spotify / Amazon Music)
Mr. Belvedere Discourages a Teen from Being Gay
“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 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.
This episode’s outro theme is “Balla Balla Ballerina” by Tony Manero, which isn’t on any of the music streaming services or digital music stores, as near as Drew can find, so just listen to it on YouTube, I guess?
M*A*S*H Saves a Gay
“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.
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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.
This episode’s outro theme is “Warrior” by Riky Maltese (Apple Music / Spotify / Amazon Music)
Roc Has a Gay Uncle
“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 were not discussed and may not be discussed as a result of being pulled. This week, Steven W. Thrasher wrote an excellent piece for Vulture on various moments on the show in which the central characters display racist attitudes and why the show’s fans are better off acknowledging these failings.
Lisa Simpson singing “God Bless the Child” on The Simpsons Sing the Blues.
Also Glen’s favorite song, “Macho Duck.”
The book Alfred brings up is Fade to Black and White: Interracial Images in Popular Culture, by Erica Chito Childs. It’s about the depiction of interracial couples on TV and in other media. And the book Drew brings up is Queering the Color Line, by Siobhan B. Somerville. It’s about the intersection of racial and queer identity.
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 designed by Rob Wilson.
This is a TableCakes podcast.
This episode’s outro theme is “Color My Love” by Fun Fun (Apple Music / Spotify / Amazon Music)
Too Close for Comfort Does an Episode About Male Rape
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 guested on back in 2018. We talk about Fright Night. Much in the way Bullock’s offscreen sexuality informs this episode of TV, the queerness of Fright Night’s cast really changes the way that movie plays out.
This 2012 A.V. Club article on this episode is pretty much the best text trying to make sense of this episode. It also brought us to this interview with Jim J. Bullock on the website Guy Spy. Check out Old Time TV, without whose help we would not have been able to do this episode.
Behold the short-lived wonder of Jim J. and Tammy Faye.
And have a look at the David Lynch series Rabbits that Jeffrey mentions.
Here’s an explainer for how the movie Streets of Fire may have “inspired” elements in the video game Final Fight, which BTW is one of the most homoerotic games ever.
And here’s the weird bit with Roseanne and Freddy Krueger that makes it four — count ‘em FOUR — of the daughters from Just the Ten of Us who share screentime with Freddy. Weird, right?
Buy Glen’s movie, Being Frank.
Watch Drew’s weird video art project, GEE TV.
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.
The outro for this episode is “Number of the Dancer” by Al Monroe, which isn’t on any of the online music services, but it is on YouTube if you want to hear it.
I Love Lucy Makes the First Gay Joke in Sitcom History
“Lucy Thinks Ricky Is Trying to Murder Her” (November 5, 1951)
Can we do a whole 52-minute episode that is essentially about one single joke? Hell yes we can. The fourth episode of I Love Lucy sure seems like it might feature the first gay joke in the history of sitcoms. And although we are open to arguments otherwise, it’s nonetheless interesting to think that the show that wouldn’t allow its married leads to share a bed onscreen would slip even a small gay joke past the network censors.
Visit our new Tee Public store and plaster your body and household with the Gayest Episode Ever logo.
The Boy Culture blog’s excellent timeline of LGBT milestones on TV.
The 1980 People magazine interview where Lucy says she’s down with the gays.
The Washington Blade article on Lucy Ricardo’s appeal to gay men.
A compilation of Frank “That Guy Who Says Yes” Nelson saying yes.
And if you want to listen to us debate whether the Dick Van Dyke Show ever made a semen joke, listen to that episode here.
Buy Glen’s movie, Being Frank.
Watch Drew’s weird video art project, GEE TV.
Support us on Patreon!
Follow: GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
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 designed by Rob Wilson.
This is a TableCakes podcast.
This episode’s outro theme is “Slice Me Nice” by Fancy (Apple Music / Spotify / Amazon Music)
GEE TV
GEE TV is a weird little art project that Drew felt compelled to do. It’s six 80s-era NBC sitcoms in a three-hour block, complete with of-the-era commercials. In order: Silver Spoons, The Facts of Life, Gimme a Break, 227, Empty Nest and Night Court. Hit the audio to hear Drew explain it all to Glen, who’s being a good sport about this. Watch the video here. And it’s on Vimeo here.
Episodes, in order:
- Silver Spoons, “Me & Mr. T” (October 16, 1982)
- The Facts of Life, “Cousin Geri Returns” (December 30, 1981)
- Gimme a Break, “Nell’s Friend” (December 1, 1983)
- 227, “Toyland” (February 14, 1987)
- Empty Nest, “Rambo of Neiman Marcus” (November 11, 1989)
- Night Court, “Dad’s First Date” (October 17, 1985)
If you dig this, check out Drew’s other weird video art. There’s All the Colors of the Night, which is horror movies set to 80s music, and there’s VHSmas, which is all 80s Christmas magic. It’s all up at Phanto Films.
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 designed by Rob Wilson.
This is a TableCakes podcast.
This episode’s outro theme is “Watching Trees” by Eleven Pond. (Apple Music / Spotify / Amazon Music)
WKRP LGBTQ+
“Les on a Ledge” (October 2, 1978)
For reasons we can’t imagine, WKRP in Cincinnati decided its third episode should feature a trans-themed B plot alongside an A plot about one of the characters contemplating suicide because people think he’s gay. It’s a lot. And while that plot synopsis might seem like a recipe for disaster, this one is funnier and more progressive than you might expect. Don’t get us wrong: It does things that today’s audiences will probably roll their eyes at and might even shake their head at. But among these are some things that might surprise you in a good way.
Visit our new Tee Public store and plaster your body and household with the Gayest Episode Ever logo.
Listen to Drew on this week's Talking Simpsons. Hell, listen to his previous Talking Simpsons while you’re at it.
This L.A. Times article on The New WKRP in Cincinnati explains how the original series became so successful in syndication.
Is “Bruce” a homosexual name? Stan Lee says yes.
Listen to “Once I Had a Love,” Blondie’s original version of “Heart of Glass.
If you can separate the fact that he is being murdered by a horrible monster, Gary Sandy is hot as hell in the 1980 movie Troll.
Listen to this female sports reporter incinerate a viewer complain that women should not report from locker rooms.
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 designed by Rob Wilson.
This is a TableCakes podcast.
This episode’s outro theme is “Take Me Higher” by Stefano Pulga, which doesn’t seem to be for sale or streamable on any of the major music sites. Weird.
American Dad Steals a Gay Couple’s Baby
“Surro-Gate” (December 7, 2007)
Okay, hear us out. Some of you may be surprised that we’re doing American Dad or that Glen and Drew are both fans of it. We put forward the case that it’s a different sort of show than Family Guy is. This episode follows a previous gay-themed installment, and it demonstrates how bringing a homophobe around to respecting queer people as equals isn’t a one-and-done thing; it’s a continual process, and lots of people who think they’re tolerant need to realize when their tolerance has limits.
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 designed by Rob Wilson.
This is a TableCakes podcast.
This episode’s outro theme is “America” by Baby’s Gang (Apple Music / Spotify / Amazon Music)
Herman’s Head Meets a Lesbian
“Sperm ‘n’ Herman” (September 20, 1992)
At long last, we’re finally talking about the series that you’ve been dying to hear about… if your name is Drew or Glen. Yeah, we both have memories of liking Herman’s Head. And while its one gay episode does some things right and some things wrong, it’s the first sitcom we’ve discussed that tackles the complicated issue of being queer and also being a parent. It also allows us to talk about all the crazy stuff happening on Fox back in the early 90s.
The Junger-Witt font, BTW, is Clarendon Bold.
Here is Lisa Simpson’s Herman’s Head moment. And here is a second possible Herman’s Head moment. And listen to Small Town Dicks if you want to hear Yeardley Smith talk about heinous crime in rural America.
Also Listen to Happy History, the new TableCakes podcast that Drew produced, if you want to hear not-Lisa Simpson talk about not-true crime.
Check out the work of Norn Cutson, the talented artist who contributed some original art to a forthcoming GEE merch project. Thanks, Norn!
Soak in the glorious 90s-ness of lesser-known Fox shows such as The Edge, Shaky Ground, True Colors, Stand by Your Man, and Woops.
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 designed by Rob Wilson.
This is a TableCakes podcast.
This episode’s outro theme is “Desire” by Roni Griffith. (iTunes / Apple Music / Spotify / Amazon Music)
Maude Goes to a Gay Bar
“The Gay Bar” (December 3, 1977)
And then there’s Maude — for a second time! In this final-season installment, Maude battles Arthur (Conrad Bain) over his opposition to a gay bar that’s just opened up in town. It’s basically Arthur having conversation after conversation in which other character break apart his justifications for homophobia. But funny!
Listen to Happy History, the new podcast Drew produced.
Check out the work of Norn, the talented artist who contributed some original art to a forthcoming GEE merch project. Thanks, Norn!
If you want the backstory about how Maude came to be, listen to our previous episode about it. And if you want to find out about the strange way Maude ended, listen to our Night Court episode, in which Drew apparently ended up talking about it. No, he doesn’t remember why either.
Back in the early days, SNL was brutal to Anita Bryant in a way it’s not really capable of anymore. Also here is a song she never had any business singing.
“Inuyasha!” “Kagome!” “Inuyasha!” “Kagome!”
And, of course, the secret extended version of the theme to Maude.
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 designed by Rob Wilson.
This is a TableCakes podcast.
This episode’s outro theme is “She Has a Way” by Bobby O (iTunes / Spotify / Amazon Music)
Old Christine Is Married to a Woman
“Unidentified Funk” (December 10, 2008) and “Happy Endings (December 17, 2008)
The New Adventures of Old Christine may not rank among the sitcom heavyweights, but hey — if it’s good enough for TV Land, it’s good enough for us. In 2008, this CBS series managed to skewer homophonic-leaning companies like Chick-fil-A with an episode won an award from GLAAD. Airing immediately post-Prop 8, the episode features not only a newly out Wanda Sykes but also Megan Mullally playing against type. And while this is all great, the next episode — the latter of a “to be continued” two-parter — manages some transphobia that squeaked by in 2008 but doesn’t in 2020. It’s an interesting combo.
Buy a bag of Nat’s Quarantine Blend of coffee at Lucky Coffee Co.
Glen was right: there really is a weird connection between Hobby Lobby and ancient Iraqi artifacts.
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 designed by Rob Wilson. This is a TableCakes podcast.
This episode’s outro track is “Bahamas (Instrumental)” by Screban.
Drew and Glen Rank Instrumental Sitcom Themes
Do you ever feel like some songs have too many words? Well, good news: instrumental music eliminates that very problem! In this episode, Drew and Glen each list off five sitcom theme songs that they think are good despite their glaring lack of lyrics. Spoiler: many of them actually do have lyrics, it turns out. But still!
If you like this episode, you may also like Singing Mountain, Drew’s other podcast, which works a lot like this but with video game music. There’s even an episode with Glen!
Watch Fatal Farm’s alternate intros for Doogie Howser, M.D. and Dynasty. Hamburger Penis as Alexis!
Yes, Dick Van Dyke really was rescued by porpoises.
Here’s the Tiny Toons parody of The Dick Van Dyke Show opening.
Because it never hurts to point it out, the number for the National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1 (800) 723-8255. There's also an online chat option.
Here is the “Suicide Is Painless” scene from the movie version of M*A*S*H. And here is the interview with Johnny Mandel about the creation of the song.
Is it possible that M83’s “Midnight City” is in any way a reference to ALF? No? Okay.
Secret lyrics! Specifically to The Munsters, I Dream of Jeannie and The Andy Griffith Show.
The possible (probable) inspiration for the Futurama theme is the 1967 song “Psyché Rock” by Pierre Henry. There is also a Fatboy Slim remix of that “Psyché Rock” that sounds even closer to the Futurama theme, but it was released in 2000, after the debut of Futurama. And here is the interview with composer Christopher Tyng where he doesn’t cite “Psyché Rock” as a direct inspiration.
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 designed by Rob Wilson, but our Patreon Iogo was designed by Jeff Hinchee.
This is a TableCakes podcast.
This episode’s outro track is “Won’t You Help Me” by Yanguru, which Drew picked because it sounds like the closing credits of ever 80s movie ever.
What’s Gay About Scooby-Doo?
If you listen to this podcast, you’ve probably noticed that Scooby-Doo’s resident brainiac, Velma Dinkley, can read as a little queer. It’s all subtext and implication, really, but what if we told you there is a canonical connection between Velma and lesbian pop culture? Listen as we unmask her, in true Scooby-Doo style, to reveal that Velma is actually Zelda Gilroy, a character on the 1960s teen sitcom The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis — and Zelda, in turn, is Sheila Keuhl, all-around badass, a queer trailblazer in California politics and someone who’s still serving Angelenos today.
Check out the Tom of Finland Foundation, the world’s largest repository of erotic art. The foundation is planning events worldwide for Tom’s 100th birthday, and see which events you can check out digitally here. And read Drew’s article about the foundation. Link is actually SFW!
Listen to Not Alone, the paranormal podcast that Drew thinks reminds him of himself and Glen, just with more ghosts.
Ride the Great Space Coaster.
Watch Zelda in action in a clip from Dobie Gillis.
All of Hanna-Barbera’s self-cannibalizations of Scooby Doo. ALL OF THEM, courtesy @johngraywb on Twitter.
Sheila Keuhl’s interview about Zelda Gilroy with the Archive of American Television.
The New York Times article about Sheila’s election win: Zelda’s Unwavering Love Is No Longer Unrequited.
An episode of Sheila’s LGBT talk show, Get Used to It.
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 designed by Rob Wilson.
This is a TableCakes podcast.
The episode’s outro track is “The Garden” by ’Lectric Workers.
Hank Hill Goes to a Gay Rodeo
“My Own Private Rodeo” (April 28, 2002)
Hank finds Dale’s long-estranged father at a gay rodeo, and we’ve gotta say: for a conservative guy, Hank takes this news rather well. In our second King of the Hill episode, we’re happy to find that the show once again hits that sweet spot between red and blue, progressive and conservative, goofy and bittersweet.
BTW, the four season 13 episodes that only aired in syndication are “The Honeymooners,” “Bill Gathers Moss,” “When Joseph Met Lori, and Made Out with Her in the Janitor's Closet” and “Just Another Manic Kahn-Day.” Watch them on Hulu!
Buy a bag of Nat’s Quarantine Blend of coffee at Lucky Coffee Co.
Click here to listen to our previous King of the Hill episode, “Peggy Hill Meets a Drag Queen.” And here is the What a Cartoon episode about “Peggy’s Headache.”
Read the Gothamist article about how “Y.C.M.A.” became a crossover hit.
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 designed by Rob Wilson. This is a TableCakes podcast.
This episode’s outro track is “Little Cowboy” by Joe McRoy.
Night Court Has a Night With a Gay
“The Blizzard” (December 6, 1984)
Night Court aired on the same Thursday night block that included The Cosby Show, Family Ties and Cheers. And while Night Court never received as much prestige as the other three did, it ran for nine seasons, it landed joke after joke and it demonstrated a better understanding of its characters than most sitcoms do. In its second season, it pit its prissy, debatably gay-seeming character, played by John Larroquette, against an actual homosexual in a way that’s funny but also shows that the show could go deeper than zany. We approve.
Buy Glen’s movie, Being Frank.
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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.
This episode’s outro track is “In the Night” by Daydream.
Barney Miller Meets a Homo
“Discovery” (October 30, 1975)
Somehow, Barney Miller managed to make comedy in gritty, 1970s-era New York City, and it managed to address the rampant crime of the day even though the action never left the precinct office. In this episode, a man has to overcome his fear of homophobic police officers in order to report that he was harassed, threatened and extorted because he was gay — yet it’s still funny.
Because it never hurts to point it out, the number for the National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1 (800) 723-8255. There's also an online chat option.
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 designed by Rob Wilson. This is a TableCakes podcast.
This episode’s outro track is “Konya wa Hurricane” by Kinuko Ohmori.
Mr. Humphries Is a Poof
“The Apartment” (November 9, 1979)
And now for something slightly different. Katherine Spiers, TableCakes CEO and our first-ever heterosexual guest, joins Drew and Glen to talk about the British sitcom Are You Being Served? and in particular its resident homo Mr. Humphries. It’s also our first remote guest, because this was recorded during pandemic times, so please forgive the fact that this outing has less-than-optimal sound quality. We will do better next time. If you can hang with Zoom-level audio, there’s some interesting talk about how sitcoms play out across the pond.
Shop at Smellbent, a queer-owned, L.A.-based cologne house.
Listen to the game show episode that Katherine also guested on.
Listen to Katherine’s food podcast, Smart Mouth, and in particular the soda series that Drew guested on.
Watch the pilot for Beane’s of Boston, the attempted American remake of Are You Being Served?, which stars Charlotte Rea as Mrs. Slocombe.
And regardless of what Katherine says, watch Smack the Pony — the dating agency series in particular.
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 designed by Rob Wilson.
This is a TableCakes podcast.
This episode’s outro track is “Calling All Boys” by The Flirts.
Will Smith Is Uncomfortable Playing a Gay Character Onscreen
“As the Will Turns” (April 10, 1995)
This is as close to a gay episode as Fresh Prince of Bel-Air ever got. And while it’s not necessarily the funniest piece of TV ever, it makes for a hell of a discussion of Will Smith’s personal life. This episode has some weird parallels with actual events in Will Smith, real-life actor. We’d say it’s unprecedented for a rapper-turned-actor to seemingly confront rumors about their sexuality in a network sitcom, but it plays out remarkably similar to the Living Single with the Queen Latifah parallels we did last season.
Special thanks to patron Erin Hardy for recommending this episode!
Shop at Smellbent, a queer-owned, L.A.-based cologne house.
Listen to our Living Single episode, which has some remarkable parallels with this one.
Why Aunt Viv No. 1 left the show, per this Bustle article.
Buy Glen’s movie, Being Frank.
Support us on Patreon!
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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.
This episode’s outro track is “Money” by Mozzart.
The Nanny Meets a Lesbian
“Oy Vey, You’re Gay” (October 23, 1995)
With her over-the-top outfits and bigger-than-life persona, Fran Drescher has a certain queer appeal. In fact, more than a few little boys probably turned a love of Fran Drescher and Fran Fine into a love of drag. However, the show didn’t necessarily mine its Broadway theater milieu for a ton of gay storylines. In its third season, it did give us Catherine Oxenberg as a potential rival for Mr. Sheffield’s affections, were it not for a plot point that’s given away in the episode title.
We mention the Monday Afternoon Movie episode about the Wes Craven film Summer of Fear, which stars Fran Drescher. Listen to that episode here.
Buy Glen’s movie, Being Frank.
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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.
This episode’s outro track is “Princess of the Night” by Kenny Martinez.
What’s Gay About Perfect Strangers?
Happy Friday! Or maybe just tolerable Friday. Since everything sucks, we decided to give you an extra episode this week: a Patreon exclusive that we decided the general audience might want to listen to in case you’re needing extra entertainment. We’re still giving you a regular episode this next coming Wednesday, but meanwhile please enjoy this.
America or burst! For most of us ’80s babies, Perfect Strangers is a quintessential sitcom of the era — it looked ’80s, it had a perfect ’80s opening theme, and like so many situation comedies aimed at families, it was maybe not the most ambitious show in terms of jokes and plots. However, there’s also a lot there that reads as a little gay. In fact, Drew and Glen even dream up various ways a reboot could double-down on this queer element.
Listen to the two “lost” episodes that SoundCloud took offline but which are live again since we migrated to Libsyn: Everyone Loves Raymond’s Possibly Gay Brother and Rebecca Howe Suffers From Gay Blindness. Suck it, SoundCloud!
Support us on Patreon!
Make sure you subscribe to the new RSS feed.
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.
This episode’s outro track is “Strangers in the Night” by Baltimore.
Drew and Glen Answer Listener Questions
It's a GEE Q&A! Following the Golden Girls table read, we decided to take a week off, and it turns out we needed one more before we jump into the cycle of actual “episode” episodes. So in lieu of that, Drew and Glen answer a bunch of questions we've been sent by listeners over the past two years. We swear it’s actually content!
Call us and leave a message on the TableCakes Hotline at (209) 566-CAKE. No, really.
Listen to the two “lost” episodes that SoundCloud took offline but which are live again since we migrated to Libsyn: Everyone Loves Raymond’s Possibly Gay Brother and Rebecca Howe Suffers From Gay Blindness. Suck it, SoundCloud!
Buy Glen’s movie, Being Frank.
It’s not exactly a Spotify playlist of all the GEE outro tracks, but if you want to spend some time in that general territory, this might do the trick.
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, however the special logo for this Patreon episode was designed by Jeff Hinchee.
This is a TableCakes podcast.
This episode’s outro track is “AM/FM” by Natasha King.
Glen Writes a Golden Girls
“Vince Meat” (February 22, 2020)
Have you seen that one Golden Girls where Blanche accidentally sexes a man to death and the girls have to hide the body? Well, your answer should be no, because that episode didn’t air back in the day. It's a script written by our own Glen Lakin and then, for the purposes of this episode, read by a host of our actor friends. It’s fucked-up and funny, and we couldn't think of a better way to celebrate our fiftieth episode.
Cast: Dorothy: Meghan Parks Rose: Tony Rodriguez Blanche: Sam Pancake Sophia: Ted Biaselli Violet: Janie Haddad Tompkins
This episode was produced by Meika Grimm
Special thanks to Michael Iemma and Blaine Amidon!
Support us on Patreon!
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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.
¿Es Joe Un Homo?
“Joe Goes to Heaven” (Date Unknown, 1979)
The United States’ first bilingual sitcom and PBS’s first attempt at a 30-minute comedy, ¿Que Pasa USA? proved to be a regional hit in Miami, where a local PBS affiliate created and produced the show, and then across the country as a whole. Overall, it plays out like a lost Norman Lear series centered around a Cuban-American family, and this episode revolves around the possibility that strapping young Joe may be gay. GEE regular Tony Rodriguez makes his first non-Golden Girls appearance to explain this show that is beloved by PBS-watching Latinos but may be wholly new to gringos whose PBS stations weren’t lucky enough to air it.
Support us on Patreon!
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Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
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.
This episode’s outro track is “Vamos a la Playa” by Righeria.
Frank Lambert Is Worried His Son Is a Hairdresser
“Frank & Son” (October 18, 1991)
Is Step By Step a classic sitcom? Glen says yes, but Drew says no. Listen to an episode that a different podcast that prompted us to examine paternal homophobia and a long-running but perhaps non-classic TGIF sitcom, which Drew prefers to shorthand as “shitbag Brady Bunch.”
Listen to the episode of You’re Making It Worse that inspired this episode.
Support us on Patreon!
Follow: GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
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 episode’s outro track is “Happy Song” by Baby’s Gang, featuring Boney M.
Drew and Glen Rank the Sexiest Sitcom Dads
Two announcements: No. 1, Drew is tired and he is wanting to take a week off with an episode that requires less editing; and and No. 2, this podcast is launching a series of Patreon-only episodes where Drew and Glen discuss subjects unlikely to arise in their typical episodes. In this one, they both list off their picks for the hottest dads in sitcom history. And if you’re seeing this for the first time on the main, non-Patreon feed, then there’s already another one of these ready for your rabid consumption. Hit the link to our Patreon below to listen.
Want to see the dads we’re discussing in this episode? Check out the gallery on the episode page.
The logo for this Patreon-only series was designed by Jeff Hinchee, who is awesome. See more of his work on his website.
Listen to Fruitbowl, a podcast that is an oral history of queer sex, hosted by Dave Quantic.
If you haven’t yet, please give us a rate & review on iTunes.
Support us on Patreon!
Buy or rent Glen’s movie, Being Frank, on iTunes
Check out A Love Bizarre, Los Angeles’ No. 1 best queer art space:
Follow: GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
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.
This episode’s outro track is “Daddy Joe” by Tasha.
Grace’s Father-in-Law Is Gay… And Also Dead
“Emmet’s Secret” (December 6, 1995) and “Emmett, We Hardly Knew Ye” (December 20, 1995)
Even those of us who came of age in the 1990s might be surprised to find out how big a deal Grace Under Fire was in its day. The show was a huge hit, and even if it burned too bright and too quickly, it deserved its popularity because it was funnier and more heartfelt than a lot of longer-lived TV series. In this installment, we talk about two consecutive episodes that outed Grace’s father-in-law and then killed him off. It’s not boring.
Because it never hurts to point it out, the number for the National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1 (800) 723-8255. There's also an online chat option.
If you haven’t yet, please give us a rate & review on iTunes.
Support us on Patreon!
Buy or rent Glen’s movie, Being Frank, on iTunes
Check out A Love Bizarre, Los Angeles’ No. 1 best queer art space:
Follow: GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
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.
This episode’s outro track is “Baby, I’m Burnin’ (Disco Mix)” by Dolly Parton.
Edith Bunker’s Cousin Is a Lesbian… And Also Dead
“Cousin Liz” (October 9, 1977)
After two years and more than a few negative comments, Drew and Glen once again focus their gaze on All in the Family, a sitcom about America’s favorite ignoramus. This episode is a sweet and it is elegant, and it shows how readily Jean Stapleton’s Edith can accept that love between two women isn’t at all different from her love for her husband. There’s no B plot and only three characters, yet this is one of the best episodes GEE has reviewed so far.
If you haven’t yet, please give us a rate & review on iTunes.
Support us on Patreon!
Buy or rent Glen’s movie, Being Frank, on iTunes
Check out A Love Bizarre, Los Angeles’ No. 1 best queer art space:
Follow: GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
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.
This episode’s outro track is “Time and Love” by Tea for Two.
Susan’s Dad Had a Gay Affair With John Cheever
“The Cheever Letters” (October 28, 1992)
Poor Susan Ross. If she only knew what her association with George Constanza would ultimately cost her, she would have run screaming. Early in the show’s fourth season, Susan got a glimpse of what George was capable of when he indirectly caused her dad to be outed — if not as gay then at least certainly as a one-time lover of John Cheever. Mike Ciriaco joins Glen and Drew to discuss how this episode is a Seinfeld sleeper classic, both because of and in spite of how nonchalantly it deals with Mr. Ross’s sexuality.
If you haven’t yet, please give us a rate & review on iTunes.
Support us on Patreon!
Buy or rent Glen’s movie, Being Frank, on iTunes
Check out A Love Bizarre, Los Angeles’ No. 1 best queer art space:
Follow: GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
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.
This episode’s outro track is “Fire” by Radiorama.
Homer Moves Into the Gayborhood
“Three Gays of the Condo” (April 13, 2003) Six seasons after its inaugural gay episode, The Simpsons revisited the subject matter in the age of Will & Grace, and the end result sent Homer to live with two guys in Springfield’s gay district. This one exemplifies what it meant to do a gay sitcom after the point in time when it was no longer enough to just showcase straight characters being surprised that gay people exist, but is this a worthy successor to “Homer’s Phobia”? Drew and Glen talk though the good and the bad and the Weird Al.
Watch the video for “Do the Bartman” (and look for the gay part).
The Dennis Miller interview with Matt Warburton.
Listen to Drew’s episode of the Talking Simpsons podcast.
Also, if you haven’t yet, please give us a rate & review on iTunes.
Support us on Patreon!
Buy or rent Glen’s movie, Being Frank, on iTunes
Check out A Love Bizarre, Los Angeles’ No. 1 best queer art space:
Follow: GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
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.
This episode’s outro track is “Everybody Is Gay” by Latin Rose.
A Very Brady Christmas Is Gay Enough, Say Drew & Glen
We’re celebrating the holidays and closing out 2019 with one of our all-time favorite Christmas specials: A Very Brady Christmas, a 1988 TV movie that reunited all of the original cast that matters. If you’ve seen this special, you may be wondering what’s gay about this family holiday outing. Some stuff, we say, but perhaps most subtly the use of racecar-driving as a metaphor for Bobby Brady’s reckless homosexual lifestyle. Just go with us on this one.
Listen to our interview with Stan Zimmerman, who wrote the two Brady Bunch movies.
Also, if you haven’t yet, please give us a rate & review on iTunes.
Support us on Patreon!
Buy or rent Glen’s movie, Being Frank, on iTunes
Check out A Love Bizarre, Los Angeles’ No. 1 best queer art space:
Follow: GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
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.
This episode’s outro track is “Beautiful Noise” by Florence Henderson.
Ross’s Lesbian Ex-Wife Gets Lesbian Married
“The One With the Lesbian Wedding”(January 18, 1996)
Carol and Susan forever! In our previous look at Friends, we concluded that the ten-season sitcom put homosexuality in a bad light. Around the same time, everyone else concluded that as well, but what if season two’s “The One With the Lesbian Wedding” actually doesn’t suck so hard? Emelie Burnette Battaglia Balenciaga returns to talk about the episode the second Friends episode that ties LGBT issues with a recently deceased old lady.
“So Was Friends Homophobic?” by Kelsey Miller
“Homophobic Friends,” a 50-minute supercut of Friends’ lamest LGBT moments
Support us on Patreon!
Buy or rent Glen’s movie, Being Frank, on iTunes
Check out A Love Bizarre, Los Angeles’ No. 1 best queer art space:
Follow: GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
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.
This episode’s outro track is “Nobody’s Bride” by Peggy & The Pills.
Everybody Loves Raymond’s Possibly Gay Brother
“What’s With Robert?” (January 10, 2000)
Drew had never seen an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond before Glen pulled a gun on him and forced him to watch this one. To Drew’s surprise, this ostensibly family-friendly CBS sitcom handles gay panic a lot more thoughtfully than other shows of the era, even if it hinged around the ridiculous proposition that a man as tall as Brad Garrett might be homosexual.
Support us on Patreon!
Buy or rent Glen’s movie, Being Frank, on iTunes
Listen to Underbelly L.A., the new TableCakes true crime podcast that Drew helped produce
Check out A Love Bizarre, Los Angeles’ No. 1 best queer art space:
Listen to Fruitbowl, Dave Quantic’s oral history podcast about gay sex
Follow: GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
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.
This episode’s outro track is ”Hawai” by Hawai
Gayest Game Show Ever
No, this is not a deep dive into Paul Lynde’s most salacious innuendos. Instead, GEE is bidding farewell for a few weeks because Drew is heading to Japan, and we thought it would be cool to do an episode based around classic sitcom trivia, and Drew is hosting while Glen is pitted against special guest contestants Tony Rodriguez (who has guested before!) and Katherine Spiers (who hasn’t!). It’s fun, we swear, if not *actually* all that gay.
Katherine’s podcast, Smart Mouth
Tony’s podcast, Spanish Aquí Presents
Support us on Patreon!
Buy or rent Glen’s movie, Being Frank, on iTunes
Check out A Love Bizarre, Los Angeles’ No. 1 best queer art space:
Follow: GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
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.
This episode’s outro track is “My Little Japanese Boy” by Baby’s Gang.
Gimme a Break’s Gay Evening
“The Chief’s Gay Evening” (November 13, 1982)
Though beloved to a certain age range of 1980s babies, Gimme a Break doesn’t get its due praise for its “serious issue” episodes. This one, in which the Chief finds out that one of his officers is gay, handles the subject matter better than many more-acclaimed sitcoms would in the years that followed. In fact, our only complaint is that this series sole gay-themed episode doesn’t feature enough Nell Carter, whom we will remind you was a star. We miss you, Nell.
Support us on Patreon!
Buy or rent Glen’s movie, Being Frank, on iTunes
Check out A Love Bizarre, Los Angeles’ No. 1 best queer art space:
Follow: GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
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.
This episode’s outro track is “Happy Together / Runaway” by Tony Orlando and Dawn.
Endora Turns Darren Into a Homo
“Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall” (November 7, 1968)
When it came time to pick a Halloween special for Gayest Episode Ever, the only real choice was Bewitched, a seasonally appropriate sitcom that also happens to be one of the gayest things ever broadcast on network television. In this fifth-season outing, Endora curses Darren to become hopelessly vain, and Dick York makes the decision to play his newly narcissistic character as pretty damn gay. Comedian, actor and classic TV superfan Chase McCown joins Glen and Drew to talk through an episode that is very gay — if regrettably Uncle Arthur-free. (There’s always next Halloween!)
Support us on Patreon!
Buy or rent Glen’s movie, Being Frank, on iTunes
Check out A Love Bizarre, Los Angeles’ No. 1 best queer art space:
Follow: GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
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.
This episode’s outro track is “Tonight (Crazy Night!)” by Dorine Hollier.
Caroline’s Assistant Is a — Wait, He’s Straight?
“Caroline and the Gay Art Show” (October 5, 1995)
Okay, hear us out. I know you’re seeing that we did an episode about Caroline in the City and asking yourself why we would consider it a “classic” sitcom,” but there’s actually a lot going on here. Malcolm Gets played Caroline’s assistant, Richard, with a flair befitting a theater vet, but his chemistry with lead Lea Thompson didn’t read as romantic to many viewers. So why did they make Caroline and Richard pair off? And why did the third episode of the show revolve around the notion of Richard repeatedly stating, “I’m straight”? It’s actually an interesting story.
Buy the DVD of Glen’s movie, Being Frank. Buy or rent Being Frank on iTunes.
Check out A Love Bizarre, downtown Los Angeles’ new queer art space.
Support us on Patreon!
Follow: GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
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.
This episode’s outro track is “Mona Lisa” by Mr. Black.
Suzanne Sugarbaker Accidentally Dates a Lesbian
“Suzanne Goes Looking for a Friend” (April 9, 1990)
The previous Designing Women made Drew cry, but this one is far tamer and far more in line with what we’d consider sitcom-ish. In this Delta Burke showcase episode, Suzanne Sugarbaker attempts to make a friend outside Sugarbaker & Associates — and ends up finding a former pageant friend who’s now an out lesbian. This episode does gay panic from the female perspective and largely holds up today… except for the episode’s final line.
Buy the DVD of Glen’s movie, Being Frank. Buy or rent Being Frank on iTunes.
Check out A Love Bizarre, downtown Los Angeles’ new queer art space.
Support us on Patreon!
Follow: GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
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.
This episode’s outro track is “Don’t Cry Tonight” by Savage.
Ellen Comes Out*
“Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah” (May 7, 1997)
At long last, we’re bowing to audience requests and giving you the one where Ellen comes out… to her parents. No, it is not “The Puppy Episode,” the one where Ellen came out to Laura Dern and also the world; it’s the episode that aired one week after that one, when she came out to her parents. “The Puppy Episode” is a part of TV history, but this one is maybe a more realistic look at the ongoing, constant process of coming out.
The Los Angeles LGBT Center Is a thing er talk about in this episode. And yes, PFLAG still exists.
Buy the DVD of Glen’s movie, Being Frank. Buy or rent Being Frank on iTunes.
Check out A Love Bizarre, downtown Los Angeles’ new queer art space.
Support us on Patreon!
Follow: GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
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.
This episode’s outro track is “Cheri Cheri Lady” by Modern Talking.
Dinosaurs Uses Vegetarianism as a Metaphor for Homosexuality
“I Never Ate for My Father” (October 2, 1991)
When Robbie Sinclair fails to kill his first live prey, he begins to wonder if he might be more herbivorously oriented — and that fits in really well with this episode’s extensive use of vegetarianism as a metaphor for homosexuality. (But also drug use and communism, because America.)
Buy the DVD of Glen’s movie, Being Frank
Buy or rent Being Frank on iTunes
Check out A Love Bizarre, Los Angeles’ new queer art space.
Support us on Patreon!
Follow: GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
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.
This episode’s outro track is ”Gigolo“ by Green Ice
The Gayest Saturday Morning Cartoon Episode Ever
”Odyssey of the Twelfth Talisman” (September 28, 1985)
Once upon a time, there was a Saturday morning cartoon based on Dungeons & Dragons, and in its final few episodes it had one of its male characters hit it off with a one-off NPC who was witty and matched him, insult for insult. This one-off also happened to be male, and whether by accident or whatever, the resulting episode plays out kinda like a male-on-male romcom that just happens to be situated in medieval fantasy setting. Don’t worry if you’ve never experienced a Dungeons & Dragons anything; Glen and Drew will walk you through it.
Cartoons That Made Us Gay, the 1980s cartoon episode that inspired this episode:
Matt Baume’s D&D podcast, Queens of Adventure
Critical Role, the D&D podcast starring Ashley Johnson
Nasim Pedrad looks like Jill, Kermit’s co-worker from Muppets Take Manhattan
Check out A Love Bizarre, Los Angeles’ new queer art space.
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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.
This episode’s outro track is ”Lancelot” by Valerie Dore.
The Golden Girls Had a Gay Live-in Cook
“The Engagement” (September 14, 1985)
The pilot to Golden Girls features a fifth roommate who did not make it into the rest of the series: Coco the gay live-in cook, played by Charles Levin. The actor recently died, and in part because it’s timely and in part because Drew feels bad about his jokes that Coco was lost at sea, our first off-season episode is a Coco-centric look at this first-ever Golden Girls.
Read Drew's interview with Golden Girls writers.
Buy a copy of Jim Colucci’s awesome Golden Girls book, Golden Girls Forever.
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Support us on Patreon!
Follow: GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
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.
This episode’s outro track is ”Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” by Starship.
Frasier Has a Gay Dream
“The Impossible Dream” (October 15, 1996)
The finale to the second season of GEE begins how the first one began: with Frasier. Two years after the episode that said, “No, Frasier isn’t gay,” the show backed up a little and asked “But what would you say if he was maybe?” Also it’s revealed that Gil Chesterton has a more toned chest than any of us would have expected.
Check out A Love Bizarre, Los Angeles’ new queer art space:
Support us on Patreon!
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Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
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.
This episode’s outro track is ”A Dream of You and Me“ by Future Islands
Everyone Thinks Chandler Is Gay
“The One Where Nana Dies Twice” (November 10, 1994)
Hey, have you heard about this show called Friends that’s about people who are friends? Emelie Burnette returns to talk about how the first gayish outing of this landmark sitcom gets some things right, some things wrong. We don’t settle the “Is Friends homophobic or transphobic?” debates but we do at least find an answer to the “Is Rachel Green Jewish?” debate?
“Homophobic Friends,” compiled by Tijana Mamula
Why Friends is “Hugely Transphobic,” by Samantha Riedel:
Emily Nussbaum’s tweets defending Friends against charges that it’s homophobic
“Is Rachel Green Jewish?” by Lindsey Weber
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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.
This episode’s outro track is “Sugar Town” by Nancy Sinatra.
The Living Single Girls Throw a Lesbian Bridal Shower
“Woman to Woman” (March 21, 1996)
Don’t think of it as another Golden Girls or Designing Women, because Living Single is actually the show that originated the model for Friends. Yeah, Friends is just an all-white Living Single, and this episode proves how the original can handle a coming out story a lot better than its imitator. Dr. Justin Young joins Glen and Drew to talk Tootie, Latifah, Cousin Pam and Dr. Mary.
Watch Justin’s movie, That’s Me on the Right
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TAnd 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.
This episode’s outro track is “Tainted Love” by Gloria Jones.
Will and Jack Kiss on Live TV
“Acting Out” (February 22, 2000)
In this episode, Drew tries really hard not to not trample your warm, fuzzy feelings about Will & Grace. But even if you don’t think this show lands its jokes often enough, you can’t argue that it did a lot to increase the visibility of gays — white, male, metropolitan, wordplay-loving gays. Megan Mullally for president.
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Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
TAnd 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.
This episode’s outro track is “Angel of the Morning” by Juice Newton.
The Gang From Taxi Meets a Bisexual
“Elaine’s Strange Triangle” (December 10, 1980)
Elaine is digging her new boyfriend, but it turns out her new boyfriend is also digging Tony. This, the first episode to address the subject of bisexuality, is often a more thoughtful and nuanced exploration of straight characters’ discomfort around anything queer… but then Tony and Alex go to a gay bar and the episode takes a hard turn. Oh, and were you aware of how hot 1980-era Christopher Lloyd was? Check it out.
Check out A Love Bizarre, downtown Los Angeles’ new queer art space
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Follow: GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
TAnd 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.
This episode’s outro track is “Bizarre Love Triangle (Extended Dance Mix)” by New Order
Interview: Glen Lakin, Hollywood Screenwriter
Glen Lakin is more than a mere podcast host. He’s also a screenwriter whose first movie — Being Frank, starring Jim Gaffigan and Logan Miller — opens in theaters today, June 14, in Los Angeles and New York. (More cities to follow, don’t worry.) Yes, we’re using this podcast to let Glen talk about his movie, but take solace in the fact that Drew had to twist his arm to do it. This short promotional interview has Glen talking about how he came up with this story about a suburban dad’s second family and how it might relate to the wacky situations of sitcoms past.
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Follow: GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
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TAnd 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.
his episode’s outro track is “Coeur Hanté” by Frank (Just Frank)
What’s Gay About Mr. Belvedere?
This series about a British butler managing an American family ran on ABC for six season and for several years more on weekday afternoons in syndication. And while the show is fairly well-remembered today, some viewers might not realize how very gay this show is: from its premise to its lead character to its lead actor to the history of the Mr. Belvedere character going back forty years before this sitcom debuted.
Child Celebrities Opposed to Kirk Cameron
The opening credits to Jennifer Slept Here, a very weird sitcom that you should probably know about
Christopher Hewett starring as King Koopa in Super Mario Bros. at the Ice Capades:
Listen to Drew’s talk about TV dinners on Smart Mouth
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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.
This episode’s outro track is “Dead Man’s Party” by Oingo Boingo.
Mr. Roper Has a Gay Awakening
“Strange Bedfellows” (October 4, 1977)
Some people think of Three’s Company as being a show that hinges on zany misunderstandings that could be solved if one character just said one thing. That’s not the case with this second-season episode, in which Mr. Roper wakes up in bed with Jack, who, we should remember, has told his landlords he is gay. What follows is actually a tighter-plotted TV episode than you might expect.
Check out A Love Bizarre, downtown Los Angeles’ new queer art space
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Follow: GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
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.
Murphy Brown Has a Gay Co-Worker
“Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are” (March 9, 1992)
Just when you think Murphy Brown’s take on a gay episode is overstuffed with heteros sharing bad information about alternative lifestyles, the last scene gives the one-off gay character some earnest, heartfelt lines. In the end, Murphy Brown did the gay character good. Queer culture impresario Matt Baume joins Glen and Drew to talk Candice Bergen, Faith Ford and gunge. (Look it up.)
Culture Cruise, Matt’s YouTube series about gay pop culture
Sewers of Paris, Matt’s gay pop culture podcast
Drew’s episode of Sewers of Paris
Queens of Adventure, Matt’s drag queen Dungeons & Dragons podcast
The Allusionist’s episode all about Polari, Britain’s gay secret language
The Queen’s Vernacular, the vintage dictionary of gay slang mentioned by Matt
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Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
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.
Blanche’s Homo Brother Wants to Get Gay Married
“Sister of the Bride” (January 21, 1991)
The Clayton Hollingsworth story comes to an end with an episode about same-sex marriage before even the term “commitment ceremony” came into the popular lexicon. Tony Rodriguez joins us to discuss the ways that this episode shows how The Golden Girls was ahead of its time in so many ways, “ah so” notwithstanding.
Read Drew's interview with Golden Girls writers
Check out A Love Bizarre, Los Angeles’ new queer art space
Support us on Patreon!
Follow: GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
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.
The Cartoons That Made Us Gay
Warning! Warning! You are encountering an atypical installment of this podcast. Instead of the discussion of sitcoms, this one concerns the discussion of 1980s cartoons — and with none other than leading ’80s cartoon authority and Netflix director of original series Ted Biaselli! Animated conversation includes but is not limited to He-Man, She-Ra, Jem, ThunderCats, Care Bears, Rainbow Brite, Strawberry Shortcake, Beverly Hills Teens, SilverHawks, TigerSharks, Paw Paw Bears, Kidd Video and Dungeons & Dragons. In case you did not come of age in the 1980s and don’t know what the hell we’re talking about, we have constructed a handy visual guide for you.
Listen to the Super Gay podcast about He-Man
Watch Drew’s weird video art project about Fisto from He-Man And also the one about Beverly Hills Teens
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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.
Blanche’s Brother Is a Homo
“Scared Straight” (December 10, 1988)
When Blanche’s brother comes over and comes out, Blanche shows that southern hospitality has its limits. It’s a classic story about homosexuality being accepted — but only to an extent. Burgeoning podcast star Tony Rodriguez joins Glen and Drew to talk about the best-ever gay-focused episode of a sitcom to also have a B plot about a death premonition dream.
Read Drew's interview with Golden Girls writers
Check out A Love Bizarre, Los Angeles’ new queer art space
Support us on Patreon!
Follow: GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
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.
Maude’s New Friend Is a Homo
“Maude’s New Friend” (December 2, 1974)
And then there’s Maude! Bea Arthur teaches us all a valuable lesson about how liberals can also be prejudiced in this third-season episode that’s all about Maude trying and failing to celebrate a newfound homosexual acquaintance. This episode is pretty wild, as Glen puts it, and it holds up better than a lot of TV airing ten and twenty years later. #breadsandwich
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Follow: GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
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.
Roy Biggins Has a Big Gay Son
“There’s Always Room for Cello” (December 14, 1990)
What smells like Wario + Newman + extra farts? It’s Roy Biggins, the chuckling villain of Wings, an NBC sitcom that is a solid B but which has a reputation for being a C minus. In the second season, Roy’s son came out and Roy was given — and totally biffed — a chance to act like a grown-up. Jonathan Bradley Welch, host of that *other* gay TV podcast, A Special Presentation, is on hand to discuss growing up in Massachusetts, the charms of Crystal Bernard and which Hackett brother is hotter.
Listen to Jonathan's *other* gay TV podcast, A Special Presentation
Drew’s Animaniacs-focused episode of A Special Presentation:
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Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
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.
What’s Gay About the Dick Van Dyke Show?
“The Ballad of the Betty Lou” (November 27, 1963)
In this shorter episode, Gayest Episode Ever is looking at The Dick Van Dyke Show, a beloved series that is never explicitly gay but it occasionally features some implicitly gay elements — and may also once made a semen joke.
Watch a clip of the apparent semen joke
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Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
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.
Marcy D'Arcy Has a Lesbian Cousin
“Lez Be Friends” (April 28, 1997)
For a lot of ’80s kids, Amanda Bearse was one of the first gay people they ever heard about. And while Bearse came out in 1993, she got to put LGBT themes in the spotlight in a 1997 episode in which she plays both Marcy D’Arcy and her lesbian cousin, Mandy. It’s a product of its time, for sure, but at its heart is a fairly thoughtful depiction of a happy, function person who’s better off for having come out of the closet. Bonus points for Elaine Hendrix.
Watch the 1994 Amanda Bearse interview segment on Network Q
Listen to Drew's other podcast talk about Amanda Bearse in Fright Night
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Follow: GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
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.
Sanford Thinks His Son Is a Homo (and Vice Versa)
“Lamont, Is That You?” (October 19, 1973)
Norman Lear for the win! This podcast probably won’t go in depth on ’90s classics like Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Family Matters or A Different World because many black sitcoms of that era didn’t do gay episodes. Back in 1973, Sanford and Son did, however, and the result is classier and more interesting than what you’d see on shows ten and twenty years later.
Check out A Love Bizarre, Los Angeles’ new queer art space:
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Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
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.
Joey Lawrence Has a Gay Secret Admirer
“Double Date”(January 31, 1994)
Whoa. Blossom was famous for two things: hats and Very Special Episodes. And while its gay episode is suspiciously lacking in hats, it seems like its several Very Special Episodes rolled up into one. In addition to featuring Joey Lawrence’s character as the recipient of a love letter from his male teammate, it also features teaching moments about childhood racism and butt touching (respectively). Does it work? Kinda no, but it’s interesting how much it packs in and how it treats its coming out moment like it’s no big deal… which it isn’t, comparatively.
Watch the pilot for Molloy, the Mayim Bialik sitcom that could have been
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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.
Peggy Hill Meets a Drag Queen
“The Peggy Horror Picture Show” (January 28, 2007)
When Peggy Hill mistakenly shops at a store for drag queens, she gets mistaken for one. And while that might seem like hokey sitcom setup, this eleventh-season King of the Hill episode manages some real emotions and some perspectives on gender you wouldn’t have seen on TV at the time.
Sam Pancake’s podcast, Monday Afternoon Movie
TalKing of the Hill’s first episode
What a Cartoon’s King of the Hill episode
The model sheets cautioning against Shapely Peggy
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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.
Rebecca Howe Suffers From Gay Blindness
“Rebecca’s Lover... Not” (April 23, 1992)
Gayest Episode Ever kicks its hiatus into the gutter with the first installment of it second season. And yes, we’re back in Boston with Cheers, but it’s a very different show in its tenth season — and featuring not Shelley Long but Kirstie Alley as the barmaid having to address her feelings about homosexuality. Harvey Fierstein guest stars in an episode that has connections to both She-Ra and Fright Night, and that makes for a big gay win
Listen to Drew and Tony’s podcast, You Have to Watch This Movie
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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.
Fresh Off the Boat Outs the Girl Next Door
“A League of Her Own” (November 17, 2017)
For the second of the “off season” bonus episodes, Drew and Glen wanted to compare how a modern day, family-friendly sitcom compares with the classic versions they discussed in the first season. They picked ABC series Fresh Off the Boat, which in its fourth season had a prominent character — Nicole, the “Winnie Cooper” of this flashback series on whim the lead character has a crush — come out as a lesbian. The storyline is handled very well, and what’s most surprising is that in 2017, a coming out story on a mainstream show isn’t controversial in the least.
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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.
Interview: Stan Zimmerman
A veteran sitcom writer, Stan Zimmerman is one half of the duo that penned the script for “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the episode of Roseanne in which the main character is kissed by a lesbian. In this interview, Stan talks about the process of writing that episode and riding through the controversy surrounding it, but he also offers behind-the-scenes insight from his time on Golden Girls, the gay-centric Showtime series Brothers, his efforts to get his sitcom project Silver Foxes on a screen near you and the role he played in getting RuPaul the role of Miss Cummings the guidance counselor in The Brady Bunch Movie.
Read Drew's interview with Golden Girls writers
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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.
Harley and Ivy Are Domestic Partners
"Harley and Ivy" (January 18, 1993)
In GEE’s first bonus episode, Glen and Drew focus on something that's not a sitcom but is nonetheless pretty damn gay — the Batman: The Animated Series installment that put a lesbianish aura around Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn, which extended to the comics and ultimately made the duo a full-fledged couple years later.
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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.
Diane Chambers Is an LGBT Ally
"The Boys in the Bar" (January 27, 1983)
When Sam Malone makes a show of supporting his newly out former teammate, the regulars at Cheers worry that bar will suddenly go queer. It's another case of straight hysteria and straight histrionics, but luckily it's Diane Chambers to the rescue. The first season of Gayest Episode Ever closes out with a remarkable installment of one of Drew and Glen's favorite shows and singing of the praises of Shelley Long, patron saint of suffering creatives everywhere.
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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.
Jerry and George Aren’t Gay, Not That There’s Anything Wrong With That
“The Outing” (February 11, 1993)
Seinfeld won a GLAAD award for this episode all about how even the most well-meaning straight people would be horrified to be mistaken for gay. It helped popularize “not that there’s anything wrong with that” and, to a lesser extent, “single, thin and neat” as 90s-era gay catchphrases and also managed to spin a whole half-hour with minimal presence of actual LGBT characters. Emelie Burnette, copy editor to the stars, joins Glen and Drew to talk about what this episode gets right, as well as Veronica Mars’ enduring legacy, seeing Larry David in the men’s room, a rapper whose name sounds like Queef Latina, and why Elaine refuses to take off her coat.
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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.
Julia Sugarbaker Plans a Gay Funeral
"Killing All the Right People" (October 5, 1987)
In one of the most devastating sitcom installments ever aired, Sugarbaker & Associates plans the funeral of a young gay man dying of AIDS. This is *VERY* *SAD* episode, and we want you to know that it might choke you up, should you be the type who listens at the gym. That said, there's a lot to learn from this episode of Designing Women, both in what a TV show had to do in 1987 to make straight audiences pay attention to AIDS and how TV has evolved in the past 30 years in the way it features more complex, more nuanced LGBT characters. But yeah, tears. So many tears.
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Follow: GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
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.
Homer Simpson Is a Homophobe
"Homer's Phobia" (February 16, 1997)
Hot stuff, coming through! At long last, Homer Simpson asks the difficult question, "Hey, what if Bart is a homo?" This episode has none other than John Waters on hand as the primary non-Smithers Springfield queer, and the result is one of the better gay outings of the entire '90s. Learned person Dr. Bryan Wuest is on hand to help Glen and Drew talk through camp, kitsch and all manner of gayness.
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Follow: GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
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.
Blair Warner Is a Homophobe
"Rough Housing" (August 24, 1979)
You probably remember The Facts of Life, but you may not know that the show's first season introduced a whole slew of characters who wouldn't make it to season two and also that the first-ever episode dealt with Blair's homophobia toward a tomboyish classmate that didn't even turn out to be a lesbian. Playwright and Supernatural writer Steve Yockey joins Drew and Glen to talk whether Blair is a monster, whether Mrs. Garrett crosses a line addressing Blair's monster status and why Jenny O'Hara should have remained on the show.
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Follow: GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
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.
Mary and Rhoda Meet a Homo
"My Brother's Keeper (January 13, 1973)
Actor and comedian Sam Pancake joins Glen and Drew to talk about this third-season episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, in which the last-minute revelation that Phyllis' brother is gay gets the biggest laugh of the show. That said, this is a sweet take on a gay episode that aired when most sitcoms didn't do them. Topics discussed include Bridget Loves Bernie, "Ode to Billy Joe," Murder by Death, the theme song to Phyllis' spinoff and how Gavin MacLeod's character sure seems kinda gay.
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Follow: GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
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.
Archie Bunker Meets a Homo
"Judging Books by Covers" (February 9, 1971)
At the very least, the fact that Richard Nixon hated this episode of All in Family should motivate you to consider why it's actually good. In it, Archie Bunker (Carroll O'Connor) fails to learn a lesson about who's gay and who seems gay. This Norman Lear-penned script has one of the first positive portrayals of an LGBT character ever in an American TV series, and Glen and Drew's discussion covers everything from TaleSpin to Carol Danvers to Luke and Laura from General Hospital.
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Follow: GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
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.
Dorothy's Friend Is a Lesbian
"Isn't It Romantic?" (November 8, 1986)
An award-winning Golden Girls outing does in the mid-1980s what many '90s sitcoms failed to do by introducing a nuanced LGBT character who's not just a prop for the hetero regulars. Lois Nettleton scored an Emmy nom for her turn as Dorothy's friend Jean, who falls for Rose and who is introduced to the audience as being 100 percent comfortable with her sexuality. Everyone else? Not so much. Actor and comedian Tony Rodriguez joins Glen and Drew to talk about why this is one of the best gay episodes of TV ever.
Read Drew's interview with Golden Girls writers
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Follow: GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
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.
Roseanne Gets Kissed by a Lesbian
"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (March 1, 1994)
Roseanne's kiss with Mariel Hemingway wasn't the first instance of liplock between two women on American TV, but it was the most controversial. More than two decades later, Glen and Drew talk about this episode and how it discusses sexual gray areas, how Laurie Metcalf's Aunt Jackie always seemed kinda lesbian-y and why Roseanne was a pioneer for LGBT diversity... even if she's crazy now.
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Follow: GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
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.
Frasier's Boss Is Gay
"The Matchmaker" (October 4, 1994)
Shortly into Frasier's second season, one episode made it clear once and for all that despite appearances otherwise, Frasier Crane was not gay. The episode features Eric Lutes as the dashing station manager who thinks he's going on a date with Frasier, and this first installment of the podcast has Glen and Drew talking about how the show slut-shames Roz, how Niles should have come out and why this particular episode got awards for doing a gay episode the right way.
Support us on Patreon!
Follow: GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
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.
Trailer
Gayest Episode Ever is a podcast hosted by Drew Mackie, a journalist, and Glen Lakin, a screenwriter. Each installment focuses a different LGBT-themed episode of a classic sitcom.
Support us on Patreon!
Follow: GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya
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.
Fler poddar
Podcasten Gayest Episode Ever är skapad av Drew Mackie & Glen Lakin. Podcastens innehåll och bilderna på den här sidan hämtas med hjälp av det offentliga podcastflödet (RSS).
En liten tjänst av I'm With Friends. Finns även på engelska.