Gayest Episode Ever

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 Podca

“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 Sch

“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

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

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 • H

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 subscrib

“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 L

“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

“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 vi

What does it take to get a teen-centric show like Moesha to do a gay episode? Well, we talked to the writer of “Labels,” Demetrius Andre Bady, who explains how the idea arose, how the final product differed from the original script, and what he thinks the legacy of the episode is today. Even better? He tells us which of the Moesha cast members pulled him aside to praise the bravery it took to push for this gay-inclusive script. Dr. Alfred L. Martin returns to ask questions and jokingly accuse Demetrius of malice. . BTW, this interview will make a lot more sense if you listen to our episode all about Moesha’s gay episode.   Follow Demetrius on Twitter.   Follow Alfred on Twitter.   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

“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 T

“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 hos

“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 T

“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