Gayest Episode Ever

"My Coffee With Niles" (May 19, 1994) And that's a wrap. It's been eight years and three hundred-some episodes, so we're turning off the TV and going to play outside. In concluding, we're springboarding off the first-season finale of Frasier, which has the Crane boys sitting down and discussing life, but we're not really talking about that. The conversation has moved on. But like the Bundys and th...

This is a rerun of an episode that originally went live March 4, 2020. "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 b...

"Baby Doll" (October 1, 1994) If you're new here, you might be thinking that this is an odd pick for the second-to-last episode. To this I say, "So what?" It's a great episode about the toxic allure of nostalgia, which will swallow you whole if you don't get out in time. And Alison La Placa's performance as the title character is one of the best ever in a cartoon. "Hey, Drew, why did you become a...

This is a rerun of an episode that originally aired in 2024. "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 compani...

"One for the Road" (May 20, 1993) Because this podcast is ending, we thought we should take on at least one notable sitcom series finale. And because Cheers happens to have a gay subplot in its last episode — and because Diane Chambers is always close to our heart — we're going with that one. It's a really important piece of TV history, and even if you haven't watched the whole series, we think yo...

Tony Rodriguez joins us one last time for a sequel episode of sorts to our one about gay Looney Tunes shorts . This time, we're focused on old-time Disney shorts that lend themselves to a queer reading. If you want to watch this cartoons before you listen, here's a list of where you can find them online. In order of discussion: Ferdinand the Bull (1938) The Cookie Carnival (1935) Father's Day Off...

This is a rerun of an episode that originally aired in 2021. "The Play's the Thing" (November 17, 1992) The big joke with Full House never did a gay episode despite being a show about three men cohabitating and coparenting in San Francisco. However, the fifth season introduced Derek (Blake McIver Ewing), a new friend for Michelle who's well-mannered, soft-spoken and really good at showtunes. We'd...

"A Streetcar Named Marge" (October 1, 1992) Although it was not on our final season schedule, circumstances conspired to make us discuss The Simpsons one last time — and we've picked a classic-era episode that may not scream "gay" but it definitely mutters it under its breath. In addition to Jon Lovitz playing the abusive theater director Llewelyn Sinclair, this one also features a young gay man's...

"Forbidden Fruit" (January 16, 1996) At long last, we are proud to announce the first episode of our podcast to feature both hosts of Talking Simpsons, Henry Gilbert and Bob Mackey. It's also the last episode to feature them both, because we are kicking this podcast into its grave. But in the process we manage to have a nice conversation about adult animation and how Duckman compares to the Simpso...

This is a rerun of an episode that originally aired in 2019. "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 ac...

Whelp, here it is: the final time this podcast is ever going to teach you about a short-lived show that you maybe never heard of. In the grand scheme of 90s sitcoms about attractive people living in New York, ABC's Oh Grow Up might seem like an also-ran. However, John Ducey's Ford managed to be a more rounded gay character than most of its longer-lived contemporaries gave us in much longer runs. H...

"Life's a Beach" (May 21, 1989) For our final season, we're not hitting up that many of the GEE favorites. There's no Seinfeld, no Friends, no Roseanne, no Golden Girls. Hell, there's not a Simpsons on the schedule at the moment. But we will make time for Married… With Children, whose third season finale provides some nice moments to remind you all why the Bundys matter. There's even a hot gay cou...

"Stand by Your Man" (February 16, 1989) This might well be the last time we're discussing a one-off gay episode done by a mainstream sitcom. Dear John's popularity burned bright but quickly, and early in its first season it threw a new character into the mix who was not only gay but also gay. Cleavon Little actually won an Emmy for this performance, and it's deserved, even if some of his antics re...

This is a rerun of an episode that originally aired in 2019. "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...

"The Offspring" (March 12, 1990) Yeah, we finally did an hourlong — and if you're surprised that we picked Star Trek: The Next Generation, then you are probably unaware how many fans of GEE are also huge Star Trek nerds. We're joined by friend Mike Gizienski , who knows more about the Star Trek franchise than we do, to discuss the episode with Data's daughter Lal, which isn't especially any of the...

Heads up! This is a rerun of an episode that originally aired in 2019. We're putting a few of our favorite episodes in the off-weeks of our final season. "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...

"The Gay Caballeros" (February 19, 1996) Full disclosure: We didn't come here to say nice things about Debra Messing. What we will say is that she's forever trapped in sitcom mode, to the point that the laffer that preceded the gay one has her essentially playing an identical character. What's more? Ned, who is supposedly straight, really reads like a gay character. For these reasons and more, thi...

"You Go to My Head" (October 1, 1974) We're kicking off our final season by discussing what's arguably the most important sitcom that we haven't profiled yet: Happy Days. Technically, Happy Days never did an episode, but what's surprising is how close this one gets, with actual lines spoken including "I'm in the closet" and "Do you prefer dick?" We have  episode transcripts  courtesy of  Sarah Nea...

Yes, we're wrapping up the podcast. Is it Heated Rivalry's fault? Kinda! We had a really good go, but after a lot of conversations about this, we have decided that we will end Gayest Episode Ever with one last ten-episode season. The below episodes will be going live every other week (in the way new episodes have appeared in the feed in the last year), so we're going to be around for some time yet...

"A Night Alone Together: Usagi in Danger" (August 17, 1996) In our fourth look at Sailor Moon, we're discussing the final season, which features the Sailor Stars. Canonically, they're female superheroes who magically become boys in order to remain in disguise, and as a result some Sailor Moon fans consider them to be trans-coded or metaphorically transgender. It's not really for us to say one way...

"Ellen's First Christmess" (December 17, 2001) Yes, we're closing 2025 with a lump of coal rather than a sugarplum fairy. Believe it or not, Ellen Degeneres had a second sitcom between her first one and her reign as the iron-fisted queen of daytime. It's mostly lost in the shuffle today, but we're taking a look at her Christmas episode to point out how she chose to shut up about her sexuality this...

"The Artist" (December 19, 1987) Over the years, we've shared a lot of laughs with the girls on the laini, but our journey with the four horniest seniors in the history of Miami has come to an end, as "The Artist" is the final gay episode of The Golden Girls that we have much to say about. It's a slight episode, in terms of gay rep, but it actually has a lot to say about the show and the way gay m...

"More Like Skanksgiving" (November 20, 2012) Here you have it: the one other gay-themed Thanksgiving episode of a sitcom. Three seasons in, this one reveals heretofore-unheard canon that the Happy Endings characters exist as they do solely as a result of MTV's The Real World — and that Max things he might have been the first gay person on TV. Meanwhile, no one is remarking how Jane's 2002 raver ou...

 "The Ruptured Duck" (October 10, 1961) On the surface, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis tells the story of a teen boy who falls in love with every girl except Zelda Gilroy, who pines for him hopelessly. All of this is complicated by the fact that the Sheila Keuhl, the actor who played Zelda was in real life a gay woman who ultimately lost out on getting her own spinoff because she didn't fit the id...

"Werking Mom" (November 18, 2018) Yes, The Simpsons did a drag episode, and you might be interested to know that the idea did not originate with "Hey, let's do one about RuPaul's Drag Race." In fact, co-writer Carolyn Omine provided some background info, including how the surprising success of drag queens in the Tupperware sales market ultimately resulted in both Marg and Homer donning drag, and w...