Gayest Episode Ever

"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 Gol...

"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...

"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 J...

"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...

"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. Check out A Love Bizarre , downtown Los Ange...

"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...

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...

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 thi...

"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...

"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 Ber...

"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 writ...

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, Stra...

"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. Re...

"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. #breadsan...

"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 pod...

"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 Check out A Love Bizarre , Los Angeles' new queer art space  Support us on Patreon !...

"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...

"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...

"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 an...

"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 H...

"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 th...

"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...

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-ce...

"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 ! Follow: GEE on Twitte...

"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 favo...