Gayest Episode Ever

"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 mak...

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 cel...

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 o...

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 perhap...

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...

"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...

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, M...

"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 quee...

"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 sea...

"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...

"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...

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 als...

"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 join...

"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...

"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...

"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...

"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...

"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, s...

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 largel...

"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...

"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...

"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 th...

"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...

"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...

"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 skim...