Gayest Episode Ever

“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.

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.

“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.

“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.

“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.

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 StrangersBackdoor Pilots: Diff’rent Strokes Spins Mrs. Garrett into Facts of LifeWeirdest 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.

“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.

“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.

“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.

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 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.

“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 maagzine, which is basically the same thing as actualy 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: “The gaying of TV / Advertisers step up as more shows step out” (SFGate, Aug. 24, 2003)“Review: It’s All Relative” (Variety, Sep. 28, 2003)“It’s profitable to be a little bit gay” (LA TImes, Aug. 27, 2003)“Gays on TV: Hardly a Trend” (Chicago Tribune, Aug. 12, 2003)

“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.

“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.

“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. Follow Drew, Glen and Tony on Bluesky!

"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.

“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: Guide to the Unknown, “Mommy Watched Scream” Guide to the Unknown, “Scream, Queen! / Freddy’s Revenge” Gayest Episode Ever, “Boy Meets World Accidentally Does a Trans Episode” Gayest Episode Ever, “The Terror of Zombie Sandy Duncan” Gayest Episode Ever, “Two Guys, a Girl and a Post-Scream Slasher Halloween” Gayest Episode Ever, “The Facts of Life Goes to the Twilight Zone” Weirdest Episode Ever, “Family Matters Fights and Evil Murderous Puppet” Monday Afternoon Movie, “Summer of Fear with John Arthur Hill”

“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: The previous GEE about Bewitched (but honestly this new episode is better) Our episode about I Dream of Jeannie Our episode about The Addams Family, which deals with similar themes of ethnicity/culture erasure The GEE/Monday Afternoon Movie crossover episode about the Paul Lynde Halloween Special The Monday Afternoon Movie episode about The Legend of Lizzie Borden, which starred Elizabeth Montgomery and Katherine Helmond 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.

“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.

“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.