Gayest Episode Ever

"Jonathan the Gymnast" (November 18, 1986) Technically, Who's the Boss? never did a gay episode, but because Danny Pintauro's sexuality looms large over this sitcom, many episodes seem a little gayer as a result — and this episode especially so. In it, Tony and Angela step into the kitchen to have a frank discussion of why Jonathan is not like other boys, and it really comes off like Who's the Boss? is asking viewers to overlook this aspect of the character. It's fucked up that this happened, and it's one of several occurrences that make Drew utter the phrase "Poor Jonathan." Check out our sponsor, Spaces! And join our spaces for Gayest Episode Ever and Cartoons That Made Us Gay. Listen to the episode of Monday Afternoon Movie about The Legend of Lizzie Borden — starring Katherine Helmond but also featuring as a guest Gwynedd Stuart, who will be our guest next week to discuss Soap. Go shop at our TeePublic store! Follow: GEE on Facebook • GEE's Facebook Group • GEE on Twitter • GEE on Instagram • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn 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. This is a TableCakes podcast.

"Sons and Lovers" (January 16, 1996) This is an honest-to-God follow-up to our previous Wings episode, which was all about the series antagonist, Roy Biggins, finding out his son was gay. Five seasons later, someone at Wings thought to ask "Hey, what if that gay character didn't cease to exist the moment that first episode ended?" This episode marks one of the few times that a one-off gay character actually got to return. And yeah, we're re-joined by Massachusetts correspondent Jonathan Bradley Welch. It's a real journey for us all. Check out our sponsor, Spaces! And join our spaces for Gayest Episode Ever and Cartoons That Made Us Gay. Watch what remains of the attempted British remake of Wings.Buy the new issue of Beyond Sunset here. Go shop at our TeePublic store! Follow: GEE on Facebook • GEE's Facebook Group • GEE on Twitter • GEE on Instagram • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn 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. This is a TableCakes podcast.

"The Man We Love" (June 30, 1996) Last week, we looked at Married… With Children's take on an anti-Friends. This week, we decided to look at the last episode of a show that aired the previous season on Fox. While it was not designed as a response to Friends, it nonetheless managed to solve some of that show's major problems. Namely, it's racially diverse, there's a queer character in the opening credits, and the characters actually work. It's also funny, and having been co-created by writers who cut their teeth on The Golden Girls, that's no surprise. What's more, this show features an explicitly bi character — and this is something sitcoms almost never did and still don't. Check out our sponsor, Spaces! And join our spaces for Gayest Episode Ever and Cartoons That Made Us Gay. Watch episodes of The Crew on archive.org. And while you're at it, watch The Five Mrs. Buchanans too. Read Drew's interview with Golden Girls writers, including Jamie Wooten and more. Check out Katherine's new food venture, How to Eat L.A. Support Glen's LEGO DnD build by leaving a comment on the LEGO website. Listen to Drew's episode of Queer Quadrant, all about The Brady Bunch Movie — on Apple Podcasts and on Spotify. Buy the new issue of Beyond Sunset here. Go shop at our TeePublic store! Follow: GEE on Facebook • GEE's Facebook Group • GEE on Twitter • GEE on Instagram • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn 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. This is a TableCakes podcast.

"Enemies" (April 14, 1996) You may recall a late-series installment of Married… With Children that shifted focus away from the Bundys and onto an apartment of young sexy people who apparently despised each other. This was "Enemies," a kinda-sorta send-up of Friends that never saw the light of day beyond this one episode. Our theory is that it was a reformatted spinoff that at one point was going to star Christina Applegate and that also features a guy who's totally a stand-in for Matt Le Blanc. All of this is our take on what would be the Backdoor Pilots Patreon-only bonus podcast that we're starting this month. Should we do this one? Or should we do Weirdest Episode Ever? Check out our sponsor, Spaces! And join our spaces for Gayest Episode Ever and Cartoons That Made Us Gay. According to Pop Culture References, it looks like The Bob Cummings Show was the first TV show to do a backdoor pilot. And here's that 1996 Levi's commercial that Drew thinks this episode is reacting to. Buy the new issue of Beyond Sunset here. Go shop at our TeePublic store! Follow: GEE on Facebook • GEE's Facebook Group • GEE on Twitter • GEE on Instagram • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn 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. This is a TableCakes podcast.

"It May Look Like a Walnut" (February 6, 1963) It's not the first "weird" episode that a sitcom ever did, but it's probably the most famous: the second-season installment of The Dick Van Dyke Show where it departed from the usual formula and became a sci-fi B-movie. It turns out to be a dream, of course, but you actually aren't sure until the final moments, and it's still one of the stranger sequences you'll ever see on a mainstream sitcom. This episode is not all that gay but it is the first of two pitches for our next Patreon-exclusive show. Should we do a whole ten-episode season of the weirdest episodes ever? We will be putting it up to vote after next week's episode, the other choice, is live. Listen to the mini-episode about the Dick Van Dyke Show's debatable semen joke — and watch the scene here. Check out our sponsor, Spaces! And join our spaces for Gayest Episode Ever and Cartoons That Made Us Gay. Stuff to listen to: Our previous Dick Van Dyke episode about the "seaman" joke The new Halloween episode of Singing Mountain We Love Trash The Square Roots podcast Stuff to watch: Head of the Family, the failed Dick Van Dyke pilot The Tiny Toons parody of Dick Van Dyke (with Elmyra Tyler Moore) Dick Van Dyke Show Revisited My Sister Eileen Stuff to read: Robert David Sullivan's essay on this Dick Van Dyke Show episode Buy the new issue of Beyond Sunset here. Go shop at our TeePublic store! Follow: GEE on Facebook • GEE's Facebook Group • GEE on Twitter • GEE on Instagram • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn 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. This is a TableCakes podcast.

"Morticia and the Psychiatrist" (September 25, 1964) This year, we're celebrating Halloween with one of the two most Halloween-tastic TV families of all time — and no worries, because we talk plenty about the other one too. Joining us to discuss the second episode of The Addams Family is Ted Biaselli, director of original series at Netflix, who shares some of his experience developing the new Addams Family reboot, Wednesday, and his lifelong relationship with the creepiest and kookiest family in sitcom history. Check out our sponsor, Spaces! And join our spaces for Gayest Episode Ever and Cartoons That Made Us Gay. Listen to Ted's previous episodes, The Cartoons That Made Us Gay and Glen Writes a Golden Girls. Also, here is the blog post Drew references as identifying the Addams Family as east coast while the Munsters are west coast. Also:The new Halloween episode of Singing Mountain The Square Roots podcast Buy the new issue of Beyond Sunset here. Go shop at our TeePublic store! Follow: GEE on Facebook • GEE's Facebook Group • GEE on Twitter • GEE on Instagram • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn 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. This is a TableCakes podcast.

"Fizbo" (November 25, 2009) People have been asking us to cover this show basically since we started the podcast, and so this week we finally decided to cover it… by looking into an episode no one wanted us to do. In our heads, the most interesting part of the show is Cam and Mitchell, and the most interesting part of Cam and Mitchell is Eric Stonestreet's portrayal of Cam. He's straight, but we say he delivers a nuanced character who both embraces and defies stereotypes. Also, he's a clown, it turns out. Which may be appropriate, depending on your point of view. Check out our sponsor, Spaces! And join our spaces for Gayest Episode Ever and Cartoons That Made Us Gay. Buy the new issue of Beyond Sunset here. Go shop at our TeePublic store! Follow: GEE on Facebook • GEE's Facebook Group • GEE on Twitter • GEE on Instagram • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn 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. This is a TableCakes podcast.

"The Boys' Night Out" (February 13, 1983) More than a hundred episodes later (of All in the Family but also of this podcast), we return to the Archie Bunker primary universe to find out if everyone's favorite bigot got over his homophobia. The answer: kind of? But that is probably just the result of season after season of broadcast TV sanding off his rougher edges. Check out our sponsor, Spaces! And join our spaces for Gayest Episode Ever and Cartoons That Made Us Gay. Listen to Drew talk Street Fighter II and Thrilling Tales of Old Video Games on the Video Game History Hour podcast. Media of note: The Hollywood Reporter interview with Norman Lear about Carol O'Connor Washington Post article on the cancelation of Archie Bunker's Place The "Night of a Thousand Stars" video Beverly LaSalle, RIP (part one) as explained by the Totally Trans podcast Buy the new issue of Beyond Sunset here. Go shop at our TeePublic store! Follow: GEE on Facebook • GEE's Facebook Group • GEE on Twitter • GEE on Instagram • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn 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. This is a TableCakes podcast.

"There Is Nothing Like the Dames" (February 17, 1990) Believe it or not, Mama's Family has a deeply queer history. While the final result of — the syndicated revival that returned to TV after NBC canceled the it — bears little of that, this episode goes over all the ways a recurring sketch on The Carol Burnett Show originally told the story of a queer-coded artist who can't relate to his family back home. It's all the stranger to consider that Mama's Family never did an explicitly queer episode, even with all those Bob Mackie costumes. Check out our sponsor, Spaces! And join our spaces for Gayest Episode Ever and Cartoons That Made Us Gay. Buy the new issue of Beyond Sunset here. Read the article in which Bubba actor Allan Kayser talks about his famously tight jeans. Vicki Lawrence sings the original, non-instrumental version of the Mama's Family theme song. But also listen to her disco banger "Don't Stop the Music" and the no. 1 murder mystery pop hit "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia." Watch the brilliant 1982 TV movie adaptation of the Harper family saga, Eunice. Also watch The Carol Burnett Show's famous "Went With the Wind" sketch. But most importantly watch the original sketch version that led to Mama's Family, when it was just called "The Family." It made Drew way more sad than sketch comedy usually does. Go shop at our TeePublic store! Follow: GEE on Facebook • GEE's Facebook Group • GEE on Twitter • GEE on Instagram • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn 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. This is a TableCakes podcast.

"Cougars" (November 29, 2007) As comedically successful as it might be, 30 Rock is a very straight show. That's why our best pick for a queer episode is one where the sexually interesting narrative is the C plot and it ends with Judah Friedlander's Frank convincing himself he can't like guys because he doesn't fit prescribed definition of gay. This episode is ultimately harmless but indicative of some traps later Tina Fey efforts would fall into. But hey — it's got "Muffin Top." Check out our sponsor, Spaces! And join our spaces for Gayest Episode Ever and Cartoons That Made Us Gay. Buy the new issue of Beyond Sunset here. Listen to Drew and Glen talk Teen Angel on Talking Simpsons. Go shop at our TeePublic store! Follow: GEE on Facebook • GEE's Facebook Group • GEE on Twitter • GEE on Instagram • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn 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. This is a TableCakes podcast.