Gayest Episode Ever

"The Bands Break Up" (September 28, 1987) We're not *quite* ready yet to swing into regular production, so we're tossing up an episode of our Patreon-only bonus podcast, The Cartoons That Made Us Gay, onto the main feed. It's the Jem and the Holograms episode that is titled "The Bands Break Up" but would me more accurately titled "Kimber and Stormer Are Gay Lesbians Making Beautiful Queer Music Together." Intentionally gay or not, it is hard to dismiss these girls' relationship as just platonic, to the point that we don't have to work hard at all to find the queer elements — especially in a show that already offers a lot for LGBT viewers. Showtime, Synergy! And if you like this episode, you might also like the newest episode of Cartoons That Made Us Gay, which is all about Sailor Moon. You can listen right now on Patreon by pledging just $1 a month. And we're not charging you all for the next month to account for the lighter content output. Show notes: Watch a featurette on Jem's speaking voice singing the main theme for the anime Project A-ko. Read the L.A. Times story on Barbie's victory over Jem. Read all about Bill Sanders, creator of Jem and (we're guessing) a gay person. Queer readings of kids shows, previously: He-Man with special guest Henry Gilbert Fraggle Rock with special guest Matt Baume Dungeons & Dragons Dinosaurs 80s Cartoons with special guest Ted Biaselli Batman: the Animated Series episode "Harley and Ivy" The logo for The Cartoons That Made Us Gay was designed by Jeff Hinchee. This is a TableCakes podcast.

"A Little Christmas Queer" (December 8, 2005) Lest you be tempted to believe that Christmas miracles aren't real, we finally found an episode of Will & Grace that Drew doesn't hate. This one, from the final season of the show's original broadcast run, focuses on Will and company spending Christmas with his family and the problems posed by the fact that Will's nephew seems so very gay. It's actually a more nuanced look at the difficulties of being gay and leaving your life to spend the holiday with your (presumably straight) family. It doesn't suck! Not even the Grace storyline! Mental Floss has an article detailing Kellogg's Cornflakes and their origin as an effort to get people to masturbate less. And Daily Beast has a piece on William Faulkner's long-term love affair with binge drinking. Listen to the Monday Afternoon Move episode about The UFO Incident with Scott Philbrook. Listen to the Smart Mouth episode titled "Why Are U.S. School Lunches Like This?" Listen to the Singing Mountain episode titled "My Save Point Is a Hot Shower." Buy the first issue of Drew and Glen's new comic anthology, Beyond Sunset. 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: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • 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.

Special presentation! The Totally Trans podcast is covering the All in the Family character of Beverly LaSalle in a three part series this week because it marks a pairing of trans representation on a sitcom with the Christmas season. In an effort to promote this in-depth look at All in the Family, we're posting the first part on our feed. Have a listen — and then subscribe to Totally Trans to hear parts two and three as well as everything Ada-Rhodes, Henry and Katie will be discussing in 2022. Subscribe on… Apple Podcasts Stitcher Spotify Google Podcasts Also follow Totally Trans on Twitter support them on Patreon!

"Evie Stevie" (December 16, 1989) Whether you remember it as the show with the talking geodesic dad cube or the one with the girl who could freeze time, Out of This World has been relegated to the further reaches of 80s nostalgia. You might even believe some naysayers that it wasn't a good show; however, it was exactly as good of a show as you could hope for about a half-alien teen girl whose supernatural powers cause wacky, zany hijinx. It's not Norman Lear, but you know what? Neither were ALF, I Dream of Jeannie or Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Watch the episode we're talking about here (PW: garland) And here's the weird clip Drew mentions about the episode with the twins who materialize to sing about bad breath. If you want to see what David Lynch TV looks like minus the macabre, watch this clip of On the Air. Finally, here is the Lincoln Center performance of Twelfth Night starring Helen Hunt. Buy the first issue of Drew and Glen's new comic anthology, Beyond Sunset. 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: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • 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 episode was edited by Meika Grimm. This is a TableCakes podcast.

"Ovulation Day" (January 7, 1996) Mad About You was one of NBC's major sitcoms in the 90s, but it hasn't left a legacy the way many of its Must See TV mates have. We talk about why in this episode, which is actually the part one of a two-part crossover with the queer film podcast A Piece of Pie, where we're also discussing Helen Hunt's Oscar-winning turn in 1997's As Good as It Gets. Listen to Drew and Glen guest on A Piece of Pie's discussing of As Good as It Gets here. Subscribe to A Piece of Pie on Apple Podcasts and follow them on Twitter. Read the New York Times' write-up on the history of the show. Read the Vulture piece on how Mad About You defied categorization. Watch Helen Hunt do PCP and then jump through a plate glass window in the after school special Desperate Lives (which is actually not the angel dust movie, which is called Angel Dusted and which is also entertaining). Buy the first issue of Drew and Glen's new comic anthology, Beyond Sunset. 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: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • 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.

"Single White Male" (January 7, 1995) Even if you were the kind of person who watched all of NBC's Saturday night sitcoms back in the day, the following things may surprise you: 1) Empty Nest is a solid sitcom. 2) Empty Nest was a strong ratings performer that often beat the show it spun off from, The Golden Girls. 3) Empty Nest was still on in 1995. 4) When it uses the "f"-slur, it actually uses it appropriately — to mark someone as being heinously gauche. Watch the interview where Rita Moreno talks about hating the filming of the backdoor pilot to Empty Nest. Read the Slate article about how Drew's tweet inspired an SNL sketch. Also read the Slate article about the history of the effeminate wrist. Buy the first issue of Drew and Glen's new comic anthology, Beyond Sunset. 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: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • 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 episode was edited by Meika Grimm. This is a TableCakes podcast.

"Turkey in a Can" (November 24, 2013) Why did the fourth-season Thanksgiving episode of Bob's Burgers make some people think Bob Belcher is bisexual? In short, it's a single line — "I'm mostly straight" — but the real answer is a more complicated one that has to do with the show's queer sensibility, its overall gentle nature and the fact that Bob is a TV patriarch who operates differently than Homer Simpson and Peter Griffin. Who's the real sloppy bear? Read the Mary Sue's piece on Bob Belcher being a bi icon, which is probably the best-written argument in favor of this. 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: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • 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 episode was edited by Meika Grimm. This is a TableCakes podcast.

"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 argue that Derek, while young, still comes off as a queer-coded character, and the fact the actor himself would later come out makes the performance all the more interesting. Submit your pitch for issue two of Beyond Sunset here. Also buy the first issue of Beyond Sunset. Watch the unaired Full House pilot with John Posey playing the Bob Saget role Watch a pre-Full House Bob Saget on the CBS Morning Show Watch Lori Loughlin play Black Canary on the WB Birds of Prey before her Full House co-star Jurnee Smollett played her in the Birds of Prey movie The history of "Yankee Doodle," via Atlas Obscura 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: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • 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 episode was edited by Meika Grimm. This is a TableCakes podcast.

"Portrait of a Lackey on Fire" (November 21, 2021) Either we traveled to the future or the showrunner of The Simpsons reached out and asked us if we want to preview a new Smithers-centric episode airing this Sunday. Maybe both? This new episode happens to be written by Rob LaZebnik (a straight) and Johnny LaZebnik (his son, a gay), and we spoke with both of them about how they write together, what it's like growing up gay in the shadow of Smithers and what it means that Helen Lovejoy is down with the gays. Follow Rob and Johnny on Twitter! Watch "Smithers & Beyond: Every LGBT Joke on The Simpsons" if you haven't already and you have 2.5 hours to kill. And if we're talking about stuff we did, listen to the "Glen Writes a Golden Girls" episode. Also listen to the story about how Gayest Episode Ever helped get Tony Rodriguez cast as the new Julio on The Simpsons. We are extra special stoked on the art for this episode, which if you're not seeing on your podcast app of choice you should check out on the main website. It's by Ian O'Phelan, who has done all the episode art this season and whom you should hire to draw more cool stuff. Check out his art here. Buy the first issue of Drew and Glen's new comic anthology, Beyond Sunset. 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: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • 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 episode was edited by Meika Grimm. This is a TableCakes podcast.

"The New Girl, Part One" and "The New Girl, Part Two" (November 19 and 26, 1980) True, the first episode of The Facts of Life is the one that comes closest to addressing LGBT issues, but so much of Jo and Blair's relationship treads close that we are returning to discuss Nancy McKeon's two-part introduction to the show. Librarian and Facts of Life scholar Erin Fletcher joins us to discuss the many layers to Jo and many lines that, upon second thought, seem like they might be double entendres. Listen to our first Facts of Life episode, "Blair Warner Is a Homophobe" Read The L Chat, a message board charting a longstanding history of queer women shipping Jo and Blair Watch Facts of Life co-creators Dick Clair and Jenna McMahon playing hetero husband and wife on The Ed Sullivan Show Watch Sara Gilbert tell Lisa Whelchel on The Talk that yep, Jo was gay "Literally the gayest ship that has ever existed" but also this Jo/Blair montage set to "Good for Me" by Amy Grant "the story inside my head of how jo and blair get together (aka the /real/ facts of life)" Willona vs. Chip Fields on Good Times Buy the first issue of Drew and Glen's new comic anthology, Beyond Sunset. 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: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • 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 episode was edited by Meika Grimm. This is a TableCakes podcast.