Gayest Episode Ever

"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 Strangers Backdoor Pilots: Diff'rent Strokes Spins Mrs. Garrett into Facts of Life Weirdest 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 magazine, which is basically the same thing as actually 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.