Gayest Episode Ever

If you listen to this podcast, you've probably noticed that Scooby-Doo's resident brainiac, Velma Dinkley, can read as a little queer. It's all subtext and implication, really, but what if we told you there is a canonical connection between Velma and lesbian pop culture? Listen as we unmask her, in true Scooby-Doo style, to reveal that Velma is actually Zelda Gilroy, a character on the 1960s teen sitcom The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis — and Zelda, in turn, is Sheila Keuhl, all-around badass, a queer trailblazer in California politics and someone who's still serving Angelenos today. Check out the Tom of Finland Foundation, the world's largest repository of erotic art. The foundation is planning events worldwide for Tom's 100th birthday, and see which events you can check out digitally here. And read Drew's article about the foundation. Link is actually SFW! Listen to Not Alone, the paranormal podcast that Drew thinks reminds him of himself and Glen, just with more ghosts. Ride the Great Space Coaster. "Sounds like Daphne!" Watch Zelda in action in a clip from Dobie Gillis. All of Hanna-Barbera's self-cannibalizations of Scooby Doo. ALL OF THEM, courtesy @johngraywb on Twitter. Sheila Keuhl's interview about Zelda Gilroy with the Archive of American Television. The New York Times article about Sheila's election win: Zelda's Unwavering Love Is No Longer Unrequited. An episode of Sheila's LGBT talk show, Get Used to It. Buy Glen's movie, Being Frank. Support us on Patreon! Follow: GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn • SoundCloud And yes, we do have an official website! And we even have episode transcripts courtesy of Sarah Neal. Our logo was designed by Rob Wilson. This is a TableCakes podcast. The episode's outro track is "The Garden" by 'Lectric Workers.

"My Own Private Rodeo" (April 28, 2002) Hank finds Dale's long-estranged father at a gay rodeo, and we've gotta say: for a conservative guy, Hank takes this news rather well. In our second King of the Hill episode, we're happy to find that the show once again hits that sweet spot between red and blue, progressive and conservative, goofy and bittersweet. BTW, the four season 13 episodes that only aired in syndication are "The Honeymooners," "Bill Gathers Moss," "When Joseph Met Lori, and Made Out with Her in the Janitor's Closet" and "Just Another Manic Kahn-Day." Watch them on Hulu! Buy a bag of Nat's Quarantine Blend of coffee at Lucky Coffee Co. Click here to listen to our previous King of the Hill episode, "Peggy Hill Meets a Drag Queen." And here is the What a Cartoon episode about "Peggy's Headache." Read the Gothamist article about how "Y.C.M.A." became a crossover hit. Buy Glen's movie, Being Frank. Support us on Patreon! Follow: GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn • SoundCloud And yes, we do have an official website! And we even have episode transcripts courtesy of Sarah Neal. Our logo was designed by Rob Wilson. This is a TableCakes podcast. This episode's outro track is "Little Cowboy" by Joe McRoy.

"The Blizzard" (December 6, 1984) Night Court aired on the same Thursday night block that included The Cosby Show, Family Ties and Cheers. And while Night Court never received as much prestige as the other three did, it ran for nine seasons, it landed joke after joke and it demonstrated a better understanding of its characters than most sitcoms do. In its second season, it pit its prissy, debatably gay-seeming character, played by John Larroquette, against an actual homosexual in a way that's funny but also shows that the show could go deeper than zany. We approve. Buy Glen's movie, Being Frank. Support us on Patreon! Follow: GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher •Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn • SoundCloud And yes, we do have an official website! And we even have episode transcripts courtesy of Sarah Neal. Our logo was designed by Rob Wilson. This is a TableCakes podcast. This episode's outro track is "In the Night" by Daydream.

"Discovery" (October 30, 1975) Somehow, Barney Miller managed to make comedy in gritty, 1970s-era New York City, and it managed to address the rampant crime of the day even though the action never left the precinct office. In this episode, a man has to overcome his fear of homophobic police officers in order to report that he was harassed, threatened and extorted because he was gay — yet it's still funny. Because it never hurts to point it out, the number for the National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1 (800) 723-8255. There's also an online chat option. Buy Glen's movie, Being Frank. Support us on Patreon! Follow: GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn • SoundCloud And yes, we do have an official website! And we even have episode transcripts courtesy of Sarah Neal. Our logo was designed by Rob Wilson. This is a TableCakes podcast. This episode's outro track is "Konya wa Hurricane" by Kinuko Ohmori.

"The Apartment" (November 9, 1979) And now for something slightly different. Katherine Spiers, TableCakes CEO and our first-ever heterosexual guest, joins Drew and Glen to talk about the British sitcom Are You Being Served? and in particular its resident homo Mr. Humphries. It's also our first remote guest, because this was recorded during pandemic times, so please forgive the fact that this outing has less-than-optimal sound quality. We will do better next time. If you can hang with Zoom-level audio, there's some interesting talk about how sitcoms play out across the pond. Shop at Smellbent, a queer-owned, L.A.-based cologne house. Listen to the game show episode that Katherine also guested on. Listen to Katherine's food podcast, Smart Mouth, and in particular the soda series that Drew guested on. Watch the pilot for Beane's of Boston, the attempted American remake of Are You Being Served?, which stars Charlotte Rea as Mrs. Slocombe. And regardless of what Katherine says, watch Smack the Pony — the dating agency series in particular. Buy Glen's movie, Being Frank. Support us on Patreon! Follow: GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn • SoundCloud And yes, we do have an official website! And we even have episode transcripts courtesy of Sarah Neal. Our logo was designed by Rob Wilson. This is a TableCakes podcast. This episode's outro track is "Calling All Boys" by The Flirts.

"As the Will Turns" (April 10, 1995) This is as close to a gay episode as Fresh Prince of Bel-Air ever got. And while it's not necessarily the funniest piece of TV ever, it makes for a hell of a discussion of Will Smith's personal life. This episode has some weird parallels with actual events in Will Smith, real-life actor. We'd say it's unprecedented for a rapper-turned-actor to seemingly confront rumors about their sexuality in a network sitcom, but it plays out remarkably similar to the Living Single with the Queen Latifah parallels we did last season. Special thanks to patron Erin Hardy for recommending this episode! Shop at Smellbent, a queer-owned, L.A.-based cologne house. Listen to our Living Single episode, which has some remarkable parallels with this one. Why Aunt Viv No. 1 left the show, per this Bustle article. Buy Glen's movie, Being Frank. Support us on Patreon! Follow: GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn • SoundCloud And yes, we do have an official website! And we even have episode transcripts courtesy of Sarah Neal. Our logo was designed by Rob Wilson. This is a TableCakes podcast. This episode's outro track is "Money" by Mozzart.

"Oy Vey, You're Gay" (October 23, 1995) With her over-the-top outfits and bigger-than-life persona, Fran Drescher has a certain queer appeal. In fact, more than a few little boys probably turned a love of Fran Drescher and Fran Fine into a love of drag. However, the show didn't necessarily mine its Broadway theater milieu for a ton of gay storylines. In its third season, it did give us Catherine Oxenberg as a potential rival for Mr. Sheffield's affections, were it not for a plot point that's given away in the episode title. We mention the Monday Afternoon Movie episode about the Wes Craven film Summer of Fear, which stars Fran Drescher. Listen to that episode here. Buy Glen's movie, Being Frank. Support us on Patreon! Follow: GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn • SoundCloud And yes, we do have an official website! And we even have episode transcripts courtesy of Sarah Neal. Our logo was designed by Rob Wilson. This is a TableCakes podcast. This episode's outro track is "Princess of the Night" by Kenny Martinez.

Happy Friday! Or maybe just tolerable Friday. Since everything sucks, we decided to give you an extra episode this week: a Patreon exclusive that we decided the general audience might want to listen to in case you're needing extra entertainment. We're still giving you a regular episode this next coming Wednesday, but meanwhile please enjoy this. America or burst! For most of us '80s babies, Perfect Strangers is a quintessential sitcom of the era — it looked '80s, it had a perfect '80s opening theme, and like so many situation comedies aimed at families, it was maybe not the most ambitious show in terms of jokes and plots. However, there's also a lot there that reads as a little gay. In fact, Drew and Glen even dream up various ways a reboot could double-down on this queer element. Listen to the two "lost" episodes that SoundCloud took offline but which are live again since we migrated to Libsyn: Everyone Loves Raymond's Possibly Gay Brother and Rebecca Howe Suffers From Gay Blindness. Suck it, SoundCloud! Support us on Patreon! Make sure you subscribe to the new RSS feed. Follow: GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn • SoundCloud And yes, we do have an official website! And we even have episode transcripts courtesy of Sarah Neal. Our logo was designed by Rob Wilson. This is a TableCakes podcast. This episode's outro track is "Strangers in the Night" by Baltimore.

It's a GEE Q&A! Following the Golden Girls table read, we decided to take a week off, and it turns out we needed one more before we jump into the cycle of actual "episode" episodes. So in lieu of that, Drew and Glen answer a bunch of questions we've been sent by listeners over the past two years. We swear it's actually content! Call us and leave a message on the TableCakes Hotline at (209) 566-CAKE. No, really. Listen to the two "lost" episodes that SoundCloud took offline but which are live again since we migrated to Libsyn: Everyone Loves Raymond's Possibly Gay Brother and Rebecca Howe Suffers From Gay Blindness. Suck it, SoundCloud! Buy Glen's movie, Being Frank. It's not exactly a Spotify playlist of all the GEE outro tracks, but if you want to spend some time in that general territory, this might do the trick. Support us on Patreon! Follow: GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn • SoundCloud And yes, we do have an official website! And we even have episode transcripts courtesy of Sarah Neal. Our logo was designed by Rob Wilson, however the special logo for this Patreon episode was designed by Jeff Hinchee. This is a TableCakes podcast. This episode's outro track is "AM/FM" by Natasha King.

"Vince Meat" (February 22, 2020) Have you seen that one Golden Girls where Blanche accidentally sexes a man to death and the girls have to hide the body? Well, your answer should be no, because that episode didn't air back in the day. It's a script written by our own Glen Lakin and then, for the purposes of this episode, read by a host of our actor friends. It's fucked-up and funny, and we couldn't think of a better way to celebrate our fiftieth episode. Cast: Dorothy: Meghan Parks Rose: Tony Rodriguez Blanche: Sam Pancake Sophia: Ted Biaselli Violet: Janie Haddad Tompkins This episode was produced by Meika Grimm Special thanks to Michael Iemma and Blaine Amidon! Support us on Patreon! Follow: GEE on Twitter • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter Listen: iTunes • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Play • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn And yes, we do have an official website! And we even have episode transcripts courtesy of Sarah Neal. Our logo was designed by Rob Wilson. This is a TableCakes podcast.