265 episodes

Back in the day, a major sitcom doing a gay episode was a big deal. A proper gay episode would get headlines, but it would get the attention of two young guys who were still figuring things out — sexuality-wise and culture-wise. Gayest Episode Ever has screenwriter Glen Lakin and stay-at-home journalist Drew Mackie going through the great and not-so-great gay episodes of sitcoms past.

Gayest Episode Ever Gayest Episode Ever Pro

    • TV & Film
    • 4.9 • 496 Ratings

Listen on Apple Podcasts
Requires subscription and macOS 11.4 or higher

Back in the day, a major sitcom doing a gay episode was a big deal. A proper gay episode would get headlines, but it would get the attention of two young guys who were still figuring things out — sexuality-wise and culture-wise. Gayest Episode Ever has screenwriter Glen Lakin and stay-at-home journalist Drew Mackie going through the great and not-so-great gay episodes of sitcoms past.

Listen on Apple Podcasts
Requires subscription and macOS 11.4 or higher

    Sex and the City Meets an Effeminate Heterosexual

    Sex and the City Meets an Effeminate Heterosexual

    “Evolution” (August 19, 1999)
    If you came of age in the late 90s or early 2000s, you live in a world informed by Sex and the City — whether you realize it or not. It’s probably one of the most influential TV shows to air during our lifetimes, and so it’s more than time that we look at one of its many LGBTQ-themed episodes. Joining us to discuss Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte is returning guest Gwynedd Stuart, who has big feelings about why this show matters.
    Listen to Gwynedd’s previous episode about Soap.
    Most of Drew’s background on how SATC ended up at HBO comes from this Vulture article. And here is the 1991 New York Times article about Woody Allen and Mia Farrow waving at each other from across Central Park.
    Listen to Drew discussing Bowser, King of the Koopa, on the Retronauts podcast.
    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 • 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.

    • 2 hr 21 min
    Newhart Meets a Gay

    Newhart Meets a Gay

    "Homes and Jojo" (May 1, 1989)
    Newhart is a show about white people who live in the snow, and while 70s-era Bob Newhart sitcom is the one pop culture remembers better, this is the longer-lived, more-Emmy-nominated of the two. What the 80s-era Bob New1hart sitcom has working in its favor are future Simpsons showrunner David Mirkin, who gives a host of wacky townspeople not unlike what you’d find in Springfield, and the duo of Julia Duffy and Peter Scolari, who male a perfect yuppie couple worthy of mockery. It’s great. Here, learn about it.
    Listen to Smart Mouth, GEE”s sister show, and in particular check out the episode “Queer Food” with John Birdsall, because if you’re listening to this podcast you’re probably queer and probably also you eat food.
    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 • 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.

    • 1 hr 39 min
    Jerri Blank is a Pansexual Sex Predator

    Jerri Blank is a Pansexual Sex Predator

    “Blank Relay” (August 13, 2000)
    Honestly, we could have picked just about any episode of Strangers With Candy to focus on for this podcast about queer themes, but we ended up deciding on the one where we see Jerri Blank at her most girl hungry. It’s light on Mr. Noblet and Mr. Jellineck, but we can always circle back to this one in another two hundred episodes, right?
    Watch the Exit 57 “Down in the Basement” sketch, which does not translate especially well to an audio-only format.
    Watch The Trip Back, the 1970 PSA featuring Florrie Fisher, the real-life inspiration for Jerri Blank.
    Listen to the two-part Rasputin episode of the Unexplained podcast.
    And we dropped a whole hell of a lot of Sam Pancake Presents the Monday Afternoon Movie episodes. Here are all of them:
    Angel Dusted with Gedde Watanabe (the one where Helen Hunt doesn’t jump through a window) Desperate Lives with Arden Myrin (the one where she *does* jump through a window) It Happened One Christmas with Sarah Thyre The Cat Creature with Becky Thyre And finally Crowhaven Farm and A Vacation in Hell, both with Rose Abdoo

    • 1 hr 27 min
    Gimme a Break Transformed Into a Lesbian Perfect Strangers

    Gimme a Break Transformed Into a Lesbian Perfect Strangers

    “Joey’s First Crush” (January 28, 1987)
    Few other shows changed as much as Gimme a Break, which began as a fish-out-of-water sitcom that had Nell Carter playing mom to three white girls in California but ended up with Nell and her best friend, Telma Hopkins’ Addy, co-parenting two white boys in New York. Minus the kids, it’s basically a female-female twist on Perfect Strangers, only they don’t get steady boyfriends. Perhaps in an effort to make the show seem less gay, they tossed in a happily married character… who was played by newcomer Rosie O’Donnell. This episode, which is the second of Gimme a Break’s outings to feature actual gay characters, showcases a lot of how this show ended up pretty damn gay.
    … Now that I think about it, maybe the only sitcom that changed as much over its run was Ellen — and that’s pretty notable, right?
    Listen to our previous Gimme a Break episodes.
    Learn all about Betty and Barney Hill in the Monday Afternoon Movie episode about 1975’s The UFO Incident.
    Watch:
    Andy Gibb dueting with Nell Carter on Gimme a Break Gimme a Break’s famous Motown medley Rosie O’Donnell on Star Search

    • 1 hr 39 min
    The Simpsons Does a Riff on Lesbian Cult Classic

    The Simpsons Does a Riff on Lesbian Cult Classic

    “Lisa the Drama Queen” (January 25, 2009)
    So here’s an interesting one. In its twentieth season, The Simpson did an episode inspired by Heavenly Creatures, the 1994 Peter Jackson movie that has Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey playing schoolgirls who flee into a fantasy world and also each other. More than a decade later, this story would play out again, only with Lisa Simpson and a new character voiced by Emily Blunt, and that might seem like a strange combo, especially because the Simpson version nixes the sex and violence of the original, but it nonetheless works.
    Special thanks to the writer of this episode, Brian Kelley, for sharing his memories of how this episode came to be.
    For a limited time, you can still screen Heavenly Creatures via the GEE Patreon, but that window is closing. Info here.
    Listen to Drew on the In Retrospect podcast’s episodes about the “lesbian/Lebanese” joke (part one & part two)
    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 • 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.

    • 1 hr 43 min
    How Does a Conservative Sitcom Do a Gay Episode?

    How Does a Conservative Sitcom Do a Gay Episode?

    “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” (November 29, 2011
    Yes, Tim Allen’s follow-up to Home Improvement got branded as the most conservative sitcom on network TV, but is that fair? We’re honestly not sure, because the ninth episode of Last Man Standing’s first season features a gay couple. We’re mostly good with how this plays out, but we also think this show changed in its second season. We’re also skimming over the second-season episode “Bullying,” which ended up arguing that it’s okay to say “gay.” Key takeaway: Tim Allen may be less conservative than Kelsey Grammer.
    Listen to our Home Improvement episode.
    Remember a short-lived sitcom from Fox's early days? Tell us about it (there’s a thread on Patreon that’s open to even non-members), and we may cover it for our upcoming bonus miniseries, The Fox Files!
    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 • 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.

    • 1 hr 39 min

Customer Reviews

4.9 out of 5
496 Ratings

496 Ratings

OpenMoose ,

Five stars

This is a five star review.

3 Chomping Teeth ,

Love this podcast!

I have been listening for awhile and it’s always, for me, a great trip back to my gay youth watching tv and getting lost in the great world of sitcoms and pop culture. The hosts, even though they are slightly younger then myself, and sometimes don’t have the same fondness for certain shows or genres I grew up loving, I always enjoy their great banter and how they incorporate theme songs into every podcast. I’m a fan for life!

Quasipox ,

My Happy Place (As a Podcast)

I found this show thanks to Matt Baume's Youtube videos, and after listening to a few episodes, I fell in love with it. I also came out as bisexual around the same time; so coincidence? You decide.

Honestly, I really do love the show and appreciate the effort Drew and Glen put to giving the backstory behind a piece of cultural canon, while still being extremely entertaining. I always look forward to the new episodes (and highly recommend the Patreon series as well) and can't say enough about it. I've discovered some shows (finally went back and watched all of Frasier) and have appreciated the shows I already knew even more.

Thank you both for being so awesome.

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