The Prime Time Closet: A History of Gays and Lesbians on TV (43 page)

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On Wednesday, April 30, 1997, comedian Ellen DeGeneres and her sitcom alter ego, Ellen Morgan, made television history by coming out of the closet. For the very first time, a television series 1) featured a lesbian character in the lead role; and 2) the character was played by a real-live, bona fide lesbian.

Prior to starring in her own series, DeGeneres played supporting roles on two sitcoms: a man-hungry receptionist on
Open House
(1989-1990); and a nurse who worked for a female doctor on the short-lived
Laurie Hill
(1992). Two years later, ABC signed DeGeneres to headline her own series, a 1994 mid-season replacement called
These Friends of Mine.
Conceived as ABC’s answer to
Seinfeld
(in other words, a show about nothing),
These Friends
starred DeGeneres as Ellen Morgan, a bookstore manager who spends most of her time sitting around gabbing with her three best friends. At the start of its first full season in Fall of 1994, the series was given a new title
(Ellen)
and two of Ellen’s friends disappeared. (The original title was no longer appropriate considering Ellen exchanges her two best friends for new ones.)

Ellen
was a mediocre sitcom, no better but no worse than most of the comedy series on the air. The show was at its best when the plot lines dealt with Ellen’s insecurities, like trying to figure out which member of her book group wrote a note stating they didn’t like her (“The Note”); or when she unintentionally causes problems, like toasting her brother and his fiancée at their rehearsal dinner and almost causing them to break up (“The Toast”). Some attempts were made to give Ellen a love life. There was Dan, the pizza delivery guy (William Ragsdale), who would continue to come in and out of her life throughout the run of the series. Another potential suitor was her best friend, Adam (Arye Gross), a photographer who moved away to London after season two.

At the start of season three, Adam’s “slot” was filled by her cousin Spence (Jeremy Piven), who became her new roommate. Piven is a fine actor, but like his co-stars Joely Fisher (Paige), David Anthony Higgins (Joe), and Clea Lewis (Audrey), he was given little to do. Unlike
Seinfeld,
which positioned Jerry at the center of the show, but gave Kramer, Elaine, and George their own storylines, the supporting characters were defined strictly in terms of their relationship to Ellen. While the show’s team of writers was adept at writing for Ellen, no one seemed to figure out what to do with her friends.

The first sign that change was in the air was in September of 1996, when word leaked out Ellen Morgan would be coming out during the show’s upcoming season. A cover story of the September 13-15 issue of
The Hollywood Reporter
stated that Disney, the series’s producers, had not arrived at a decision.
¹⁴⁶
The following March, the official word was handed down that the “coming out” episode was going into production on March 7, 1997 and would air on April 30, the first day of May sweeps.
¹⁴⁷
“The Puppy Episode” was the subject of a major media campaign that included an appearance on
The Oprah Winfrey Show
(Oprah plays Ellen’s therapist on the episode); an interview with Diane Sawyer; and a
Time
magazine cover story (April 14, 1997) with a picture of DeGeneres and the headline, “Yep, I’m gay.”

The coming out of both Ellens, DeGeneres and Morgan, opened a new chapter in the history of gays and lesbians on television.
The New York Times
reported that “Ellen Coming Out Parties” were going to be held around the country. GLAAD, along with Absolut Vodka, was sponsoring benefit parties in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, San Francisco, San Diego, and Kansas City, Missouri. The Human Rights Campaign even distributed a party kit that included invitations, posters and an Ellen trivia game.
¹⁴⁸

Not everyone got swept away by
Ellen-
mania
.
Right-wing organizations spurned the trivia game in favor of a ferocious anti
-Ellen
campaign. The Media Research put a full-page ad on the back page of the April 17, 1997 issue of
Variety.
The headline read “America’s Families Deserve Better,” followed by accusations that ABC and Disney, as well as DeGeneres and the series’s producing staff, were “promoting homosexuality to America’s families.” The ad continued with what are presumably intended as a series of rhetorical questions:

The letter is signed by a Who’s Who of Homophobia, including Pat Robertson (Christian Broadcast Network), Gary Bauer (Family Research Council), Phyllis Schafly (Eagle Forum), Rev. Donald Wildmon (American Family Association), Oliver North (Freedom Alliance), and, of course, the Reverend Jerry Falwell.

None of this, however, diverted the high ratings, the critical acclaim, and an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series that came
Ellen’s
way. The “event” also gave
Ellen.
a much need boost as it entered its fifth season. But now that Ellen was out, what direction should the series take? At the end of season four, Ellen came out to her parents in a touching episode (“Hello Muddah, Hello Father”), in which Lois (Alice Hirson) and Harold (Steve Gilborn) attend a child-parent rap session at the Gay and Lesbian Center. In the season finale, she came out to her boss, Ed (Bruce Campbell), who turns out to be homophobic (“Moving On”). So Ellen quits managing the bookstore and embarks on a new career.

Season five episodes focused primarily on
Ellen
exploring her new gay life, which takes off when she begins dating her mortgage broker, Laurie (Lisa Darr), mother of a 12-year-old, Holly (Kayla Murphy). Her first rlationship offered the comedian a chance to showcase her talents stumbling and bumbling her way through the courtship, while Laurie, of course, is totally together.

The season’s highlight is a terrific episode (“Emma”) in which Ellen works as a personal assistant for guest star Emma Thompson, playing herself. When Ellen comes out to the Academy Award-winner after accidentally discovering her secret (Emma’s gay!), Thompson is inspired by Ellen’s honesty and decides to come out publicly during an acceptance speech at an awards ceremony. But Thompson is more concerned about another secret she’s hiding — she’s not really British. She’s from Ohio!

The episode’s final punch line is delivered by Sean Penn. He appears via satellite to present Thompson her award. During his speech, he describes how knowing Emma has had such a profound effect on his life, he’s decided to come out of the closet. The timely episode takes a self-reflexive look at the pressures of being famous and closeted in Hollywood. Both Penn and Thompson (who won an Emmy) are certainly good sports for playing along.

Like any situation comedy in its fifth season, Ellen had its share of hits and misses. The weakest episodes were those in which Ellen is forced into comic situations, such as participating in a Civil War reenactment (“G.I. Ellen”) or getting a job as a talk show radio host (“All Ellen, All the Time”). But the same can be said when the show started heading too far in the other direction, like a fantasy episode when Spence passes out and imagines a world in which being gay is the norm (“It’s a Gay, Gay, Gay, Gay World”). It’s a funny idea, but better suited for a comedy sketch. In addition to the “Emma” episode, the strongest were those involving Ellen and Laurie’s relationship, which was developed just at the right pace over the course of the season.

But not slow enough for some, including ABC, which slapped on a parental advisory similar to the one that appears in the opening of
N.Y.P.D. Blue.
DeGeneres was not pleased and according to an
Entertainment Weekly
cover story, she confronted ABC President Bob Iger and told him she was personally offended by the advisory (she reportedly found out about it while watching her show).
¹⁵⁰
The network also started interfering in the show’s writing and production and stopped promoting the series. There was even talk within the gay community, including a comment made by GLAAD spokesperson, Chastity Bono, that the show was “too gay.” Bono claimed the quote was taken out of context.
¹⁵¹

Coincidentally, ABC and Disney were experiencing similar misgivings. In the
Entertainment Weekly
story, Stuart Bloomberg, chairman of ABC Entertainment, stated that “as the show became more politicized and issue-oriented, it became less funny and audiences noticed.” Instead of simply stating that the show was canceled due to low ratings, he claims that because the material was more
politicized
(translation: gay) and
issue
-
oriented
(translation: gay), it became
less funny
(translation: too gay). Actually, the fifth season of
Ellen
was as funny, if not funnier, than the pre-“Puppy Dog” episodes.

The concept of something being “too gay” is a troubling one, implying that a show about a gay character can focus
too much
on same-sex relationships. It is especially troubling when one considers that no show has ever been accused of being “too straight” for obsessing on opposite-sex relationships (which describes 99 percent of everything on television). How could Ellen have been “less gay?” Be gay every other week? Every fourth episode? The very aspect of the character that was celebrated in April 1997 had suddenly become a liability. It’s almost as if ABC was hoping that after reaping the ratings boost of the coming out episode, both Ellens (DeGeneres and Morgan) could simply slip back into the closet.

Troubles aside,
Ellen
paved the way for
Will & Grace,
an NBC gaycom about the longtime friendship between Will (Eric McCormack), a gay attorney; Grace (Debra Messing), an interior designer; Jack (Sean Hayes), a no-talent wannabe entertainer; and Karen (Megan Mullaley), a boozy socialite. Series creators Max Mutchnick (gay) and David Kohan (straight) originally pitched an ensemble comedy about three couples — two heterosexual and another based on Mutchnick’s relationship with his “female soulmate, a New York casting director.”
¹⁵²
NBC President Warren Littlefield reportedly suggested dropping the two straight couples altogether to concentrate on the third. He apparently had pitched a similar idea about a gay-straight couple back in 1983. When he pitched it to then NBC President Brandon Tartikoff, he was laughed out of the room.
¹⁵³
Not the kind of laughs you want when pitching a sitcom.

When NBC announced
Will & Grace
was on their Fall 1998 schedule, there was speculation whether the series would be, like
Ellen,
too gay. Littlefield explained the two shows were different because
Ellen
was about “one woman’s odyssey. We have a different concept, a unique relationship between two people.”
¹⁵⁴
But as Richard Natale writes in
The Advocate,
the other big difference is that Will is a well-adjusted gay man, while “Ellen Morgan and DeGeneres herself seemed to struggle with the political and emotional ramification of coming out to a worldwide audience.”
¹⁵⁵
Of course that’s exactly what made
Ellen
so groundbreaking for some and too gay for others.

What Mutchnick and Kohan were going for was something completely different — a situation comedy that would have a much broader appeal than
Ellen.
In creating the series, the writing team were smart to have their “well-adjusted gay man” share the spotlight with a heterosexual woman. An October 1998
Entertainment Weekly
cover story featured a photo of McCormick and Messing with the headline ”Gay Men and Straight Women: Why Hollywood Loves Them.“ Using the gay man-straight woman couples that appear in recent films such as
My Best Friend’s Wedding, As Good As It Gets,
and
The Object of My Affection,
the article positions
Will & Grace
as part of the trend:

Unlike most of his prime time counterparts, Will possesses none of the usual stereotypical traits that signal to an audience he’s gay. He tends to dress conservatively because he’s a lawyer. He’s also a bit uptight, particularly in the early episodes. In fact, according to Mutchnik, focus groups that viewed the pilot for NBC researchers had no idea Will was gay.
¹⁵⁷

However, the same could not be said for Jack McFarland (Sean Hayes), who isn’t exactly gay either; he’s hyper-gay. Jack does essentially everything Will won’t: act effeminate, extroverted, irresponsible, self-involved, narcissistic, and materialistic. Yet, despite his
tres gay
exterior, Hayes and the writers have created a three-dimensional character who, beneath his somewhat shallow exterior, is a strong, confident person. As a gay man, he’s also completely comfortable with his sexuality. Although smart and successful, Will is the one who usually needs guidance, particularly about love. Jack frequently goes into his “serious mode” to offer Will his insights and, on occasion, even teaches him a lesson.

Through Will and Jack’s relationship, Mutchnick and Kohan have managed to address some relevant issues, particularly in the lives of gay people. For example, one of the more serious episodes (“Will Works Out”) involves Will’s internalized homophobia and its effect on his relationship with Jack. Will hesitates to take Jack with him to his gym because he often runs into his clients there. But reluctantly, he agrees. When Jack embarrasses him in front of one of them, Will gets upset and tells Grace that “sometimes he’s just such a...fag.”
¹⁵⁸
Jack overhears their conversation and confronts Will, who explains he just wishes Jack could “tone it down.” Later, when Will tries to apologize, Jack snidely suggests that he “scoot away” from him because “if the other kids see us playing together, they might think you’re a sissy.” So Will decides to prove him wrong by introducing him to his straight friend. Jack appreciates the gesture and the result is for once not a disaster for Will.

The success of
Will & Grace
really comes down to one thing — it’s funny. What separates
Will & Grace
from the gaycoms that only last a few months has little to do with its politics and more to do with the talent of the performers and the quality of the writing and direction (mainly, James Burrows, one of the best in the business).