Titus Is the Real Star of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
Gayest Episode Ever
“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...
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What’s With All the Orphans in 80s Sitcoms?
Gayest Episode Ever
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...
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My Two Dads Can’t Escape the Gayness of Its Title
Gayest Episode Ever
“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 . Listen to , which also...
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Gilligan’s Island Does a Body Swap Episode
Gayest Episode Ever
“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: • • Listen: • And yes, we do have ! We even have courtesy of . Our logo was designed by . This episode’s art was designed by .
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Curb Your Enthusiasm Acknowledges That a Child Seems Gay
Gayest Episode Ever
“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 2000 New York Times piece on Curb Your Enthusiasm.
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Sailor Moon Meets a Beguiling Genderfluid Villain
Gayest Episode Ever
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 — 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 . “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...
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The Grand Unified Theory of Why Frasier Seems Gay
Gayest Episode Ever
“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 , 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...
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It’s All Relative Was ABC’s Attempt at a Will & Grace
Gayest Episode Ever
“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 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 , which is basically the same thing as actually winning an Emmy. Buy the revised edition of Steven’s book, . Listen to , about Tony Randall’s Love,...
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Bob’s Burgers Gives Marshmallow a New Voice
Gayest Episode Ever
“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,...
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It’s a Will & Grace Thanksgiving!
Gayest Episode Ever
“Homo for the Holidays” (November 25, 1999) What? An episode of Will & Grace that Drew actually likes? Kind of! This season two episode has Jack coming out to his mother over Thanksgiving dinner, and it’s basically the gayest Thanksgiving episode of any sitcom ever. And it’s a good piece of TV with some thoughtful dialogue, even if a lot of the jokes are very representative of that Will & Grace style, which you either like or you don’t. Also: Is Jack McFarland responsible for popularizing the phrase “platinum gay”? Listen to previous Will & Grace episodes .
info_outline“Les on a Ledge” (October 2, 1978)
For reasons we can’t imagine, WKRP in Cincinnati decided its third episode should feature a trans-themed B plot alongside an A plot about one of the characters contemplating suicide because people think he’s gay. It’s a lot. And while that plot synopsis might seem like a recipe for disaster, this one is funnier and more progressive than you might expect. Don’t get us wrong: It does things that today’s audiences will probably roll their eyes at and might even shake their head at. But among these are some things that might surprise you in a good way.
Visit our new Tee Public store and plaster your body and household with the Gayest Episode Ever logo.
Listen to Drew on this week's Talking Simpsons. Hell, listen to his previous Talking Simpsons while you’re at it.
This L.A. Times article on The New WKRP in Cincinnati explains how the original series became so successful in syndication.
Is “Bruce” a homosexual name? Stan Lee says yes.
Listen to “Once I Had a Love,” Blondie’s original version of “Heart of Glass.
If you can separate the fact that he is being murdered by a horrible monster, Gary Sandy is hot as hell in the 1980 movie Troll.
Listen to this female sports reporter incinerate a viewer complain that women should not report from locker rooms.
Buy Glen’s movie, Being Frank.
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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 theme is “Take Me Higher” by Stefano Pulga, which doesn’t seem to be for sale or streamable on any of the major music sites. Weird.