Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Does a Body/Gender Swap Episode
Gayest Episode Ever
“Switching Places” (October 4, 1993) If you’re reading this and deciding that Power Rangers is not a sitcom, you’re correct! We’re doing it anyway, and as elder millennials who were just a little too old for MMPR when it originally aired, we’re bringing in a ringer in the form of — artist, writer and bonvivant. whose work in the comics world has included writing for these very teenagers with attitude. In this episode, Billy and Kimberley swap bodies and so David Yost and Amy Jo Johnson have fun imitating each other while also commenting on gender norms… inasmuch as...
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Mork Is the Mommy, Mindy Is the Daddy
Gayest Episode Ever
“Mama Mork, Papa Mindy” (November 5, 1981) Thus far, we have not attempted the Happy Days universe of TV shows, and we’re starting with this season four Mork & Mindy that has our interspecies marrieds creating a baby that redefine their gender roles. Essentially, Mork hatches an egg from which comes a child that puts a shocked Mindy in the role of father. It’s silly, but as returning guest helps us explain, it’s also modelling parenthood outside typical gender conventions. Listen to with us about Ranma 1/2! Listen to (a Patreon exclusive!) with guest Nina Matsumoto!...
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Mary Hartman Meets a Gay Couple
Gayest Episode Ever
This week, in a first-ever solo episode, Drew talks you through not just one episode of the cult series Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman instead the whole of the show’s art for its two gay characters, Ed and Howard. What’s remarkable about this nuanced portrayal of a same-sex couple is that by virtue of airing before the AIDS crisis, the showrunners didn’t need to make these two characters angel gays. They’re as neurotic and complex as any of the straight characters on the show, which means it’s an example of a progressive representation back in 1976. If you want to see Ed and Howard (and...
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The Great North Pushes Aunt Dirt Out of the Bunker — and Out of the Closet
Gayest Episode Ever
“Bear of Beeftown Adventure” (April 7, 2024) About a hundred episodes later, this podcast is pleased to report that The Great North got even gayer with the season four addition of Aunt Dirt, voiced by Jane Lynch. She’s been living in a bunker for sixty years and in this episode she learns about what it means to be a lesbian in the 2020s. Listen to our previous episode and , who wrote both the episodes we’ve covered. We have courtesy of . Our logo was designed by . This episode’s art was designed by .
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Mr. Belvedere Meets a Kid With AIDS
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 . We have courtesy of . Our logo was designed by . This episode’s art was...
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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.
info_outline“Grand Illusion” (October 29, 1996)
Because this is either the episode you’re getting immediately before the election (if you’re on the Patreon feed) or directly after (if you’re on the main feed), we decided we’d try for something political. No, we don’t know why we attempted this, but we ended up picking the first LGBT-themed episode from Spin City, which is arguably the most politically focused sitcom of late. And while this episode should focus more on the out gay character, Michael Boatman’s Carter Heywood, it instead shifts the spotlight to Connie Britton’s Nikki, which Drew thinks is lame.
Poobala.com is the website that charts TV crossovers in considerable detail, and you could definitely get lost there if you love TV trivia. And here is the clip of Matlock in a gay bar along with Lea Delaria in pearls.
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