“Pawnee Zoo” (September 17, 2009)

Okay, fine, we did the Parks & Rec episode you asked for, but here’s the thing: The one were Leslie Knope marries gay penguins is not the pro-gay piece of TV history you think it is. Nowhere in this episode does Leslie ever say she gives a dirty squirt about gays or same-sex marriage. The episode never takes a position, and the fact that it won a GLAAD Media Award makes it all the more galling that “Pawnee Zoo” plays out as Leslie liking positive attention but never saying a single nice thing about gay people.

Rate and review us on Apple Podcasts and we’ll read reviews on next week’s ad. YOU CAN MAKE US SAY WHATEVER YOU WANT!!!

You can now watch Glen’s movie, Being Frank, on Freevee via Amazon Prime. WATCH IT NOW!

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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.

This is a TableCakes podcast.

“Caught on Tape” (November 15, 2000)

John Goodman’s follow-up sitcom to Roseanne was Normal, Ohio, which only lasted seven episodes before Fox yanked it from its schedule in late 2000. Unfortunately, the take-away from its failure was that audiences wouldn’t buy a guy like Goodman playing gay, which is perhaps not one of the problems this show needed to fix? This week, special guest / homosexual academic Hollis Griffin joins us to discuss why this show didn’t work and why it’s still worth discussing as a failed imitator to Will & Grace.

You can now watch Glen’s movie, Being Frank, on Freevee via Amazon Prime. WATCH IT NOW!

Watch the episode we’re discussing on YouTube. Also watch Don’t Ask, the unaired pilot that eventually became this show.

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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.

This is a TableCakes podcast.

“It Only Hurts When I’m Gay” (October 25, 1985)

On paper, the idea of a sitcom taking on the subject of gay bashing seems like the worst idea, but somehow Brothers — TV’s first gay sitcom — manages to tell a real story about violence against gay people while avoiding the hokey “very special episode” tropes. We’re as shocked as anyone how good this turned out, and what’s more, it’s genuinely funny without underselling the gravity of the attack.

You can now watch Glen’s movie, Being Frank, on Freevee via Amazon Prime. WATCH IT NOW!

Please, watch this episode (and other Brothers episodes!) on YouTube. The posting we used to do this episode only had 36 views as of the time this GEE went live!

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Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • 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.

This is a TableCakes podcast.

“The Child-Stealers” (January 24, 1980)

A hundred episodes and one pandemic later, we’re finally returning to the least offensive police precinct in TV history. This sixth-season episode sees the return of Marty and Daryl, the recurring homos at the center of the previous Barney Miller we covered. What results is an interesting look at how police are able and sometimes unable to intervene with homophobia keeps a parent from seeing their child.

Listen to our previous Barney Miller episode.

Regarding the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure recommendation at the end of the episode, check out the Retronauts episode that relaunched Drew’s enthusiasm for this series. Also check out the JoJo’s Bizarre Explainer podcast.

Listen to Smart Mouth’s popcorn episode and listen to Monday Afternoon Movie’s two-parter with special guest Julie Brown!

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Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • 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.

This is a TableCakes podcast.

“Miss Piggy’s Hollywood” / “First Show” (May 14, 1989)

Better known by the segment title, Miss Piggy’s Hollywood, this mostly forgotten bit of TV history aired on NBC in 1989 and more or less works out to be the thing Drew and Glen dreamed into existence: The Comeback but with Miss Piggy. In this half-hour, you see Miss Piggy repeatedly try to assert herself in Hollywood, only to be knocked down every time. Gee, is there a reason gay men are drawn to this character who’s seeking acceptance from a society that refuses to give it to her?

Watch Miss Piggy’s Hollywood right now on YouTube.

Listen to the Maintenance Phase episode elizabeth-taylor-s-elizabeth-takes-off.mp3?client_source=large_player&download=true"> about Elizabeth Taylor’s diet book.

Watch: Miss Piggy and Joan Rivers and also Miss Piggy and Herb Alpert.

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Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • 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.

This is a TableCakes podcast.

“Lucy Goes to Scotland” (January 6, 1956)

It’s our second I Love Lucy episode and also our second “It was all a dream!” installment of Weirdest Episode Ever. So what is to be made of a dream sequence where Lucy Ricardo is ultimately fed to a dragon? Perhaps not much, but if you want to approach it from a perspective of dream analysis, it’s very likely that Lucy’s sacrifice has something to do with Lucille Ball’s impending divorce and her allowing celebrity to triumph over her personal life. And that’s not even saying anything about Vivian Vance and William Frawley playing a two-headed dragon that can’t stand being yoked to its other half.

Listen to our previous I Love Lucy outing, about how it just might have made the first gay joke in sitcom history.

The logo for Weirdest Episode Ever was designed by Ian O’Phelan. The theme music was composed by Nick Loiacano.

Heads up! We’re talking about The Cosby Show in this episode, and therefore we’re talking about Bill Cosby’s alleged sexual misconduct. We don’t spend too much time on it. That’s mostly addressed in a different Patreon-online episode, which people supporting us at the $5 level or higher can listen to here.

This is actually the tenth installment of Weirdest Episode Ever, our newest bonus miniseries. It’s going on the main feed for scheduling reasons I explain in the intro but also this will serve as a nice intro for the next regular GEE we will be recording.

 “Cliff’s Nightmare” (January 11, 1990)

How do you follow up an mpreg fantasy that also functions as a subconscious exploration of Bill Cosby’s alleged misdeeds? How about an aborted crossover intended to promote Jim Henson’s strangest TV experiment? We couldn’t get to the bottom of exactly how this Cosby Show episode came to be and then came to air, but we can safely say that we understand why Digit and Leon didn’t crossover into the larger Muppet universe.

Watch the first episode of The Jim Henson Hour here. And watch the “lost” episode here.

Watch the video that Glen couldn't be bothered to find here.

The Weirdest Episode Ever theme music was composed by Nick Loiacano.

“Bull Gets a Kid” (November 8, 1984)

For our second look at Night Court, we opted not for the so-so trans episode “Best of Friends,” which doesn’t really improve on the “my buddy is in town and it turns out is trans” plotline done so well by The Jeffersons. Instead, we are looking at a non-gay, non-trans episode guest starring Bobby Hill herself, Pamela Adlon, as a young girl who pretends to be a boy. There’s actually a lot going on here about gender norms that makes for a more interesting talk than if we have done the explicitly trans episode, we say. Markie Post, we’ll get to you one day.

Listen to our previous Night Court epsiode. Also watch the "full cast" opening credits to Night Court, made for the GEE TV episode.

Talking Simpsons’ What a Cartoon podcast watched Capitol Critters so you don’t have to.

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Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • 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.

This is a TableCakes podcast.

“You Can’t Win ’Em All” (February 27, 1985)

Sara is a one-season sitcom that first came to our attention via a gag on The Simpsons, the context being that it wasn’t a show worth remembering. The Simpsons was wrong, however, and this Geena Davis vehicle does a lot of what we think ’80s sitcoms don’t do. Namely, it has an out gay character who is allowed to have a sex drive. He’s also more than a set of stereotypical mannerisms but he still reads as gay. And Bronson Pinchot, who one year later would become a sitcom star as Balki on Perfect Strangers, does a great job bringing dimension to this character who should have been on TV for a lot longer.

Many thanks to Steven Capsuto for collecting historical context around Sara in his amazing book, Alternate Channels: Queer Images on Twentieth-Century TV, which is a great resource for anyone studying LGBTQ representation in media. Also listen to the episode Steve did with us about Love, Sidney.

Thanks to Zach Wilson for giving us access to the video of this ep! You can watch the entire episode on the GEE Vimeo here.

Watch the credits to the also short-lived sitcom DREAMS.

Read xpm-1985-01-23-ca-14660-story.html"> the LA Times piece about the production of Sara.

And also have a look at the Pop Trash Museum article about Sara.

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Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • 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.

This is a TableCakes podcast.

“Valentine’s Day” (February 11, 1989)

Consider this a special Valentine’s present from us to you: your regular weekly episode, one day early! Feb. 14 marks a truly terrible holiday that we’d normally encourage you all to ignore. However, it so happens that just in time for 2023’s Valentine’s Day we were reminded of a Golden Girls episode that spins not one but four tales about this wretched holiday. Believe us: They do it about as good as any TV show ever could.

Watch Matt Baume’s video that inspired this episode, “Why Do Gay Guys Love The Golden Girls?”

Listen to “Glen Writes a Golden Girls,” which is maybe one of the best things we’ve done with this podcast, as well as all the previous Golden Girls episodes.

Submit your own suggestions for Box of Compliments compliments here.

Confused about Dana Jean Harley and fat country babies eating peaches off a hardwood floor? Watch SNL’s “Country Roses” sketch here.

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Follow: GEE on Facebook • GEE’s Facebook Group • GEE on Twitter • GEE on Instagram • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter

Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • 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.

This is a TableCakes podcast.