"Ellen" show - coming out episode

Throughout the 1990’s, many public figures within the media, military, and government “came out” and openly expressed their sexuality. This was a big step in the advancement of the LGBTQ community because they now had known faces leading their movement.On Oct. 11, 1987, half a million people participated in the March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. This was the second of such demonstrations in our nation’s capital, and resulted in the founding of a number of LGBT organizations, including the National Latino/a Gay & Lesbian Organization (LLEGÓ) and AT&T’s LGBT employee group, LEAGUE. More than 100 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender activists, including Rob Eichberg, a founder of the personal growth workshop “The Experience,” and Jean O’Leary, the then head of the National Gay Rights Advocates, came up with the idea of a national day to celebrate coming out and chose the anniversary of the second march on Washington to mark it. From this idea, the National Coming Out Day was born. Each year on Oct. 11, National Coming Out Day continues to promote a safe world for LGBTQ individuals to live truthfully and openly.

• • One of the first “coming out” events of the 1990’s was in 1991 when Linda Villarosa, Essence magazine’s senior editor, revealed to readers that she is a lesbian. She went on to become executive editor in 1994.

  • In 1991, “The Advocate” magazine reported that Pentagon spokesman Pete Williams, who represented a military that ejected gay employees through the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Policy”, is gay himself.

  • The San Francisco ordinance allowing gay couples to be recognized as domestic partners was passed in 1996, which spurred hundreds of gay and lesbian couples to register.

  • As of February of 1997, there were only 22 gay characters on television represented by the media. However, they were peripheral characters and there were none who were recurring/main characters during this time period.

  • On April 30 1997, Ellen Degeneres, as well as her character “Ellen Morgan” on her hit sitcom “Ellen,” came out as gay. She became the first main character in television history to be out as publicly gay.

What happened?

Ellen DeGeneres starred on a sitcom on ABC called “Ellen,” which aired in 1994. She played the lead Ellen Morgan, a bookshop owner.

Ellen’s producers let out some rumors that Ellen Morgan might be gay, and throughout the 4th season of the show, they dropped various hints pertaining to her sexuality.

DeGeneres came out to the public on April 14th, 1997 with a TIME Magazine cover, stating “Yep, I’m Gay,” and a corresponding article titled “Roll Over, Ward Cleaver.” This article gives some background on Ellen’s coming out:

• She avoided questions about her sexuality, never being clear with her answers.

• She had fears of rejection which put off  her coming out and the episode’s release.

• Ellen used humor to deflect the awkwardness and discomfort of coming out.

The two-part coming out episode, titled ‘The Puppy Episode,’ aired on April 30th, 1997. The plot consisted of the following:

• Ellen met up with an old friend from college, Richard, who began coming on to her, whereas Ellen found herself interested in his female news producer, Susan.

• After their dinner, Ellen went back to Richard’s hotel where he became romantic with her. Ellen showed herself out and ran into Susan.

• Susan mentioned that she was gay, and she thought Ellen was too. Ellen seemed very dumbfounded and confused at this assertion, and as such she went back into Richard’s room to show herself and Susan that she must be straight.

• Later, Ellen told her friends about this supposedly steamy night she had with Richard, even though she actually didn’t sleep with Richard, because she became uncomfortable with him.

• She opened up to her therapist, played by Oprah Winfrey, who helped her realize that she clicked with Susan the night before, more than she had with any man.

• Ellen ran to the airport to speak to Susan again. She revealed to Susan that she thinks she is, in fact, gay, which she accidentally said over the airport loudspeaker.

• In the second part of the episode, her therapist drew a parallel between Ellen’s fears of being openly gay with the ways blacks were persecuted.

• Ellen’s gay friend Pete was the first to hear about Ellen’s sexuality, and he was very supportive. She awkwardly tried to avoid telling the rest of her friends, until Pete let it slip.

• Her friends were very supportive, but then they revealed they were betting on whether she was gay.

• Later, Ellen’s friends met Susan, which Ellen was very excited about. Her friends were excited for her too, until Susan revealed that she was in a relationship with someone.

• Ellen was hurt; Susan told Ellen, “I think you’re amazing,” and then walked out.

• Ellen mentioned to her therapist that she felt as though a huge weight had been lifted off her chest, until she thought about starting to actually date women.

• The episode ends in a dream where Susan brings Ellen back to the gay coffeehouse to fill out some paperwork so Susan wins a toaster oven for ‘recruiting’ Ellen to be gay. 

Puppy Episode Part 1                     Puppy Episode Part 2

Ellen appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show, a popular talk show of the time, to be interviewed about her coming out. This appearance aired the same night as the Puppy episode.

Effects and significance

The coming-out episode of Ellen, “The Puppy Episode,” received intense backlash from both the gay and mainstream press. Conservatives were predictably “horrified” (Gianoulis), and while many gays have hailed DeGeneres as a courageous pioneer, others have criticized her for not being political or radical enough during her time of prime publicity. 

“The show faced strong criticism when, in April 1997, DeGeneres's character became the first lead in sitcom history to openly acknowledge her homosexuality on air. An ABC affiliate in Birmingham, Alabama, refused to air the landmark episode. Fearing controversy, some of the show's sponsors, Daimler Chrysler among them, withdrew advertisements.” (Bio.com) 

The episode was one of the highest rated television shows ever, attracting 36.2 million viewers and winning an Emmy Award for writing. DeGeneres' success was short-lived, however. ABC canceled Ellen at the end of the season, citing the poor quality of the shows and declining ratings.” (Gianoulis 2015)

The media buzz surrounding her coming-out affected DeGeneres' family as well. Her mother supported her by becoming an outspoken advocate of gay rights. (Gianoulis 2015)

Because of the publicity surrounding Ellen’s coming out, this made her irreversibly lesbian in our society. Although she was still seen as a comedian, to our society, she was ultimately seen as a lesbian before any other identity she had adopted throughout her lifetime. 

“Her current success makes it easy to forget how short-lived her lesbianism initially lasted on television (less than two years). Ironically, in the aftermath of Ellen’s demise, we witnessed a profound increase in queer characters, themes, and programming. In retrospect, there is little disagreement that DeGeneres launched the era of the new gay visibility. Ellen’s coming-out party was both groundbreaking and a historical turning point.” (Skerski 2007)

Since Ellen’s coming-out, celebrity coming-out declarations have become ordinary, rather than extraordinary, components of entertainment news. (Skerski 2007)

Despite Ellen’s impact on television programming, gay characters, or themes still must largely abide by the restrictive parameters that are least threatening to heterosexual hegemony. Characters such as hyper-effeminate Jack of Will & Grace demonstrated that gay characters are still largely the subject of ridicule and providers of comic relief. (Skerski 2007)

In 1997, ABC ran advisories at the start of Ellen, warning parents that the content may not be suitable for children. Today, DeGeneres is being promoted to soccer moms and is appearing on the covers of domestically inclined women’s magazines. (Skerski 2007)

Primary source analysis

On April 30, 1997, Oprah Winfrey interviewed Ellen DeGeneres on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Ellen was the only guest on the episode, with a quick cameo by her then-girlfriend, actress Anne Heche. Ellen spoke primarily about her recent experience in coming out as a lesbian, and about the coming-out of her sitcom character Ellen Morgan on the ABC sitcom Ellen. The “coming-out” episode of Ellen would air later that evening on ABC.

Quotations

• Oprah: “There’s a perception, and I’ve been trying to fight this for years on TV, that gay people are just swingin’ from the chandeliers having sex all the time, and that they’re all marching in the Mardi Gras parade with feathers and boas and that they don’t - that’s why I thought that that part of the show was so interesting, they don’t understand that, to the greatest extent, gay people want the same thing everybody else wants.”

• Oprah: “Did this give you, coming out, freeing yourself, did it give you a greater sense of confidence about yourself?

• Ellen: “Yes, and I cannot tell you the amount of support I have received, the people that come up to me, mostly straight, coming up to me saying, ‘What you’re doing is great.’”

• Ellen: “There’s nothing about sex on this show whatsoever - it’s not about sex.”

• Ellen: “I just am saying - and I’m not trying to change anybody’s opinion on anything other than to say that I’m fine with who I am now, and for a long time, I wasn’t, and I understand the fear and the - but, I’m okay.”

Analysis

This is a very interesting source, because, at the time, Oprah was largely seen as a voice of middle-class America. She supported Ellen not only by having her on her show, but also by guest-starring as Ellen’s therapist on the coming-out episode of Ellen. Despite the support of Oprah herself, during the interview there were three people in the center of the front row who were vocally anti-LGBTQ. While Oprah defended and praised Ellen and her courage, these people condemned Ellen for various reasons. 

The most interesting part of the whole affair was the audience’s response - they served as a gauge of public opinion and passion on certain issues. They sometimes applauded Ellen when she spoke of her struggle in accepting who she is. However, there was also some support of the voices of disapproval. The whole show became less of an interview, and more of a frustrated dialogue between people not understanding each other or, to an extent, the reasons for their own opinions. Ellen tried to diffuse the tension many times by making light-hearted or self-deprecating humor, but even she got frustrated and emotional after a point. Oprah hopelessly summed up the division in attitudes best when she interrupted an argument and said, “You’re never gonna agree.”

Sources

Background Information Sources

•  "American Experience: TV's Most-watched History Series." Timeline: Milestones in the American Gay Rights Movement. Accessed January 13, 2016. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/timeline/stonewall/. 

•  ""Coming Out" Episode of Ellen." History.com. Accessed January 13, 2016. http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/coming-out-episode-of-ellen. 

•  "Ellen DeGeneres Biography." Bio.com. Accessed January 13, 2016. http://www.biography.com/people/ellen-degeneres-9542420#early-life. 

•  "The History of Coming Out | Human Rights Campaign." Human Rights Campaign. Accessed January 21, 2016. http://www.hrc.org/resources/the-history-of-coming-out. 

•  Torres, Vicki. "Gay-Events Timeline, 1970-1999." Sexual Orientation Issues in the News. Accessed January 13, 2016. https://www.usc.edu/schools/annenberg/asc/projects/soin/enhancingCurricula/timeline.html#1990s. 

Scholary Sources

• Gianoulis, Tina. "DeGeneres, Ellen (b. 1958)." GLBTQ Arts (January 2015): 1-3. LGBT Life with Full Text, EBSCOhost (accessed January 13, 2016).

• Reed, Jennifer. "Ellen DeGeneres." Feminist Media Studies 5, no. 1 (March 2005): 23-36. LGBT Life with Full Text, EBSCOhost (accessed January 13, 2016).

• Skerski, Jamie. "From Prime-Time to Daytime: The Domestication of Ellen DeGeneres."  Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, 2007, 363-81. Accessed January 11, 2016. doi:10.1080/14791420701632964.

Primary Sources

• 20/20. Directed by Fred Peabody. Written by Fred Peabody. ABC, April 25 1997.

• Bill Eadie. “The Politics of Gay & Lesbian Visibility in Media.” Spectra 7. June 2001.

• Ellen. "The Puppy Episode (parts 1 and 2)." Youtube video, 22.26 and 22.19. April 30th, 1997.

• laura b. “ellen is gay.” Off Our Backs 27(5), p. 5. May 1997.

• laura b. “ellen’s mom speaks out.” Off Our Backs 27(9), p. 6. Oct. 1997.

• Lisa Capretto. “Ellen DeGeneres Reveals the One Side Effect of Coming Out She Never Expected.” Huffington Post OWN. Oct. 23, 2015. 

• Television: Roll Over, Ward Cleaver. Bruce Handy. TIME Magazine, Los Angeles, Apr. 14, 1997.

• The Oprah Winfrey Show. Directed by Joseph C. Terry. ABC, April 30 1997.

Sources of images

• • Light, Alan. "Ellen DeGeneres." Digital Image. Flickr. September, 1997. January 20, 2016. https://flic.kr/p/jDiQx.

  • Vargas, Esther. "Yep, I'm Gay." April 14, 1997. January 20, 2016. Time Magazine. New York City: Time Magazine, 1997. https://flic.kr/p/gd9Ge2.

  • "ronpaulrevolt2008." Ellen DeGeneres. November 19, 2008. Los Angeles. https://flic.kr/p/68Wx99

  • http://tiny.cc/ckrh8x  - Ellen Morgan Coming Out Over the Airport Intercom - Photo from "Ellen" television show

  • http://tiny.cc/qlrh8x - Ellen DeGeneres, Anne Heche, and Oprah Winfrey on "The Oprah Show" 

Contributors

Matthew Cesari - Elon University '18

Allie Kornacki - Elon University '16

Jordyn McAtee - Elon University '19