Gayest Episode Ever

Drew & Glen Talk About Their Favorite Halloween Costumes from Sitcoms

Happy Halloweekend! Since the main feed got something special, we decided to take one of the suggestions for the next TAA topic and turn it into something that celebrates the holiday. We took Margaret's suggestion of "favorite costumes" and turned it into a rundown of the b...

Ryan Reynolds, Serial Killer

For the main feed posting of the WEE Two Guys a Girl and a Pizza Place episode, Ian made some really cool art. Posting here because it wouldn't show up in your feed if you're only on Patreon, but I wanted you all to see. Happy weekend!

(And BTW, a bit of Halloween-themed bonus content is coming to the Patreon feed as soon as I get it edited!)

Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place — 90s Slasher-Style

As a Halloween treat, we are posting the Two Guys and a Girl WEE episode on the main feed, but also directing listeners to the Patreon to watch the actual episode. So here is the episode in all its gory glory. Enjoy!

Benson Literally Plays a Game With Death

“The Stranger” (October 25, 1985)

Benson may have been a more conventional sitcom than Soap, the show it spun off, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t have its exceedingly weird moments — including this final season Halloween special in which Benson must play a trivia game with death personified in order to save the lives of 41 hapless schoolchildren. It’s basically the last moment in time an otherwise grounded sitcom could get away with this, and we’re lucky to have 2023-10-25 06:44:05 +0000 UTC View Post

What Should Drew and Glen Talk About Next?

You know the drill: Leave a comment suggesting something that we should talk about for the next round of D&GTAA. 

And remember: Drew & Glen Talk About Anything is the recurring feature where we talk about ANYTHING, not just gay episodes of TV, which is what we do every week.

Also...

This time... let's say the suggestion should be two words, no more and no less.

And... go!

Family Matters Does Dracula

“Dark and Stormy Night” (October 28, 1994)

We’ve talked before how Family Matters has a more liberal take on typical hijinx than most sitcoms, but the show’s sixth season Halloween episode went full on Dracula — by which we mean Francis Ford Coppola. It’s really ambitious! And Hariette has never looked sexier! And we’re very stoked to have Michael Varrati on hand to discuss it because not everyone wo...

Ghosts Has a Gay Revolutionary War Ghost

“D&D” (November 18, 2021)

What are the odds that when your friend writes a book about Baron von Steuben, allegedly gay Revolutionary War hero, there would also be a current sitcom that features a gay Revolutionary War character? Pretty slim, we’d say! But this happy coincidence allowed us to not only promote Josh Trujillo’s new book, Washington's Gay General: The Legends and Loves of Baron Von Steuben...

Backdoor Pilots: Who’s the Boss? Gives Teen Models Deja Vu

“Living Dolls” (March 28, 1989)

Less a show about sentient humanoid toys than a late 80s/early 90s glimpse of teen modeling, Living Dolls sprung off from Who’s the Boss? — and what’s especially weird about this one is that it happened twice. First, Who’s the Boss? gave us a story about Samantha Micelli visiting a coven of models in New York, and then when Living Dolls debuted the following September, it told that exact same story again — with Sam as the focus, but with thr...

Fine, We Will Cover Ellen’s “The Puppy Episode”

“The Puppy Episode” (April 30, 1997)

After a great deal of self-reflection, we decided that maybe it was worth discussing the most famous episode of Ellen Degeneres’ 90s sitcom, even if it is the most analyzed piece of LGBTQ-centric television ever. Whether we were correct in thinking this remains up to you, but we nonetheless have offerings of talking points about this hourlong coming out extravaganza, including but not limited to how much of this show’s latter existence was de...

Watch: the pilot for Living Dolls

Not to be confused with My Living Doll, a sitcom that starred Julie Newmar as a sexy female robot, Living Dolls was a spinoff to Who's the Boss? about models living in New York. We are covering its first episode as part of our tenth Backdoor Pilots episode, and while there's a reason it didn't last, the opening titles alone are worth watching, just for the glorious encapsulation of everything we thought looked hip and stylish during that late 80s/early 90s interdecade bleed.

Watch: The Who's the Boss? backdoor pilot for Living Dolls

Hi, all. The tenth and final (sorta!) installment of Backdoor Pilots drops next week, and it's a two-part episode, much like the Married With Children/Top of the Heap double episode we did at the start of the season.

Since neither Who's the Boss? nor Living Dolls are streaming, I'm posting both here. The gist is that Living Dolls was a sitcom about models starring Leah Remini and Halle Berry, and they did this episode midway through the fifth season of Who's the Boss? to show you that R...

A Queer History of SNL, Part Two

And here is the second half of our two-part opener for this new season. In this episode, we look at LGBTQ-themed recurring Saturday Night Live sketches airing in the year 2000 and beyond. Basically, this one gets us from The Girl With No Gaydar to Bowen Yang, and that’s actually a pretty good synopsis for the evolution of queer-inclusive humor of on this show.

Our next installment will be the first deep dive into a specific era of SNL, starting with the “Not Ready for Prime Time” ...

Watch: A Queer History of SNL, Part Two

Hi, all. Here are the ten sketches we are covering for the second half of our two-part overview of SNL. Again, are focusing on the LGBTQ-themed recurring sketches to get us through the entire run of the show so far, so there are quite likely sketches that you remember that won’t be in this round-up but will be into the era-specific deep dives we will be doing over the next season of the podcast. Hope you enjoy — and good news: this collection goes by a lot more quickly than the first one ...

Backdoor Pilots: The Nanny Tries to Rip Itself Off

“The Chatterbox” (May 15, 1995)

Confoundingly, The Nanny’s one and only backdoor pilot focuses on a single woman who ends up out on her fanny and subsequently takes a job that puts her in a position to become a surrogate mother to the offspring of the man she’s lusting after. Written by Fran Drescher and her husband, the script doesn’t seem to realize that the show being pitched already exists. But at the very least, sitcom vets Edward Hibbert and Lauren Tom make this alternat...

Watch: Terry Sweeney as Nancy Reagan on SNL

I know I posted all of the clips we're discussing in the first SNL episode already, but I wanted to call extra attention to the Nancy Reagan sketch, in which openly gay cast member Terry Sweeney does a whole song and dance number in drag.

This is important for a few reasons. For one, it was putting drag in American living rooms in a way SNL hasn't often done. Its version of drag is usually a straight guy in a dress, and Sweeney is bringing gay flair to his performance of Nancy that a st...

A Queer History of SNL, Part One

Welcome to a new season of Gayest Episode Ever. It will be a Saturday Night Live-centric season, in which we will be doing periodic deep dives into the LGBTQ-focused sketches that ran on the show during its various eras.

To kick it off (and to kick off the new season), we are starting with a two-part look at the various queer-adjacent recurring sketches from SNL. This first episode covers the launch of the show until the mid-90s, and next week’s episode will get us through the current...

Watch: A Queer History of SNL, Part One

A little later this week, you’re getting the first episode about LGBTQ representation on SNL. I decided to share with you the video of the ten sketches we’re covering in this first episode. To recap, we’re doing all the LGBTQ-leaning recurring sketches in a two part episode to kick off the new season. Then, among the regular GEE episodes, we’re going to do more episodes focused on sketches within the different eras.

Technically, that first sketch isn’t really a recurring one, ...

Season Seven: Update

Hi, all. So, perhaps surprising no one, my big idea for a season premiere focused on SNL have been slightly blown out of the water by the fact that this show has existed for 47 seasons and getting the material together is more work than I planned on. As a result, GEE will not be resuming until next week at the soonest. When that episode drops, it will be part one of a two-part episode all about queer-themed recurring bits on SNL.

The reason it's taking longer is that a lot of these clip...

Backdoor Pilots: The Cosby Show Almost Gives Us a Sitcom With Two Latin Leads

“Mr. Quiet” (May 2, 1985)

Trigger warning: We briefly talk about the sexual assault accusations against Bill Cosby, but also at several points in this episode, plot points interact with this real-life thing in ways that change this episode, so it does come up throughout.

Yes, we’re back on The Cosby Show, but for good reason: The penultimate episode to the first season features the Huxtables spending time at a community center run by a one-off character played by Tony Castil...

The Cartoons That Made Us Gay: Tiny Toon Adventures

“Love Disconnection” (November 25, 1991)

We’re talking about Tiny Toons because the reboot is upon us, because we’ve wanted to talk about this particularly well-animated episode forever and because it was co-written by the always great, recently late Arlene Sorkin. It’s the Tiny Toons that has Babs, Shirley, Fifi and even Elmyra all trading in their usual duds for something sexy and elegant, and it gives a level of glamor you don’t usually see on a weekday afternoon cartoon....

Tiny Toons: Love Disconnection

Later tonight, we're posting a new Cartoons That Made Us Gay about Tiny Toon Adventures — specifically the season two episode "Love Disconnection," which is not streaming anywhere at the moment. So we're posting it here, so you all can see what we're talking about when we say this is the best looking episodes of a western 90s cartoon ever.

Special thanks to patron Robyn for helping us get ahold of this file!

What episode does GEE need to cover?

Hi, all. We are looking forward towards the beginning of the new season and planning out the rest of 2023. Now that we're 200 episodes in... what episode of TV do you think we most need to cover? What is egregiously missing from our catalogue so far?

Drop a comment to tell us, and yes, I am thinking of half-hour sitcoms, but if you really want to suggest something that is not that, go for it. But half-hour sitcom suggestions have a much, much, MUCH higher chance of making it into the ne...

Backdoor Pilots: 227 Tries to Spin Off a Ripped-From-the-Headlines Sitcom

“The Audit” (February 21, 1987)

At long last! We finally discuss 227! Though perhaps more famous for sandwiching Jackee’s failed spinoff pilot into the fourth season, that’s not 227’s true backdoor pilot. That honor goes to this episode set in the diner of an office building, where Red Buttons, David Leisure, Ron Glass and more would discuss topical news stories on a week-to-week basis. It never materialized, but once you realized how unique this one-off is, it kind of makes y...

Barry’s NoHo Hank Is a Great Gay Villain

“it takes a psycho” (April 30, 2023)

Barry is not a sitcom, though it was frequently one of the funnier shows on TV. We’re doing a bonus summer episode about it anyway because its gay character, NoHo Hank, is a rarity on TV because he’s both a villain and a person who doesn’t let his sexuality define him. That’s not necessarily a good thing, but we’re all about complex, messy queer characters, and this is one people should be talking about. Special thanks to 2023-08-22 21:51:39 +0000 UTC View Post

Backdoor Pilots: Married… With Children Dreams of a Collegiate Spinoff

“Radio Free Trumaine” (May 7, 1995)

Okay, so literally no one asked us for the complete history of David Garrison’s Steve Rhoades following his exit from Married… With Children, but we did it anyway. There is a very good reason he left this sitcom and there’s also a very good reason why everyone still wanted to work with him and it all culminates in this season nine backdoor pilot that asked the question, “What if Bud Bundy had his own A Different World?” Also Keri Russell...

Punky Brewster and the Cave of Horrors

Because it's summer, we popped the scary cave episode of Punky Brewster onto the main feed. Posting here in case you are below the $5 level and want to listen. Ian went all out on the art, including this one which is the juncture of Punky Brewster and Scream that I didn't need to see in the world but I'm very glad exists.

2023-08-08 22:57:50 +0000 UTC View Post

Ask Drew & Glen Anything (And Hear Your Voice on the Show)

As promised in the previous post, we're testing out a new recurring feature for the $10 level: Ask Drew and Glen Anything — but done specifically through the magic of Google Voice. We've set up a new hotline for Gayest Episode Ever — ‪(573) 342-9378‬ or (573) 3GAYEST where you can leave a voicemail for us that we will respond to in a forthcoming voicemail roundup episode. Go nuts, although please be aware that we will be playing the voicemails, so don't say anything y...

Another progress report

Hi all. Writing during the middle of a weird, tough season in a weird, tough year, but wanting to give a heads up for what’s happening on here in the immediate future.

First up, we are rolling out a new feature this week for the $10 level. If you’re subscribed at that level, look for that feature very soon!

Otherwise, there won’t be any Patreon-exclusive content this week, unfortunately, because I have to leave town to tend to some personal business. However, there is more c...

Backdoor Pilots: Gimme a Break Meets Yet Another 80s Orphan

“Nell and the Kid” (April 28, 1983)

As if network TV didn’t have enough sitcoms about non-biological parents stepping in to care for parentless children, Gimme a Break — itself a show about a woman acting as a substitute mother for three girls — has a second season episode in which Nell Carter’s character meets a spunky orphan (LaShana Dendy) and then entrusts her to the care of the neighborhood deli owner (Don Rickles). It didn’t end up becoming its own series, but Drew a...

Blanche

Really glad I asked Ian to do art for a summer bonus episode, because look how good his rendition of Blanche turned out. Top-tier Ian, for sure.