Rob Frydlewicz: Ellen DeGeneres Comes Out in Real Life and on Her Sitcom, April 1997

On April 7, 1997 TIME Magazine ran its famous "Yep, I'm Gay" cover story in which comic actress Ellen DeGeneres came out as a lesbian. Then some three weeks later, on April 30, art imitated life as DeGeneres' character, Ellen Morgan, came out on her ABC sitcom Ellen.

Although no puppy was in the epiosde, it was referred to as the "puppy epiosde" due to an inside joke. Befitting a sitcom, Ellen's character came out to a woman she was interested in (played by Laura Dern) and inadvertently announced it over a microphone in an airport waiting area. Besides Dern, other celebrities also made cameo appearances including Oprah, Demi Moore and k.d. lang. The one-hour episode got a Nielsen household rating of 23.4, which was more than twice as high as its usual rating (and comparable to that season's #1 show, ER).

At the time I worked in the media department at ad agency Foote, Cone & Belding and coordinated a "guess the rating" contest. Forty staff members participated and the winner was announced two days later at a presentation we had on the Gay/Lesbian Market.

After this high-exposure month Ellen and her then partner, actress Anne Heche, were soon seen everywhere together and replaced Harvey Fierstein as the media's favorite token gays.

The following season Ellen bore a heavy burden as some viewers thought it was too gay, others not gay enough, while others felt the show just wasn't funny any longer. Sadly, it flamed out and was cancelled at the end of the 1997-98 season. However, six months later the gay sitcom void was filled by Will & Grace, which debuted on NBC (originally on Monday) and had a hugely successful eight-season run.

For more posts like this, Rob also has a blog called ZeitGayst <comments />