Today marks 10 years since Ellen DeGeneres made history by having her character come out of the closet in the infamous “Puppy Episode” ofEllen. This is amazing to me - I vividly remember tuning in to the hour-long sweeps event, with its many guest stars (Demi Moore! Gina Gershon!) and all the surrounding hoopla: the Newsweek cover, the PDA with Anne Heche, the gargantuan ratings followed by a quick slide into ignominy, as the sitcom was cancelled a year later and Will & Graceappeared in the fall of ‘98.
It’s hard to fathom now in the wake of Finding Nemo, the AMEX campaign and her Friendly Daytime Talk Show, but Ellen really stuck her neck out and took one for the team. Yet at the time, she was accused - bizarrely - of exploiting the revelation to further her career. Recently, while interviewing Laura Dern on her talk show, DeGeneres casually mentioned that she was persona non grata for three years after Ellen was cancelled, and even Dern (who guest-starred as the woman who coaxes DeGeneres’ TV alter ego out of the closet) admitted that her phone didn’t ring for a year and a half after the episode.
10 years later, Matthew Rhys and Jason Lewis can make out on Brothers & Sisters, actors playing straight characters can come out of the closet, and the sight of two women flirting harmlessly at a Rickie Lee Jones concert is hardly enough to raise serious hackles. So with all the progress that’s yet to be made, let’s take a moment and tip our hats to Ellen.
Dang if it wasn’t a decade… Anne Heche has gone crazy, had babies, and left her hubby for another man. Portia DeRossi who once was only the other blonde on Ally Macbeal is now happily domesticated. Melissa Etheridge has beaten cancer, kissed her wife while winning an Oscar, and we still don’t know if “Just Jack” was just, you know…
But New Hampshire, my god, New Hampshire, Live Tax Free or Die, guns ‘n ammo, cheap cigarettes and ferrets (in the day) will have civil unions. This represents the single biggest cultural shift in the Western hemisphere- or a century of osmosis from Massachusetts and Vermont.
It’s almost like Sal from The Sopranos got his wish and his Johnnycakes all at the same time… and it all began with the puppy… Salud!
Wow, it’s really been 10 years?? I watched the Ellen show here and there, but I was by no means a regular viewer, and I distinctly remember this episode. Probably can’t say that for other shows I barely watched 10 years ago.
The sad thing is that only about 1/3 of the states have anti-discrimination laws that extend to discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. We may have come a long way, but there’s a hell of a lot to do before we’re done.