Gayest Episode Ever Gayest Episode Ever Pro

“The Courtship of Bess Richards” (October 4, 1986)
The second episode of Amen concerns Sherman Hemsley’s Ernie trying to land his choir a new singer in Nell Carter’s Bess, and the result is a comedy of errors in which both he and she perform romantic interest that neither is capable of actually feeling. The result is a WWF-style wrestling match between these two iconic sitcom stars, and we’re joined once again by Dr. Alfred L. Martin to discuss how this is rendered all the stranger because Hemsley and Carter both were closeted and therefore all too accustomed to acting out hetero identities different from how they lived privately. 
This episode mentions a TV Guide article about Sherman Hemsley’s private life that I now cannot find online. However, I bought the issue on eBay and will post as soon as it arrives. You can see Zach Wilson’s posting of it on Twitter. Thanks, Zach!
Buy Dr. Alfred’s book, The Generic Closet: Black Gayness and the Black-Cast Sitcom.
Listen to Hemsley in the performance of Purlie that Alfred mentions.
Watch a clip of Hemsley’s gay villain turn in 2000’s Screwed.
 Listen to Dr. Alfred’s previous episodes:
Roc Has a Gay Uncle Moesha Meets a Gay Guy Sanford Arms Meets a Gay — And He’s Black!

“Menage a Phyllis” (November 2, 1974)
In the third-season episode “My Brother’s Keeper,” Rhoda famously said the word “gay,” turning a plot about her association with Phyllis’ brother on its head. Two seasons later, Phyllis shows up in another episode that discusses gay issues but weirdly doesn’t say that word. Regardless, there’s perhaps more to be made of the newsroom’s opinions about what codes as gay, and Dan Steadman returns to discuss this and what we’ll call the “Murray Slaughter problem.”
Read Dead Buckley’s 2018 piece “Queer Coding on the Mary Tyler Moore Show”
Episodes referenced:
Dan’s previous episode, “Mike Seaver Actually Said the Word ‘Gay’” Our previous Mary Tyler Moore episode, “Mary and Rhoda Meet a Homo” Our episode “Phyllis Dates a Homo” Our episode “The Dream On Guy Has a Gay Dad”

“Cousin Geri” (December 24, 1980)
Fun game for listeners: Take a shot every time Drew mentions the phrase “gigantic bitch” in connection with Lisa Welchel’s Blair, who is in rare form this episode as she shuns her disabled cousin Geri for reasons that aren’t the ones you’re probably assuming. In this discussion, we bring up why Geri Jewell is a trailblazer as far as being queer and also one other thing and also why “actress recurring on Deadwood” is lowkey code for lesbian.
Erin Fletcher, we want you back for that Saved by the Bell episode.
Follow: GEE on Facebook • GEE’s Facebook Group • GEE on Twitter • GEE on Instagram • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
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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.

Have you ever heard of DEATH QUEEN ISLAND?

Saint Seiya is one of the most popular, most long-running anime series that American viewers haven’t heard of. Despite immense popularity in Europe, South America and the parts of North America that aren’t the U.S. or Canada, the series took forever to get to English-speaking territories, as Knights of the Zodiac, and it just never took off the way it should have. That’s too bad, because Saint Seiya is very good and very gay. In this episode, we’re diving deep on one of the strangest sibling relationships ever depicted in mainstream anime: that of effeminate, beautiful Andromeda Shun and his hunky “brother,” Phoenix Ikki.

These are the episodes we’re coving:
S1E5, “Miraculous Revival WIth Cosmic Friendship”
S1E6, “Phoenix: The Warrior Who’s Come Back From Hell”
S1E7, “Gold Cloth Gets Stolen”
S1E8, “Defeat the Shadow Army: Black Saints”
S1E15, “The Mystery of Ikki Is Now Unveiled”

“Gay Bash” (November 10, 2004)
For better or worse, Drawn Together represents a very real trend in mid-2000s humor. It specifically sought out to tell the most offensive jokes it could get on air, but that’s what makes it surprising that the episode where Xandir admits he’s gay isn’t the parade of easy jokes you might expect. The B plot sucks rancid balls, to the point that we don’t even use clips from it in this discussion, but you might be surprised how this animated reality show makes its token gay a sympathetic guy.
Check out Bradley Smith’s YouTube interview with series creators Dave Jesser and Matt Silvertsein, from which we grabbed a few anecdotes about the development of Drawn Together.
Listen to our Cartoons That Made Us Gay episode about the Legend of Zelda cartoon.
Listen to the Best Movies Never Made podcast, hosted by Golan the Insatiable creator Josh Miller.
Go shop at our TeePublic store!
Follow: GEE on Facebook • GEE’s Facebook Group • GEE on Twitter • GEE on Instagram • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • 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.

“Dye! Dye! My Darling!” (August 2, 2000)
Spend a little time in a Daria fan community and you’ll find folks who ship the title character with her best friend, Jane. The show actually never does a gay episode and only gets the slightest bit queer in the first movie, Is It Fall Yet?, which has Jane affirming her heterosexuality despite how very queer she might seem. In this episode, we’re discussing the nonetheless existent lesbian vibes between Daria and Jane — and who better to offer input on this than Talking Simpsons cohost Bob Mackey? Sure, he’s straight, but it turns out that straight men can relate to female characters too. (We were shocked!)
As it turns out, Bob and Henry’s What a Cartoon podcast covers not only the Daria episode that immediately precedes this one, “Fire!” and also “The Misery Chick,” which as we discuss is a crucial turning point in the development of Daria Morgandorfer.
This week, Glen and Drew are guests on Talking Simpsons, discussing "Three Gays of the Condo" and why it's not great! If you need more of our voices in your life, have a listen here.
Go shop at our TeePublic store!
Follow: GEE on Facebook • GEE’s Facebook Group • GEE on Twitter • GEE on Instagram • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • 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.