From the historical perspective, this episode is a pretty amazing testament to how cynically ABC/Disney promoted Ellen's character's lesbianism by using Ellen's personal sexual ambiguity. At one point, Ellen was a great stand-up comedian. During the fad of giving every stand-up a sitcom, the 3 that rose to the top were Seinfeld, Home Improvement, and Ellen. All three would attract completely different audience demographics. Ellen, the show, was decently funny, but it was actually an ensemble cast in a bookstore, and the character's sexuality wasn't the center focus. That is, it wasn't until AFTER Disney bought ABC. At that point, someone told Ellen she was an actress and a role model, and the show started focusing completely on Ellen's character's coming out. Meanwhile, the entertainment news was spiked with ambiguous stories about Ellen's sexuality and scripted, fictional shows like The Larry Sanders Show included plot lines that would help establish Ellen's ambiguity even deeper.
Shout by ChrisKingVIP BlockedParent2024-01-01T17:06:10Z
From the historical perspective, this episode is a pretty amazing testament to how cynically ABC/Disney promoted Ellen's character's lesbianism by using Ellen's personal sexual ambiguity.
At one point, Ellen was a great stand-up comedian. During the fad of giving every stand-up a sitcom, the 3 that rose to the top were Seinfeld, Home Improvement, and Ellen. All three would attract completely different audience demographics.
Ellen, the show, was decently funny, but it was actually an ensemble cast in a bookstore, and the character's sexuality wasn't the center focus. That is, it wasn't until AFTER Disney bought ABC.
At that point, someone told Ellen she was an actress and a role model, and the show started focusing completely on Ellen's character's coming out. Meanwhile, the entertainment news was spiked with ambiguous stories about Ellen's sexuality and scripted, fictional shows like The Larry Sanders Show included plot lines that would help establish Ellen's ambiguity even deeper.