Back in the day, a major sitcom doing a gay episode was a big deal. A proper gay episode would get headlines, but it would get the attention of two young guys who were still figuring things out — sexuality-wise and culture-wise. Gayest Episode Ever has screenwriter Glen Lakin and stay-at-home journalist Drew Mackie going through the great and not-so-great gay episodes of sitcoms past.
https://www.gayestepisodeever.com/
episode 1: 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. Among the regular, sitcom-focused episodes, 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 era. Enjoy? Maybe? It’s a lot to take in, honestly, but we swear it’s worth discussion.
Here are this episode’s sketches:
- Anita Bryant (s5e16 — Burt Reynolds, April 12, 1980)
- Dion (s9e8 — Flip Wilson, December 10, 1983)
- Nancy Reagan (s11e2 — John Lithgow, November 16, 1985)
- Coffee Talk (s16e13 — Roseanne Barr & Tom Arnold, February 2, 1989)
- It’s Pat (s17e3 — Kirstie Alley, October 12, 1991)
- Lyle the Effeminate Heterosexual (s17e16 — Mary Stuart Masterson, March 21, 1992)
- Mickey the Dyke (s22e8 — Martin Short, December 7, 1996)
- Ambiguously Gay Duo (s23e20 — David Duchovny, May 9, 1998)
- Jeffrey’s (s26e12 — Sean Hayes, February 2, 2001)
- Mango (s27e9 — Ellen DeGeneres, December 15, 2001)
You can watch the sketches on Patreon. You can see Drew’s master list of LGBTQ-focused SNL sketches 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 • Stitcher • 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.