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 11: Gimme a Break Meets Yet Another 80s Orphan
“Nell and the Kid” (April 28, 1983)
As if network TV didn’t have enough sitcoms about non-biological parents stepping in to care for parentless children, Gimme a Break — itself a show about a woman acting as a substitute mother for three girls — has a second season episode in which Nell Carter’s character meets a spunky orphan (LaShana Dendy) and then entrusts her to the care of the neighborhood deli owner (Don Rickles). It didn’t end up becoming its own series, but Drew and Glen are pretty sure that this serves as a sort of soft launch for another show that has the same premise and which launched on NBC’s schedule the following fall.
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