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 21: Gimme a Break Transformed Into a Lesbian Perfect Strangers
“Joey’s First Crush” (January 28, 1987)
Few other shows changed as much as Gimme a Break, which began as a fish-out-of-water sitcom that had Nell Carter playing mom to three white girls in California but ended up with Nell and her best friend, Telma Hopkins’ Addy, co-parenting two white boys in New York. Minus the kids, it’s basically a female-female twist on Perfect Strangers, only they don’t get steady boyfriends. Perhaps in an effort to make the show seem less gay, they tossed in a happily married character… who was played by newcomer Rosie O’Donnell. This episode, which is the second of Gimme a Break’s outings to feature actual gay characters, showcases a lot of how this show ended up pretty damn gay.
… Now that I think about it, maybe the only sitcom that changed as much over its run was Ellen — and that’s pretty notable, right?
Listen to our previous Gimme a Break episodes.
Learn all about Betty and Barney Hill in the Monday Afternoon Movie episode about 1975’s The UFO Incident.
Watch:
- Andy Gibb dueting with Nell Carter on Gimme a Break
- Gimme a Break’s famous Motown medley
- Rosie O’Donnell on Star Search