“Switching Places” (October 4, 1993)

If you’re reading this and deciding that Power Rangers is not a sitcom, you’re correct! We’re doing it anyway, and as elder millennials who were just a little too old for MMPR when it originally aired, we’re bringing in a ringer in the form of Sina Grace — artist, writer and bonvivant. whose work in the comics world has included writing for these very teenagers with attitude. In this episode, Billy and Kimberley swap bodies and so David Yost and Amy Jo Johnson have fun imitating each other while also commenting on gender norms… inasmuch as that’s possible in a 20-minute-long TV episode about superheroes who fight giant monsters.

Buy Sina’s latest comic, West Hollywood Monster Squad.

Support Sina’s Kickstarter for his book about dog grief, Life on Paws.

For more on the story of Saban, listen to our Cartoons That Made Us Gay episode about Samurai Pizza Cats.

And here is the This American Life episode that Drew refers to

We have episode transcripts courtesy of Sarah Neal. Our logo was designed by Rob Wilson. This episode’s art was designed by Ian O’Phelan.

“Mama Mork, Papa Mindy” (November 5, 1981)

Thus far, we have not attempted the Happy Days universe of TV shows, and we’re starting with this season four Mork & Mindy that has our interspecies marrieds creating a baby that redefine their gender roles. Essentially, Mork hatches an egg from which comes a child that puts a shocked Mindy in the role of father. It’s silly, but as returning guest Diamond Feit helps us explain, it’s also modelling parenthood outside typical gender conventions.

Listen to Diamond’s previous episode with us about Ranma 1/2!

Listen to our previous adult baby episode (a Patreon exclusive!) with guest Nina Matsumoto!

We 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 week, in a first-ever solo episode, Drew talks you through not just one episode of the cult series Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman instead the whole of the show’s art for its two gay characters, Ed and Howard. What’s remarkable about this nuanced portrayal of a same-sex couple is that by virtue of airing before the AIDS crisis, the showrunners didn’t need to make these two characters angel gays. They’re as neurotic and complex as any of the straight characters on the show, which means it’s an example of a progressive representation back in 1976.

If you want to see Ed and Howard (and everyone else) in action, check out the supercut of their whole story on Patreon. It’s free for everyone, so even people who aren’t pledging can watch it. There is not another place online where you can easily watch Ed and Howard’s whole story.

But also check out Matt Baume’s 2020 video on why this show’s gay storyline still matters.

We have episode transcripts courtesy of Sarah Neal. Our logo was designed by Rob Wilson. This episode’s art was designed by Ian O’Phelan.

“Bear of Beeftown Adventure” (April 7, 2024)

About a hundred episodes later, this podcast is pleased to report that The Great North got even gayer with the season four addition of Aunt Dirt, voiced by Jane Lynch. She’s been living in a bunker for sixty years and in this episode she learns about what it means to be a lesbian in the 2020s.

Listen to our previous episode about The Great North and our interview with Charlie Kelly, who wrote both the episodes we’ve covered.

We have episode transcripts courtesy of Sarah Neal. Our logo was designed by Rob Wilson. This episode’s art was designed by Ian O’Phelan.

“Wesley’s Friend” (January 31, 1986)

Yes, it’s this episode. If you’ve seen any bit of it, it’s probably the one line delivered by the focus character, and while we will admit it’s a major groaner, it’s not representative of this whole episode. No, this is a Mr. Belvedere “very special episode” that has its heart in the right place and which mostly lands well all these years later.

This is our second Mr. Belvedere outing, and yes, the first one really is about Mr. Belvedere discouraging a teenager from being gay.

We have episode transcripts courtesy of Sarah Neal. Our logo was designed by Rob Wilson. This episode’s art was designed by Ian O’Phelan.

“Kimmy Goes to Her Happy Place!” (April 15, 2016)

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is a funny show. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is a flawed show. These two things can both be true simultaneously, and you can not like the plotline given to Jane Krakowski’s character, where it turns out she’s actually Lakota posing as white, and still enjoy other elements of the show. Case in point: Titus Andromedon (Tituss Burgess) is exactly the kind of messy, selfish, desperate gay character people want to see realized onscreen. What’s more? He’s very, very funny — and so it this episode, which features a puppet cameo you won’t see coming.

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.

If you grew up watching TV in the 80s, you may have noticed that there was a preponderance of… if not shows about orphans specifically then similar shows where the care of children was entrusted to people who weren’t their parents and maybe didn’t know how to raise kids. We’re talking Diff’rent Strokes, Rags to Riches, Punky Brewster, Webster and Gimme a Break, but also The Facts of Life, Charles in Charge, My Two Dads, Full House, My Sister Sam, Silver Spoons, The Hogan Family and more. Sure, a lot of factors could explain these absent parents, but what if we told you there was a single patient zero for this whole trend? Because Drew thinks there is one, and its history stretches back to the 19th century.

Links to previous episodes mentioned in this one:

• Gimme a Break Meets Yet Another 80s Orphan
• Gimme a Break Transformed Into a Lesbian Perfect Strangers
• Backdoor Pilots: Diff’rent Strokes Spins Mrs. Garrett into Facts of Life
• Weirdest Episode Ever: Day by Day Has a Very Brady Nightmare
• Superstore Is Queerer Than You Think

And if you want to watch the video version of the Seinfeld addiction/cashmere examination at the end of this episode, click here.

“The Family in Question” (May 9, 1988)

It might seem like a joke today, that a show called My Two Dads is about two very hetero bachelors. But don’t let that stop you from appreciating My Two Dads for being a smarter, funnier version of Full House. They debuted the same week, and unlike Full House, My Two Dads actually acknowledges that gay people exist. In this episode, the judge who awarded them custody of their daughter is persecuted in the press as being an activist judicial who is changing the definition of a family.

Read the New York Times piece from 2022 that finally outed Ed Koch.

Listen to the Bad Gays episode about Larry Kramer, which also discusses Ed Koch.