The Puppy Episode

Back in 1997, Ellen DeGeneres had a sitcom, initially called These Friends of Mine, the series was quickly retitled Ellen. While floundering a little in early seasons, struggling to find a reason to exist, the show garnered ratings success and sparked national debate and controversy during the fourth season upon airing The Puppy Episode, an episode in which DeGeneres' character Ellen Morgan and DeGeneres herself came out of the closet, the title refers to the fact that the producers wanted to air an episode in which Morgan adopts a puppy. The episode was a huge success, drawing 42 million viewers.

The episode, which is a two-parter, revolves around Ellen Morgan, meeting a lesbian woman named Susan, whom she instantly clicks with, not bring honest with herself or her friends about her sexuality, Susan, and her therapist encourage her to open up about her sexuality to herself and to her friends. The episode featured numerous cameos and guest appearances. Laura Dern appears as Susan, a love interest for Ellen, whom Ellen becomes romantically attached to, and who is later revealed to be in a relationship. Oprah Winfrey also starred as Ellen's therapist, and DeGeneres also came out of the closet on The Oprah Winfrey Show, the same day as the airing of the episode. K.D. Lang, Jenny Shimzu, Demi Moore and Melissa Etheridge all have cameo's.

The show was a huge success, becoming Ellen's highest rated show drawing 42 million viewers, the show also spurned numerous cultural phrases and puns, in the episode, when Ellen accuses Susan of trying to recruite her, to which Susan replies, 'one more and i would have got the toaster oven', since the airing of the episode, coming out has often been ironically referred to as 'getting the toaster oven'. The episode also makes light fun of people who refer to an organised gay movement or a gay mafia, at the end of the episode, Susan takes Ellen to see Melissa Etheridge, who after filling out the necessary paperwork, congratulates Ellen on being gay and hands Susan a toaster oven.

The episode led to the show getting renewed for a second season, and has been referred to as one of the most significant LGBT television moments, and one of the first high profile coming-outs. Although the episode managed to give the show focus, however not in the direction that ABC wanted, the show became highly gay-centric, and whole episodes became focused around niche gay topics which were uncommon or alienating to heterosexual viewers. What saddens me somewhat is that few people of my generation have seen this episode, and although Ellen DeGeneres is still a public figure, and is still on TV every day, few people really know what a trailblazer DeGeneres was, and how brave it was of her to come out at a time when society was so unforgiving, The Puppy Episode remains a fantastic sitcom episode, and fortunately for those who have not seen it, both episodes are available on YouTube.

Susan: Damn, now I have to call headquarters and let them know I lost you. Just one more and I would have gotten that toaster oven.

It Was The Oscars!

In case no-one knows, two weeks ago were the 86th Academy Awards, marking the end of Awards Season (my favorite holiday), making this the last post i will be writing about the Oscars, even i realize that it has gotten out of hand, and i must quit, some addictions need to be tackled cold turkey. The 86th Academy Awards were held at the Dolby Theater on Sunday night, hosted by Ellen Degeneres for the second time. This was only the second time that the awards have been publicly referred to as The Oscars, and not as The Academy Awards, as part of the Academy's continued attempt to market themselves to younger viewers. The gamble paid off to an extent, with the telecast being the highest rated in many years, and being the highest rated American entertainment broadcast since the 2004 Friends finale. The Academy have claimed for many years that a billion people watch the telecast, and this year it was almost accurate.

The broadcast was hosted by Ellen Degeneres, who previously hosted in 2007. She brought her typically breezy, likeable persona to the ceremony, and was generally relaxed and friendly. The ceremony took a sharp detour from last years formula of carefully orchestrated gags and sketches, to a more relaxed format, with Ellen liberally wandering the aisles of the Dolby Theater chatting with members of the audience. The success of Ellen's hosting gig relies on her ability  to make fun of members of the audience without offending them à la Seth McFarlane. One of the fantastic things about Ellen Degeneres is that she is just inherently likeable, and that was apparent on Sunday, i am a huge fan of Ellen, particularly of her standup work, and the ceremony used her skills as a standup comedian well.

The telecast felt slick and well orchestrated, and went off with very few hitches. Yes, it was incredibly long, clocking in at over three hours, and yes there were a couple of dead moments, particularly during the presentation of the technical and short categories, but the producers made sure to stagger the more important categories to retain viewers interest all throughout the ceremony. As far as recipients go, there were almost no unexpected wins, and most of the frontrunners won their categories, perhaps the only surprising omission was Get A Horse!, a short film by The Walt Disney Studios. The live musical performances were generally appropriate and interesting, and it was nice to see all of the nominees for Best Original Song performed. Standout performances came from Idina Menzel (AKA Adele Dazeem), P!nk, who performed Over The Rainbow in a tribute to The Wizard of Oz, and Bette Midler, who performed Wind Beneath My Wings as part of the In Memorium segment.

Unlike at the Golden Globes, no-one was cut off by the awkward playing off music, and although the speeches were often long, noone cried and no-one thanked god, so that was a relief, in fact all four of the acting winners gave suitably rousing speeches. Last year, the music from Jaws was used to play people off, and the Academy even managed to incur the sympathy of Nicole Kidman. As with last year, the Oscars had a theme, celebrating Heroes in Hollywood. The Academy celebrated heroes using multiple video montages featuring animated heroes, everyday heroes and superheroes. The montages generally felt well placed. The only negative blemish on the whole ceremony was that in some cases, the scripted speeches before each category felt rather stilted and a little unrehearsed, these need to either be rewritten or better rehearsed. This years Oscar ceremony was the best for many years, and this was possibly the only year in which the Oscars were actually a little cooler than the Globes, boosted by a well produced, slick ceremony, and a great host in Ellen Degeneres.