A

ELLEN DEGENERES
1958-

COMEDIENNE AND ACTRESS

Coming Out

Depending on whom one asks, it was either a triumph for social justice or a further indicator of the moral decline of Western civilization. In April 1997 actor and comedian Ellen DeGeneres revealed that she was a lesbian. and her character, Ellen Morgan, also came out, making Ellen the first sitcom ever with a gay lead character. News of this impending declaration leaked in September 1996, setting off a sensational debate about gays both on TV and in American life. In March of 1997, ABC finally announced that Ellen Morgan would indeed come out on a special one-hour episode the last day of April. For DeGeneres, her declaration was something she had put off for a long time, attempting to keep her personal life separate from her professional one. When DeGeneres approached ABC about having her character discover that she is a lesbian, however, she knew that the time had come for her to be more open and honest about her own life. Furthermore, when she made her decision to go public, she did so in a big way, making the cover of Time magazine and appearing with her partner, actor Anne Heche, on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Taking the Heat

While Ellen at last breathed a sigh of relief at having made her decision, ABC and Touch-stone Television, which coproduced Ellen and were part of The Walt Disney Company, began to feel the heat from anti-gay commentators. Reverend Jerry Falwell referred to the star as "Ellen DeGenerate," and Reverend Donald E. Wildmon and his American Family Association issued threats to boycott advertisers of the show. Two occasional advertisers, J. C. Penney and Chrysler, announced that they would no longer sponsor the show. Nonetheless, Ellen was aired on schedule.

Background

DeGeneres was born in 1958 in Metairie, Louisiana. After graduating from high school in 1976, she worked a series of dead-end jobs around New Orleans. Her friends began to tell her how funny she was, and in 1981 she took the stage at an amateur hour at a local coffee house. In 1982 she entered and won Showtime's Funniest Person in America competition, which became the springboard for her career as a standup comic. In 1986 she appeared on the Tonight show, and, following her routine, Johnny Carson invited her to take a seat, making her the first woman comic to receive the invitation on a debut appearance on the show. She was offered her own sitcom, which appeared in 1994 as These Friends of Mine and then, following some rethinking and recasting, became Ellen (1994-1998).

"The Puppy Episode,"

The first three years of Ellen were fairly lackluster, to the point that producers suggested the lead character get a puppy to liven up the show. Instead, as an inside joke, writers named the coming-out show "The Puppy Episode." In this show Ellen Morgan realizes that she is gay when she meets Susan, played by Laura Dern. The episode deals with Ellen's struggles and feelings about her realization. Oprah Winfrey appears as Ellen's therapist, and a dream sequence includes cameos by Demi Moore and Billy Bob Thornton. Ellen's lesbian friends Melissa Etheridge and k. d. lang also made guest appearances. Ellen scored its highest rating ever with "The Puppy Episode" and garnered five Emmy nominations. The show won an Emmy for best comedy writing and a Pea-body Award. The fourth season concluded with episodes in which Ellen Morgan came out to her family and to her employer, with mixed results. In accepting the Emmy, DeGeneres said, "On behalf of the people—and the teenagers especially—out there who think there is something wrong with them because they're gay: There's nothing wrong with you, and don't let anyone make you ashamed of who you are."

Parental Warnings and Cancellation

In its fifth season the show began to explore Ellen Morgan's newly identified sexuality and was frequently rewarded with a parental advisory label that appeared before the show for such potentially "offensive" acts as kissing her girlfriend or discussing her lesbianism. Ratings for the series began to slip, and in April 1998 ABC announced that it would not continue the show.