What if we broke format to discuss America’s favorite smartypants game show? Well, we did it. And special guest Emily Heller joins us to discuss Amy Schneider, who became Jeopardy’s second-longest-running winner ever — and as a result became a household name and a trans icon.

Listen to Emily’s Jeopardy podcast, What Is…? A Jeopardy! Podcast on Apple or Spotify!

Listen to Peaches Christ and also Drew on Matt Baume’s new My So-Called Life podcast!

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Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn

And yes, we do have an official website! 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.

This is a TableCakes podcast.

“The Courtship of Bess Richards” (October 4, 1986)

The second episode of Amen concerns Sherman Hemsley’s Ernie trying to land his choir a new singer in Nell Carter’s Bess, and the result is a comedy of errors in which both he and she perform romantic interest that neither is capable of actually feeling. The result is a WWF-style wrestling match between these two iconic sitcom stars, and we’re joined once again by Dr. Alfred L. Martin to discuss how this is rendered all the stranger because Hemsley and Carter both were closeted and therefore all too accustomed to acting out hetero identities different from how they lived privately.

This episode mentions a TV Guide article about Sherman Hemsley’s private life that I now cannot find online. However, I bought the issue on eBay and will post as soon as it arrives. You can see Zach Wilson’s posting of it on Twitter. Thanks, Zach!

Buy Dr. Alfred’s book, The Generic Closet: Black Gayness and the Black-Cast Sitcom.

Listen to Hemsley in the performance of Purlie that Alfred mentions.

Watch a clip of Hemsley’s gay villain turn in 2000’s Screwed.

Listen to Dr. Alfred’s previous episodes:

• Roc Has a Gay Uncle
• Moesha Meets a Gay Guy
• Sanford Arms Meets a Gay — And He’s Black!

“Menage a Phyllis” (November 2, 1974)

In the third-season episode “My Brother’s Keeper,” Rhoda famously said the word “gay,” turning a plot about her association with Phyllis’ brother on its head. Two seasons later, Phyllis shows up in another episode that discusses gay issues but weirdly doesn’t say that word. Regardless, there’s perhaps more to be made of the newsroom’s opinions about what codes as gay, and Dan Steadman returns to discuss this and what we’ll call the “Murray Slaughter problem.”

Read Dead Buckley’s 2018 piece “Queer Coding on the Mary Tyler Moore Show”

Episodes referenced:

• Dan’s previous episode, “Mike Seaver Actually Said the Word ‘Gay’”
• Our previous Mary Tyler Moore episode, “Mary and Rhoda Meet a Homo”
• Our episode “Phyllis Dates a Homo”
• Our episode “The Dream On Guy Has a Gay Dad”

“Cousin Geri” (December 24, 1980)

Fun game for listeners: Take a shot every time Drew mentions the phrase “gigantic bitch” in connection with Lisa Welchel’s Blair, who is in rare form this episode as she shuns her disabled cousin Geri for reasons that aren’t the ones you’re probably assuming. In this discussion, we bring up why Geri Jewell is a trailblazer as far as being queer and also one other thing and also why “actress recurring on Deadwood” is lowkey code for lesbian.

Erin Fletcher, we want you back for that Saved by the Bell episode.

Follow: GEE on Facebook • GEE’s Facebook Group • GEE on Twitter • GEE on Instagram • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter

Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn

And yes, we do have an official website! 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.

This is a TableCakes podcast.

“Gay Bash” (November 10, 2004)

For better or worse, Drawn Together represents a very real trend in mid-2000s humor. It specifically sought out to tell the most offensive jokes it could get on air, but that’s what makes it surprising that the episode where Xandir admits he’s gay isn’t the parade of easy jokes you might expect. The B plot sucks rancid balls, to the point that we don’t even use clips from it in this discussion, but you might be surprised how this animated reality show makes its token gay a sympathetic guy.

Check out Bradley Smith’s YouTube interview with series creators Dave Jesser and Matt Silvertsein, from which we grabbed a few anecdotes about the development of Drawn Together.

Listen to our Cartoons That Made Us Gay episode about the Legend of Zelda cartoon.

Listen to the Best Movies Never Made podcast, hosted by Golan the Insatiable creator Josh Miller.

Go shop at our TeePublic store!

Follow: GEE on Facebook • GEE’s Facebook Group • GEE on Twitter • GEE on Instagram • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter

Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn

And yes, we do have an official website! 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.

“Dye! Dye! My Darling!” (August 2, 2000)

Spend a little time in a Daria fan community and you’ll find folks who ship the title character with her best friend, Jane. The show actually never does a gay episode and only gets the slightest bit queer in the first movie, Is It Fall Yet?, which has Jane affirming her heterosexuality despite how very queer she might seem. In this episode, we’re discussing the nonetheless existent lesbian vibes between Daria and Jane — and who better to offer input on this than Talking Simpsons cohost Bob Mackey? Sure, he’s straight, but it turns out that straight men can relate to female characters too. (We were shocked!)

As it turns out, Bob and Henry’s What a Cartoon podcast covers not only the Daria episode that immediately precedes this one, “Fire!” and also “The Misery Chick,” which as we discuss is a crucial turning point in the development of Daria Morgandorfer.

This week, Glen and Drew are guests on Talking Simpsons, discussing "Three Gays of the Condo" and why it's not great! If you need more of our voices in your life, have a listen here.

Go shop at our TeePublic store!

Follow: GEE on Facebook • GEE’s Facebook Group • GEE on Twitter • GEE on Instagram • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter

Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn

And yes, we do have an official website! 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.

“Lucy and Jim Bailey” (November 6, 1972)

Basically, Lucille Ball did a solid for one gay performer, but in doing this, she also helped make gays a little less scary for America. Jim Bailey was a female impersonator who who had already made appearances on late night TV for this uncanny ability to turn himself into female celebs. Lucy, however, gave him a showcase on her popular prime time sitcom, showing her viewers that not only were drag queens not scary, but in fact they can be a lot of fun.

Watch the episode of The Lucy Show where Lucy almost drowned on Tubi. And read the book that details both versions of the story on Archive.org.

What the episode of the Desilu-produced game show You Don’t Say.

Go shop at our TeePublic store!

Follow: GEE on Facebook • GEE’s Facebook Group • GEE on Twitter • GEE on Instagram • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter

Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn

And yes, we do have an official website! 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.

People use the term “the lost years” differently when speaking of Saturday Night Live, but this podcast is using it specifically from the time Lorne Michaels left the show after season five up until season eleven. Aside from Eddie Murphy’s presence on the show, these are the sketches that are less remembered today because they weren’t rerun on Comedy Central in the 2000s as much and they’re largely absent from the cache of episodes preserved online today. And that’s too bad, because this is when the show boasted some legends in the cast — Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Billy Crystal, Joan Cusack, Robert Downey Jr., Martin Short and Damon Wayans among them, as well as queer cast members Terry Sweeney, Denny Dillon and Danitra Vance.

The sketches (and click here if you want to watch them):

• “SoHo Lesbians” (S6E10: Debbie Harry)
• “Little Richard Simmons” (S7E1: No host)
• “James Coburn Is a Homosexual” (S7E11: James Coburn)
• “Focus on Film: Making Love” (S7E12: Bruce Dern)
• “Penny Lane” (S10E11: Roy Scheider)
• “Pinklisting” (S11E1: Madonna)
• “Mr. Monopoly” (S11E12: Griffin Dunne)
• Monologue (S11E16: Catherine Oxenberg)
• “Lesbian Pick-Ups” (S11E18: Anjelica Huston)

Go shop at our TeePublic store!

Follow: GEE on Facebook • GEE’s Facebook Group • GEE on Twitter • GEE on Instagram • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter

Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn

And yes, we do have an official website! 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.