The Puppy Episode

Ellen Moragn (Ellen Degeneres) realizes she's a lesbian after meeting an attractive woman (Laura Dern) who, sort of, comes on to her. After talking it over with her therapist (Oprah Winfrey) she decides to come out to everybody.

This show may seem like nothing new in the wake of "Will & Grace", "Queer As Folk" & "The L Word"...but they might not exist if this show hadn't aired. The ratings went through the roof and major cities had Ellen parties at gay bars where the episode was aired. If you were a gay woman or a lesbian in your 20s on up you probably remember this.

Politics aside this is a smart, funny, extremely well-made episode. The script never condescends and, after dancing around it, Ellen admits she's gay...and the audience went wild. Nowadays gay actors are coming out left and right...and people could care less. But this show paved the way. Historic...and VERY very funny! A must-see.

It has now been 20 years since "Ellen Morgan" and "Ellen Degeneres" came out of the closet and television and gay rights have never been the same.

It is hard to imagine that there were no regular leads in television shows where the lead character was gay. Most of the times gay characters were almost non existent. A gay man was always used as the "Comic relief" and lesbians were always shown as anything but human. That all changed when "Ellen" came out.

Ellen was pretty. She also well known. Her show was entering its fourth season when "Ellen Degneres" decided that "Ellen Morgan" would be coming out of the closet.

The show at the time had very small ratings. It wasn't a big hit for ABC but it did well enough. The show from the very beginning however was always in some sort turmoil.

Ellen Degeneres however was at the top of her game when she demanded that the ABC-Disney allow her to have "ellen" come-out. For months there was lots press being generated about this possible story-line. Finally after 9 months of headlines both "Ellen Degeneres" and "Ellen Morgan" came out and made history.

Now as for the episode that Ellen came out on it became an event. It was historic. The episode was the #1 rated show of the week and one of the most watched television episodes of the past 10 years! Now after 4 years on the air the show found its voice and direction however one year later the show was canceled. That's was sad. The last year the show was on the air was the shows best collections of episodes. It was focused and funny. ABC however failed to promote the show and let the show die. You can than Michael Eisner and Bob Iger for this.

Now after 20 years we can now look back at the show and see what a mess the shows first 3 seasons were but upon viewing these episodes now we can view them as the main character being on a closet and that makes those seasons funnier than when the originally aired when we had no idea of the characters sexuality. The shows however major growth was at the tail end of season 4 and continued until the show ended in season 5. "The Puppy Episode" went on to win "Ellen Degneres" and her show an Emmy for Best Writing. It also won a Peabody Award which is a rare accomplishment for a Network Television show.

For a few years Ellen career took a hit, However she made the biggest come back in when "Finding Nemo" became a major box office hit. Ellen supplied the voice of Dory! That same year she started her talk which continues to be a major success today. In 2016 Ellen struck gold again when "Finding Dory" became the highest grossing animated film of all time.