Ellen: Vows

Ellen: Vows
ABC
July 22, 1998
Sitcom
DVD
B

In this Cohen & Pratt story, helping Ellen's parents prepare to renew their vows causes Ellen and Laurie to get caught up in the romance.  But when Ellen proposes to Laurie, Laurie says no because the ceremony seems empty to her as long as it's not legal.  It would be another fifteen years before California legalized gay marriage, and television and so much else would change by then.  In its own way, this episode creates TV history: the first time the main character on a sitcom proposes a same-sex marriage.

It's nice to see Kathleen Noone and Brian Doyle-Murray finally appear together as Ellen's Aunt Ferne and Uncle Burt, he of course a real scene-stealer.  It does seem odd that their son Spence couldn't make it to the wedding, but whatever.

Ellen in its fifth and final season ranges from C to B+, averaging out to a B-.  Despite the common opinion that the show got "too gay," the missteps of this season are when the writers (and DeGeneres) forgot that the biggest pro-gay statement they could make was showing the humanity of their imperfect but good-hearted lesbian protagonist.  The series was at its most universal when it explored the ways that same-sex relationships are first and foremost relationships.  Oh, and the radio station stuff never worked, but that's only two episodes.

Farewell Ellen, farewell ABC sitcoms, at least for now.

Ellen: Escape from L.A.

Ellen: Escape from L.A.
ABC
January 28, 1998
Sitcom
DVD
B-

This Himmel & Nelson story has Ellen and Laurie going on vacation together, to San Diego, and finding that they have very different travel styles, but things are more fun when they're together.  I was surprised the communication was so bad compared to usual, but I do like that, except for the mix-up over a king-sized bed, this episode is more about universal issues for couples than specifically lesbian issues.

In a nice touch, the couple that they hang out with one night is interracial, with no mention of that in the dialogue; the actress Candy Ann Brown was Cindy on What's Happening!! in ''79.  Larry Cedar, who was a nameless Soldier on M*A*S*H in '80 and Bradley on Who's the Boss?, plays the Desk Clerk.  This is DeGeneres's 100th show I've reviewed, since she was also on an episode of Roseanne.

Ellen: Womyn Fest

Ellen: Womyn Fest
ABC
January 7, 1998
Sitcom
DVD
B

In this Jane Espenson story, Ellen, Paige, and Audrey go to an all-woman musical festival where they hear the Indigo Girls and Sarah McLachlan (as themselves).  Ellen meets an attractive waitress but she realizes she misses Laurie, so she returns to her ex and they reconcile.  Meanwhile, Paige realizes that her relationship with Spence, which is based on sex, isn't going anywhere, so she breaks up with him, but they still have sex.

Ellen: Break Up

Ellen: Break Up
ABC
December 17, 1997
Sitcom
DVD
B

While Laurie's behavior annoys me as much as it did almost twenty years ago, it is handled realistically and this is a good episode, the first of three written by Matt Berry, who also wrote three for Roseanne.  Ellen and Laurie are celebrating their one-month anniversary and Laurie is already ready to move herself and Holly (Kayla Murphy again) in.  Then Ellen feels this is rushing things, and can't promise, when Laurie asks, if she'll still be around when 12-year-old Holly goes to college.  While we get some insight here and in the previous episode of why Laurie feels the way she does, it feels unfair for her to pressure Ellen like this, and then break up with her.  But the episode is intelligent and bittersweet, and it does mock ABC at least twice (with a Laverne & Shirley joke and a reference to warnings on TV programs).

Ellen: Like a Virgin

Ellen: Like a Virgin
ABC
November 26, 1997
Sitcom
DVD
B

This first of two Ellen stories by Jane Espenson sweetly and gently explores Ellen's nervousness about a possible "first time" with Laurie while Holly (Kayla Murphy) is away.  She gets advice from her friends (minus absent Joe) but mostly importantly she talks things out with Laurie.  What's interesting here, and I think not noticed with all of the hullaboo over "controversial content" (some of the episodes that season were given TV-14 ratings), is that the real taboo being shattered here is that an ABC sitcom couple talks things out and works on communication.  If only Tony and Angela had done this!  The real mature content is not what happens (offscreen) in the bedroom but what happens on the couch as Ellen and Laurie discuss "sleeping together" and end up literally sleeping together.

Ellen: Public Display of Affection

Getting their money's worth out of that movie theater set

Ellen: Public Display of Affection
ABC
November 12, 1997
Sitcom
DVD
B

Laurie meets Ellen's parents and things go pretty well, but Ellen, after initially hitting it off with Holly (Kayla Murphy in the first of five appearances), finds that Laurie's daughter doesn't like her.  It turns out that Laurie doesn't like how self-conscious Ellen is about PDA.  The two have a good talk and become friends.  This is probably David Walpert's best Ellen script, funny and believable.

It was twenty years ago today....This doesn't mean I have twenty years' worth of television still to go through.  Things are really going to trickle off after the '90s and we'll get through the twenty-first century PDQ.  But it is worth noting that this episode shows how far we've come on acceptance of LGBTetc. issues, including, in this case, self-acceptance.

Ellen: Just Coffee

Ellen: Just Coffee
ABC
October 29, 1997
Sitcom
DVD
B

We know it's the '90s because a "riot girl" asks Ellen to dance, and because the marquee at the movie theater includes Pulp Fiction.  (The exterior was presumably shot in '94; the other movies are of similar vintage.)  And because Ellen meets a woman she's interested in, who seems to be interested in her.  Lisa Darr makes her first of eight appearances as Laurie Manning, but at first there's a great deal of miscommunication, not in a farcical way but more in the sense that Ellen is new at dating women (and Laurie is rusty at it) and neither is sure if they're meeting for just coffee or if it's a date.  The coffee venue is Cup of Joe, run by Ellen's former employee.  Ellen gets dating advice from fellow "skirt-chaser" Spence, while Paige has the priceless line, "Call me old-fashioned but I don't think the woman should do the calling."  This funny and intelligent story was written by Maxine Lapiduss who did eight for Roseanne in the good old days of 1991-92, and Mancuso of course also directed Roseanne.  Note that Laurie's twelve-year-old daughter Holly is mentioned and we'd soon meet her.