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: 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: Bowl, Baby, Bowl

Ed/Audrey?  No, he's just being helpful.

Ellen: Bowl, Baby, Bowl
ABC
December 4, 1996
Sitcom
DVD
C+

DeGeneres's brother Vance wrote this story where Ellen and Ed compete at bowling and then pool.  Some scattered funny lines, but it is a sports episode.  The pre-title scene teases us about Ellen going back and forth between men and women, but she's saying this to her latest (male) therapist.  Sara Dampf and Cara Rose again play Ed's daughters Willa and Emily, and we find out that Ed's wife (played by Duet's Mary Page Keller) is very pregnant, although we'll never see her again.  This is the first of three Ellen episodes directed by Lorraine Sevre-Richmond.