On This Day In History: Ellen Comes Out

In a widely publicized episode of ABC's comedy Ellen, TV character Ellen Morgan, played by Ellen DeGeneres, announces that she is gay. The episode featured cameo appearances by Oprah Winfrey, k.d. lang, Demi Moore, Billy Bob Thornton, and Dwight Yoakam. An estimated 42 million viewers watched the special hour-long program. Ellen became the first primetime sitcom to feature a gay leading character. The first openly gay regular character on a sitcom was Soap's Jodie Dallas, played by Billy Crystal, starting in 1977.

Until the "coming out" episode, DeGeneres' career seemed unstoppable. A New Orleans native, she worked various odd jobs after high school to support herself while she worked the stand-up comedy circuit. At age 22, she won Showtime's "Funniest Person in America" award and shortly after began landing small TV roles. In 1994, she was cast in a series called These Friends of Mine, but she stole the show, and the program came back in the 1995 season as just Ellen. The program finished in the top 20 shows for the 1994-1995 season. She seemed to be following in the footsteps of stand-up comics like Tim Allen and Jerry Seinfeld, and, like them, she published a bestselling book, My Point--And I Do Have One (1995).

Despite her success, and the enormous audience drawn by the coming-out episode, ABC cancelled the series at the end of the 1997 season. Although the network pointed to dwindling ratings, DeGeneres contended that the network buckled under pressure from conservative groups and stopped promoting the show after the controversial episode.

In September 2003, Ellen launched a talk show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, which has since enjoyed great popularity. It won four Daytime Emmy Awards in its first season.

NOTE: I love Ellen's story. She had the bravery to come out when her career was at it's height and rose above the prejudice, bigotry and hate to become one of America's most talented and hilarious comedians. I remember when she came out my Dad (who is one of those lovable racists) vowed to stop watching her show, EVEN THOUGH he had adored it the whole time it aired and of course he wasn't the only one. Just goes to show you how far America has come. In a matter of time gay and straight won't matter, it will come back to the "content of ones character" to paraphrase Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.