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The Soapbox: Rants and Commentary:
Ellen's Gay?!Composed by Mike O'Leary (oleary@pegasus.montclair.edu)Sad but true, but the Ellen Degeneres vehicle and soapbox, "Ellen," has been cancelled. With this news came a complaint by the star that the reason she was fired was because she was gay. Is this true? Before we can answer that, we have to look back on the history of the show. First, the show was called "These Friends of Mine" and was an attempt at a Seinfeld-clone (another show about nothing). The show changed its name to Ellen. Then, it changed its cast, writers, producers repeatedly for several years leaving a bland sitcom on par with "Suddenly Susan". Next, there was a threat of cancellation. In an homage to the phrase "Luck takes planning." Ellen "comes out" and a media blitz ensues. This t.v. show gimmick (and that's all it was, a gimmick to save a dying show) placed her words and face on the cover of newspapers and magazines throughout the country, causing the time "The Facts of Life" went to Australia to pale in comparison. The "coming out" episode garnered very high ratings, simply on curiousity factor. The next season began, and suddenly Ellen is the next Norman Lear (creator of socially concious shows "All in the Family" & "Good Times"). Nearly every episode contained some reference to being gay in today's society. While a few of these seemed natural (dating, breaking up), most seemed VERY forced (gay plumbers and a gay Twilight Show motif, for example). "All in the Family" was a drama as well as a sitcom, and it was usually well written. When they would touch on the topics of the day, they would be careful to do them with a certain justice. Anyway, ratings on Ellen plummeted, behind a surprisingly successful "Drew Carey Show". And anyone knows who has seen their favorite show get canned due to ratings knows: it's nothing personal. To sum up, when you put in ranting and take the comedy out of a "sitcom" you get "sit". Actually, you get something that rhymes with "sit". |
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