This landmark comedy starred Ellen DeGeneres as Ellen Morgan, a neurotic bookstore owner in her thirties, surrounded by her quirky friends in Los Angeles. In 1997, the series made television history when Ellen came out as a lesbian in a two-part story arc called "The Puppy Episode." Despite threats from advertisers and religious groups, the episode was a ratings success with an estimated 42 million viewers. The episode also won a Primetime Emmy Award for writing, along with a Peabody Award. While the show only continued for one more season, the culture significance of this moment is vast.
To put it in historical perspective, Ellen's coming out occurred nearly a decade before Massachusetts became the first state to perform same-sex marriages in 2004 and almost two decades before same-sex marriage became legal nationwide in 2015. Or to put it TV terms, this was years before Will & Grace, Queer as Folk, The L Word, and Modern Family. In the years following her sitcom, DeGeneres stayed out of the limelight until her talk show debuted in 2003. According to a 2015 poll by Variety and branding expert Jeetendr Sehdev, DeGeneres's presence on the cultural landscape has done more to influence our nation's attitudes about gay rights than any other public figure.
Watch Ellen on Amazon Prime.