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Friday, April 20, 2007
Ellen DeGeneres and Laura Dern Reunite
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It appears Ellen DeGeneres wasn’t the only one who was “out” after the famous “The Puppy” episode of her sitcom aired 10 years ago. Academy Award-nominated actress Laura Dern didn’t get an acting job for over a year after guest-starring as the woman who helped DeGeneres’ character come to terms with her sexuality.
“There was certainly backlash, I guess, we all felt from it,” Dern tells DeGeneres in a taped interview to be broadcast on the latter’s talk show this Monday (April 23).
For you kids out there who are too young to remember, “The Puppy Episode” became a huge national talking point when it aired on April 30, 1997. On the popular ABC sitcom, “Ellen,” DeGeneres’s character had had a string of bad luck in business and with men when she fell for her boyfriend’s co-worker, played by Dern. “Ellen Morgan” became the first openly gay leading character on broadcast television and DeGeneres made even more headlines at the time by appearing as herself on the cover of Time magazine alongside the headline “Yep, I’m Gay.”
Some 42 million people watched “Ellen’s” so-called “coming out episode.” Considering that “Will & Grace” caused barely a ripple (other than laughter at its bawdy humor) when it debuted about 18 months later, it’s hard to imagine now the attention this event caused. But as both DeGeneres and Dern make clear when they get together to commemorate the episode’s 10th anniversary, not all the reaction was positive.
“I’m just learning this about you right now,” DeGeneres tells Dern and the audience in an advance transcript provided by the talk show. “I had backlash. I didn’t work for three years. I didn’t have one phone call for three years. But Laura … she didn’t work for a year and a half after that episode just because she was on the show. I had no idea.”
Says Dern: “We look now at something that would be completely the norm on television, which is the great news. You were the pioneer of that. But, the challenges in the moment, [the] ‘Where the hell did everybody go?’ It feels awfully terrifying.”
Fortunately, DeGeneres knows how to lighten the moment. After thanking Dern for being a part of that important moment 10 years ago, she jokingly informs everyone, “I’m not really gay. It was a ‘publicity’ thing.”
“The Ellen DeGeneres Show” airs weekdays at 5 p.m. on WGCL-TV in Atlanta.
