Word: ellen
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...getting at something that has long plagued Ellen, which sometimes feels like Seinfeld after a game of telephone. Although the show debuted three years ago in the Nielsens top five as These Friends of Mine, the sitcom has since stumbled through a number of cast, staff and time-slot changes, never quite jelling creatively, even by DeGeneres' estimation, and settling into the ratings' upper midrange. A major problem has been the indistinct character of Ellen Morgan, who seems to drift wackily through each show without ever offering much in the way of believable motivation, even in the elastic sense that...
...Ellen Morgan really gay all along, before not only the character knew it but DeGeneres and the writers as well? According to Dava Savel, one of Ellen's three executive producers, sparks often flew between DeGeneres and female guests. She cites in particular an episode with Janeane Garafalo. "There wasn't supposed to be a lesbian thing at all, but afterward we were watching the tape and we were like, 'Whoa...
DeGeneres is certainly not averse to the idea that the new plot twist is organic rather than desperate: "It made sense the character was gay--not that I ever started with that intention." At ABC and Disney, the idea of Ellen Morgan's coming out had been discussed off and on as a possible fix for the show almost since its inception. So executives were receptive, if cautious, when DeGeneres and the show's producers first approached them last summer about the possibility. "It's not a no-brainer," understates Tarses, but tentative permission was granted for the show...
Among other problems, a source says, there was also a feeling at Disney--perhaps because of an overzealous reading of management's mood--that the Ellen decision might best be delayed until after last February's Disney stockholders' meeting so that chairman Michael Eisner would be spared having to defend that as well as his salary and Mike Ovitz's lavish payout. "When Disney or ABC were worried about boycotts or this or that, I kept saying to everybody, 'I'm the one who's going to get the biggest boycott,'" says DeGeneres. "'You can cancel the show...
...Melrose Place's Matt is the only character on the show with any kind of grace or nobility, nor that a pair of secondary lesbian characters on Friends have the most stable relationship on the show, as do, for that matter, a secondary pair of gay male characters on Ellen. Ellen Morgan, on the other hand, ends her coming-out episode sitting awkwardly in a lesbian coffeehouse, unsure of how to comport herself in this new environment and with this new knowledge of herself. It's actually kind of poignant. The character is also denied an affirming liplock with...