'The Lesbian Wedding' opened eyes back in '96
Each Thursday, USA TODAY's Robert Bianco looks at what our Friends were up to around this time in a past season.
The One With the Lesbian Wedding (originally aired Jan. 18, 1996).
Long before TV was gay-friendly, gay viewers had Friends.
True, Ross' ex-wife Carol and her lover Susan weren't the first openly gay characters on a major network sitcom; that honor goes to Billy Crystal (news)'s Jodie on Soap. But Soap was a spoof, and Jodie's heterosexual sex life was more active than his homosexual one. Carol and Susan were more realistic characters in a show that had far broader appeal - and their wedding conveyed a legitimacy that gay relationships had never before been granted on TV.
As often happens with gay characters, Carol and Susan started as an off-screen joke. We don't meet Carol until the second episode, when she tells Ross she's pregnant. But from that point on, the characters became enmeshed in one of the first season's strongest running subplots.
The payoff was this second-season wedding. The service itself was officiated by Newt Gingrich's lesbian sister, Candace.
To be sure, the episode was less about Carol and Susan than it was about the straight characters' reactions to their wedding. For Joey, being among all those gay women makes him feel "like Superman without my powers." That provokes a classic Chandler response: "Now you understand how I feel every single day, OK? The world is my lesbian wedding."
Still, the message of the episode is announced in clear fashion by Ross, who isn't planning to come until Carol tells him that her parents' refusal to attend has given her second thoughts. He asks Carol if she loves Susan. When she says she does, he answers, "Well, then that's it. And if George and Adelaide can't accept that, then the hell with them." He not only goes to the wedding; he also gives his onetime bride away.
A year later, Ellen DeGeneres (news) would come out on Ellen and change TV's landscape forever. That change was long overdue, and Friends helped pave the way.
Each Thursday, USA TODAY's Robert Bianco looks at what our Friends were up to around this time in a past season.
The One With the Lesbian Wedding (originally aired Jan. 18, 1996).
Long before TV was gay-friendly, gay viewers had Friends.
True, Ross' ex-wife Carol and her lover Susan weren't the first openly gay characters on a major network sitcom; that honor goes to Billy Crystal (news)'s Jodie on Soap. But Soap was a spoof, and Jodie's heterosexual sex life was more active than his homosexual one. Carol and Susan were more realistic characters in a show that had far broader appeal - and their wedding conveyed a legitimacy that gay relationships had never before been granted on TV.
As often happens with gay characters, Carol and Susan started as an off-screen joke. We don't meet Carol until the second episode, when she tells Ross she's pregnant. But from that point on, the characters became enmeshed in one of the first season's strongest running subplots.
The payoff was this second-season wedding. The service itself was officiated by Newt Gingrich's lesbian sister, Candace.
To be sure, the episode was less about Carol and Susan than it was about the straight characters' reactions to their wedding. For Joey, being among all those gay women makes him feel "like Superman without my powers." That provokes a classic Chandler response: "Now you understand how I feel every single day, OK? The world is my lesbian wedding."
Still, the message of the episode is announced in clear fashion by Ross, who isn't planning to come until Carol tells him that her parents' refusal to attend has given her second thoughts. He asks Carol if she loves Susan. When she says she does, he answers, "Well, then that's it. And if George and Adelaide can't accept that, then the hell with them." He not only goes to the wedding; he also gives his onetime bride away.
A year later, Ellen DeGeneres (news) would come out on Ellen and change TV's landscape forever. That change was long overdue, and Friends helped pave the way.
