Season 11 Episode 20: Lez Be Friends

April 28, 1997

Published 04/28/97

Marcy’s cousin Mandy comes to town, also played by Amanda Bearse, and befriends Al and Jefferson, which Marcy finds intolerable. Then Mandy tells Al she is gay, and Al, in possession of information Marcy does not have, has to decide what to do with it. The episode’s comedy comes from Marcy’s jealousy being entirely misdirected and from Al being the one trusted with a confidence.

The casting carries real weight. Amanda Bearse had come out publicly in 1993, four years before this aired, making her one of the first openly lesbian actors on American network television, and here she is playing both the character who is gay and the character who is shocked by it. The episode also completes a set: with this performance, every one of the series’ six main cast members has played a dual role in a single episode, after Ed O’Neill twice, Katey Sagal as Death, Christina Applegate in “The Stepford Peg” and David Faustino as Cool Bud.

The production had to use pre-recorded laughter rather than a live audience, because the scenes with both Marcy and Mandy required Bearse to be shot separately as each character, which is too slow to perform in front of a crowd.

The timing is remarkable. Ten days after this episode aired, Ellen broadcast “The Puppy Episode,” in which Ellen Morgan came out, one of the most publicised moments in American television history, with DeGeneres having come out herself shortly before. Season eleven had been dropping hints toward this episode for months, including Marcy’s emphasis on the last word of her song in “Breaking Up Is Easy to Do” and Peggy’s reaction to the hand on her shoulder in “Live Nude Peg.”