Dern Recounts Homophobic Backlash on "Ellen"
Ten years after she made pop history by kissing Ellen Degeneres on her ABC sitcom, actress Laura Dern appeared on the "Ellen" talk show yesterday to reflect back on the kiss and the heinous backlash caused by religious groups.
Back in 1997, after she came out on the Oprah Winfrey show and in TIME Magazine, Ellen Degeneres decided that her sitcom character should follow suit. Dern, who guest starred as Ellen's lesbian love interest, shared a smooch with the comedian in the 4th season finale, the show's famous "Puppy episode."
The airing of the episode caused a hysterical uproar of the conservative organizations forcing the ABC television network to put a parental advisory notice prior to airing of each of the 5th season episodes. Giving into pressure, ABC ultimately pulled the plug on the show.
Dern explained on Monday that for one year she could not find any work in Hollywood and she found the backlash "awfully terrifying." Degeneres said she was not aware Dern was snubbed by Hollywood and said she was sorry. Dern, however, underlined she was happy to be a part of groundbreaking television.
This is TELEVISIONISTA
posted by Justin Van De Kamp at
1:30 PM
5 Comments:
Poor Laura! I didn't really know she was blacklisted for that length of a period. Eww.... But I'm still happy she did this role because it really shows how much she has support for gay people. :)
KC
Maintainer of Luke MacFarlane Fansite
A quick check of IMDB shows that in the three years following the Ellen episode Laura has more credited roles than she had in the three years previous to the so called "blacklisting".
Back three years from Ellen:
Narrator for "Bastard Out Of Carolina"
The Seige At Ruby Ridge (TV MOW)
Citizen Ruth
Forward three years from Ellen:
The Baby Dance (TV MOW)
October Sky
A Season Of Miricles (TV MOW)
Dr. T And The Women
Doesn't seem like that bad of a backlash in the long run, even got to work with Altman.
It is very inspirational to see a talented actress succeed despite all hardship she has to suffer because of a number of irresponsible organizations which, in an ignorant pursuit of forcing their own principles upon other people, feel they have the moral authority to cause such hardship.
I don't think the show was cancelled because of religious groups. I think it was cancelled because the ratings plummeted after the show changed dramatically (after the Puppy episode). I had been a longtime fan but stopped watching after a few more episodes because the show became completely about her gayness and stopped being funny. It was very boring for non-gay fans to watch. They should have found a balance and tried to keep the elements of the show that people loved.
Ellen's show had never been a ratings success, but the coming out controversy helped inflate them for a while. Which is why it seemed the ratings went down in the 5th season, when ABC executives who had been freaked out about it all 4th season long used the ratings as an excuse to pull the plug.
If a heterosexual character is written in an uncompelling and one-dimensional manner I find myself completely bored watching them, so I guess I can relate to what you are saying, Marie.
On the other hand, if there is more to a character than meets the eye, than I don't think I would stop watching a show just because a character is heterosexual.
I didn't watch Ellen's sitcom at the time (for technical reasons), so I can't tell if the show was funny or not (there was however critical praise), but if the character is gay, than I don't see how the writers can ignore that, unless you come up with a completely ridiculous character like Doug Savant's (door)Matt on 'Melrose Place' who never got to kiss anyone on screen.
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