Pop Culture Fix: The Good Gay News From New York Comic Con and More Zesty Stories

Autostraddle’s Pop Culture Fix is a weekly round-up of the queer arts and entertainment news you need in your life.

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New York Comic Con

This year was my first NYCC (and also maybe my last because I contracted what I think might be the actual plague there), and I was very pleased with the queer pop culture news that came out of the weekend.

+ Person of Interest is really, truly going there with Root and Shaw in the final season. This is a huge deal! With the singular exception of Santana and Brittany on Glee, no TV show has decided to explore a romantic storyline with two established female characters who accidentally have sizzling chemistry. It happens all the time with male/female pairings when TV writers stumble onto that rare on-screen spark they didn’t anticipate, but for female/female pairings, we get the Rizzoli & Isles treatment.

During the POI panel, Sarah Shahi said:

It’s incredibly important for [the LGBT community] to have role models—to have someone on TV they can empathize and emulate and find strength in. I’m so happy to work with this lovely lady, and I want to thank [the writers] for the storytelling. It has been one of the most fulfilling things, to be a voice I feel is underrepresented.

The future is now.

+ Netflix screened the first episode of Jessica Jones and it was even better than I imagined! Carrie-Anne Moss does, indeed, play a gender-flipped Jeryn Hogarth. She has a girlfriend. Also, she has a mistress. Also, the pilot hints very strongly that Jessica Jones herself is bisexual and was, at one time, in a relationship with Trish Walker. And look at what Moss told Entertainment Weekly about Hogarth’s relationship with Jones:

“They’re not friends but they need each other,” Moss said of Hogarth’s relationship with Jessica Jones during an interview with EW. “They come to each other in these scenes, and there’s a lot of back and forth and bad flirtation at times, in life. They’re funny together and can’t stand each other. It’s interesting.”

The series lands on November 20th!

+ The Pretty Little Liars panel at NYCC was interesting. For starters, someone dressed like Red Coat shoved me out of the way to get my seat. But that wasn’t even the most Rosewood role play of the day. No, the most Rosewood role play of the day came when the 50-year-old men in the crowd started screaming at the Liars to love them and marry them, even though they’re all half those guys’ ages.

Here are the first four minutes of the season 6B premiere; it screened at the panel.

Y’all know I have loved this show and have a lot of affection for so many of the people who make it, but I don’t have a great feeling about what’s coming.

Teevee

+ CBS has ordered a comedy pilot from Liz Feldman.

+ Laneia mentioned this in Monday’s AAA, but it bears repeating: Cartoon Network is planning an eight-part Adventure Time mini-series focusing on Marceline the (Queer) Vampire Queen!

+ It feels like this rebooted female-led version of Paradise Island has to include a couple of lesbians, right?

+ VH1 is hosting a panel called LHH: Out in Hip Hop. It’s about being openly gay in the hip hop community.

Film

+ Dope is out on Blu Ray, DVD, and VOD today. It’s one of my favorite movies of the year, in large part because it features one of the most refreshing lesbian characters in film.

+ Jennifer Lawrence wrote an essay about Hollywood’s gender pay inequality problem, and everyone loved it.

+ The trailer for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is so much better than it has a right to be!

https://youtu.be/QWr3mLI8Xl8

Queer Folks

+ This is a really good interview with Ellen Page. Here is an excerpt:

To experience being in love and get to live my life, hold my partner’s hand, bring her to the premiere of the film, go down the red carpet — it’s all these firsts in my life. I’m like, “This is the first time I’m in an out relationship in an airplane!” That might sound so insignificant to a lot of people, but probably not to a lot of people in the LGBT community because they would understand. I can’t tell you how special it is. It’s really extraordinary, and I feel really lucky.

+ Hey, you can read an excerpt from Carrie Brownstein’s new book, Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl: A Memoir, in The New Yorker. It’s about her father coming out as gay and it is some gorgeous prose.

Let’s Talk About Ellen and Liz Feldman’s New Lesbian Sitcom “One Big Happy”

Like most lesbians over the age of 35, I remember exactly where I was when Ellen’s “The Puppy Episode” aired back in 1997. Even if you’re not old enough to remember it, you know all about it. It is the most significant cultural milestone in gay TV history. Tonight, Ellen returned to the tempestuous world of network sitcoms, kind of. She produced Liz Feldman‘s new lesbian-centric comedy One Big Happy, which landed on NBC to generally unkind reviews.

One Big Happy is based on Liz Feldman’s real life. It tells the story of a Type-A lesbian named Lizzy and her laid back best friend, Luke, who decide to have a baby together because they’re in their 30s and neither of them have had significant romantic relationships in a while. But in the early days of trying to conceive — through artificial means — Luke is swept off his feet by a British woman named Prudence. When he returns home from a whirlwind trip to Vegas, where he married Prudence, he finds out Lizzy is pregnant. Lizzy and Prudence spend most of the pilot episode fighting over Luke, until he chooses his best friend, because he made a promise to her first. But Lizzy loves Luke and Luke loves Prudence, so Lizzy chases down her new frenemy at the airport and asks her to come live with them, Three’s Company-style.

The negative critical response to One Big Happy isn’t really a surprise. With very few exceptions, sitcom pilots are notoriously terrible because they have to do too many things: introduce you to all the show’s characters, tell a self-contained story, lay the groundwork for a season-long story, make you laugh, and hook you so you’ll come back for more next week. And all in 22 minutes.

I don’t have any interest in shredding something lovingly stitched together by two of the funniest and most open-hearted lesbians on earth, but it’s also my job to be honest and critical, so let’s break One Big Happy‘s pilot down into The Good and The Could Be Better.

Here’s the trailer:

The Good

Despite the fact that we’re seeing exponential growth for queer women on TV, there’s still a huge void of queer lady representation in sitcoms. In fact, I can count all of the leading lesbian/bi sitcom characters in television history on one hand. Ellen from Ellen, Karen from Will & Grace, Amy from Faking It, Anne from Go On, and Kay from Marry Me. Karen’s bisexuality was only implied; Go On barely lasted one season; and NBC seems ready to pull the plug on Marry Me after its first season. So, yes, a dearth! One Big Happy is honestly the first sitcom to really try to lead with a lesbian since Ellen, which is bonkers if you think about it. That was 17 years ago. So that’s good! There’s a need and One Big Happy is trying to fill it!

Also good is the chemistry between Elisha Cuthbert (who plays Lizzy), Nick Zano (who plays Luke), and Kelly Brook (who plays Prudence). Cuthbert, especially, has proven herself as a hilarious actress with flawless comedic timing. She’s forced to play the straight man a lot in the pilot, but when she gets to be the funny one, it’s going to be a very good thing.

The pilot offered up some hearty giggles. Liz Feldman is a funny lady. There’s no doubt about that. And she told us she approved the scripts for all six episodes NBC has commissioned so far, so it’ll be fun to see how One Big Happy plays when it finds its rhythm. Riese and I talked and talked and talked about this pilot, and she said her girlfriend, Abby, laughed a whole lot during it (which is good for many reasons, including: Abby has the flu, so she deserves to guffaw).

The Could Be Better

One Big Happy is a multi-camera laugh-track sitcom, which means it looks and sounds a lot more like Friends, Seinfeld and Will & Grace than 30 Rock, Community and Parks and Recreation. It’s a weird creative choice. I mean, CBS makes a killing with its multi-camera sitcoms, but it feels a bit dated for NBC. It’s really surprising that the show didn’t aim for a more Modern Family aesthetic.

The laughs rely on gently mocking stereotypes and making double-entendres, which isn’t my personal cup of tea, but if you love The Big Bang Theory‘s set-and-spike-style comedy, you’re probably going to like this. Still, though, comedy is made for skewering tropes, and Liz Feldman is one of the funniest women in Hollywood, so I hope NBC loosens the reins and lets her get a little more real.

The most frustrating thing about One Big Happy to me is that the focus of the show is how the two main women feel about the man in their life, even though one of the women is a lesbian. Pru and Lizzy only talk about Luke, only argue about Luke, only think about Luke. When they’re all three in a scene together, he is physically positioned between them at all times. The pilot isn’t super Bechdel-friendly, is what I am saying.

I want One Big Happy to succeed. I am rooting for it hard. And hopefully NBC hangs in there through the growing pains. It’d be smart. The first seasons of The Office, Parks and Recreation and 30 Rock were all really shaky. The first six episodes of Parks and Recreation were almost unwatchable. (And then it turned into the greatest, most feminist show ever.)

I mentioned “The Puppy Episode” at the beginning of this review because when I tuned into One Big Happy tonight, I figured everyone I know would be watching too, for sentiment’s sake alone. I am surrounded by queer pop culture aficionados. But I don’t know anyone besides me and my girlfriend (and Riese and her girlfriend) who watched the show live. Some of my friends were still reeling on Pretty Little Liars, which aired right before One Big Happy. Some of my friends were watching Laverne Cox over on The Mindy Project. Some of my friends were catching a rerun of The Fosters. Some of my friends were doing their weekly Defiance rewatch. They were all watching queer women on TV, but none of them were watching One Big Happy.

It made me wonder if the lasting legacy of Ellen is that it was the springboard that created a culture where she can executive produce a sitcom about a lesbian character, and gay women are only just sort of peripherally interested in it. A world where One Big Happy can fly or flop, and it won’t really be a big deal, in terms of queer representation on television. What a sad, weird, kind of wonderful thing.

Did you watch One Big Happy? What’d you think of the pilot episode? Will you be tuning in for more?

Liz Feldman Knows You Want Secret Lesbian Slang On TV: The Autostraddle Interview

The Liz Feldman-created, Ellen Degeneres-produced NBC sitcom One Big Happy premieres next week. I sat down with Liz, made my girlfriend take pictures of us, and asked her a bunch of questions. I am pretty stoked on this show because it’s on a major broadcast network, in a primetime slot, and the lead character is a lesbian, which feels a little life-changing for me. We live in a time where a lot of queer content is on the internet — be it Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, YouTube, whatever — but I keep wondering why there aren’t more queer-themed shows on TV. There has especially been a dearth of sitcoms with queer female characters.

One Big Happy wasn’t created with any agenda, but it is so nice to see something cute, funny, and gay-as-shit hit middle america.

Here are Liz and I talking about stuff:

And here is our interview:

Give me the elevator pitch. What’s the show about?

Okay, first of all: what floor am I going to? How long can the pitch be?

Okay, I’m gonna say we’re going to the 14th floor and I’ve never heard of your show.

Okay, who are you? Because that would depend on how I sell the show.

I am a queer, gender-neutral person in my mid-to-late twenties. I’m a feminist.

Hey, you! You seem cool. You should watch my new show. It’s about a new kind of family. Well, I gotta get off. It’s the 14th floor.

I guess fancy buildings have fast elevators?

Wait, what year is it? You didn’t say it was 1983!

[We laugh together]

I would say it’s a very funny show about a lesbian and her straight guy best friend who want to start a family together and then he meets the love of his life and that changes the course of their lives.

Does the show focus on their relationship — the lesbian and her best friend?

I would say the focus is on what happens when a new person comes into that kind of relationship. It’s based on my real life. I mean, me and my best friend were inseparable and spent our entire twenties hanging out together, and did have a plan to have a baby together. Then he met this girl, it was love at first sight, and what it did to me really surprised me. It was very threatening to me. I’ve always been a possessive and competitive, um, I guess, asshole. All of a sudden there was this other woman, and that obviously changed our plans.

I don’t have a child with him. So this show sort of became the fantasy version of what would have happened if we had already been in the process. That’s pretty specific, but the general notion of having a best friend who starts dating somebody and you have to learn to like that person, that’s what we’re examining in this show. In their situation, it’s just a little more heightened: they live together, they’re having a baby together, and now there’s a new person.

So it’s also about this newlywed couple who just got married very quickly and is getting to know each other. It’s also about this uptight, set-in-her-ways lesbian who now has to deal with this free-spirited, super outspoken English chick who is living in her house and walking around naked. It’s about the three people learning to deal with each other as a new unit, and it’s about two best friends who are looking at each other from a new lens because there’s a new person in the picture.

I assume the show is very funny, because you’re funny.

I appreciate that. And all the scripts did come through me. Some of them we wrote together, some of them I wrote myself, but I have the last say on every word. So know that it comes through me. It’s not being written by a bunch of straight people in a room, like, “What would a lesbian say?”

Well I was wondering how much secret lesbian slang will be in the show.

“Secret lesbian slang,” can you give me some? Do I even know any?

Well a lot of times, gay shows that are written by straight writers, they’re like, “Here’s the gay stuff! Here’s the gay guy who loves Madonna!”

Oh, yes. Yeah, I never do that. I mean, the character is really a fictionalized version of me. It’s definitely as close to me as any person I’ve ever written. Then we cast Elisha Cuthbert and I think she brings her own thing to it, but we’re also oddly similar, Rachael, [my wife], calls us “Frick” and “Frack.” I mean, she’s a wonderful Canadian person who is married to a hockey player, but I really made sure to make this a really authentic character. So it always had to pass the test of, “Is this true for me? Is this authentic for me?”

Yes, some of the jokes will be maybe more expected, because it is for a broader audience. I recently sat down with one lesbian journalist who said the jokes feel a little stereotypical, but I did that on purpose on some level. Now, that’s not in every episode. But there’s one episode that’s particularly focusing on how you can tell if a person is a lesbian or not. So yes, of course, I did make some more obvious jokes. But even Ellen thought they were funny!

Truthfully, I did that because this is a show for the mass audience of America, not just for lesbians. I can’t make a network show for just lesbians. So these are jokes you know that America has never heard. Have we heard them? Maybe.

But also to let the mainstream feel comfortable in a lot of ways, you have to let them laugh sometimes.

Exactly. There are a lot of ways to make people laugh. One way is to surprise them. We do that a lot. There’s a lot of funny, surprising things that happen on the show. But the other thing is that you laugh because it’s familiar to you. Or at least you know you’re in on the joke. And you don’t always want the audience to be behind the joke; you really want them to feel like they’re a part of it, like they’re in on it with you. And if I want that, I have to make jokes that are going to be tangible to most people, not just for us.

So this is a prime time network with a lesbian lead role. When did you write it and when were people finally ready to put that on?

That’s a really good question, and most people don’t know this, but because we’re friends I’ll tell you. I actually wrote a very early version of this in 2008, which is when it was happening for me. So I didn’t write it for public consumption, I didn’t write it for anyone to read it. In fact, it was the Writer’s Strike at the time. I wasn’t supposed to be writing at all, but I wrote it because it was how I was dealing with going through the actual thing at the time. Some people keep a diary, I write sitcoms. I don’t know. It’s weird, but that’s what I do.

So my best friend was getting more serious with his now-wife and the only way I knew how to process it was to write a version of it, so I wrote a really early version and I never sold it to anyone. I kept it for myself and showed it to him and he was like, “It’s good, it’s funny.” That’s sort of all we ever talked about it, which is classic.

Then I put it away and I started developing other pilots and I pretty much exclusively have written pilots with a lesbian lead character. Literally every single pilot I have been paid to write has had a lesbian lead character in it. And that’s honestly not part of some agenda; it’s part of the fact that it’s who I am. The television that I like best seems to be semi-autobiographical. It seems to come from truth, from reality, from a place of real vulnerability.

I think there are other really great TV shows too, like I thought 30 Rock was great, but guess what? That came from reality. That came from Tina Fey’s life and she made it a crazy version of it. So Girls, you know, or Transparent, that comes from Jill Soloway’s life. Those are my favorite shows; that’s why I do that. For years I worked on pilots that didn’t get picked up. Then in my third year, I was allowed to develop a show and I thought, “Wow, I actually have a story that’s good but I’ve never actually told it to anyone but myself.” I decided to reinvent that original pilot that I wrote in 2008.

I kind of felt like maybe the world was ready for it, but I really wasn’t sure. Because as I took it around to the networks to pitch, they all said no, except for NBC.

Wow. Really?

They all were really kind. At this point, I’d been doing this a long time. I had nice relationships with these people. These were lovely people, but their feedback was: “This is a good idea, and we’d love to work with you, but this will never make it on the air.”

Were there specific reasons? Was it because there is a lesbian lead?

Well, I mean they’re not going to come out and say…

Right. They’re not going to say that.

It’s not, honestly, just that there’s a lesbian lead. It’s also that it’s a very non-traditional concept. Having a baby out of wedlock, and having a baby with your friend, and a lesbian having a baby.

Yeah. It’s a lot of new information.

It’s a lot of information for middle America. I was really lucky in that Ellen DeGeneres’ company wanted to produce it because that obviously lends a certain amount of palatability. She’s a lesbian everyone can digest. Is that a bad turn of phrase?

No, it’s true.

It is true, but, you know, I’m very much in the same ilk as her. And not just because we’ve worked together so long. In my nature, I’m just kind of the lesbian next door. I really am. I’m not that edgy. Though I’m super liberal in my politics and socially liberal, I’m pretty conservative in my way.

So why do you think people are ready for this now?

Isn’t it crazy that Ellen came out eighteen years ago? It was eighteen years ago, almost to the day. So eighteen years later there’s a show with the anchor character being a lesbian. It’s funny. We’ll see if America is ready for it. NBC is very cool and has always been pretty progressive with the kind of shows they put on the air so hopefully they’ve tapped into something but they test it for audiences, they do the whole thing they do with every show, and it’s tested really positively.

I’m wondering what kind of things you were thinking when this got picked up. Like, “Whoa. This will change the world.” Did you have any of those thoughts at all?

You know? No. Because that’s not a great place to start creating comedy from. You don’t set out to create a groundbreaking show. Really I’m just telling a story that felt authentic to me. I know what Ellen did for me when she came out, so somewhere in the back of my mind I understand that there’s a possibility that this show can positively affect young people, or maybe older people who might be struggling to accept who they are, or accept who their children are. So obviously, yes, if this show continues some sort of conversation about acceptance and love and what it means to be a family, that will be awesome. But truly my intention is to make people laugh.

Have you been surprised by any questions about the show?

Yes. So let me just paint a picture for you. The TCA is the Television Critics Association, and they’re this thing that you never really think about. Maybe other people do, but when I’m writing a pilot I never think about critics. I was just trying to write something funny so people don’t think I’m a total fucking asshole. I mean, they’re paying me to write this pilot, and I just wanted them to read it and be like, “Okay, she’s not a dick.”

That’s my goal. You just want to make a great pilot. You never think in a million years that it will get on the air. Then it gets on the air and you’re like, “Shit. I really haven’t thought this far.” Because the odds are so not ever in your favor. Then all of a sudden you’re at the TCA’s, which is the weirdest press event in the history of press events. So it’s you, it’s the creator, the executive producer — who is me — and then Ellen, who is the executive producer, and the cast. We’re sitting on a panel and they show this fun preview of the show; then the lights come up and all of a sudden you’re sitting in front of two hundred and fifty reporters and their computers and no one claps. It is so bizarre. I’ve been a performer most of my life and I’ve never been on a stage before where you wouldn’t clap for Ellen.

Anyway, the first question they asked was, “Why aren’t there more lesbians on the show?” I have to admit, this was not a question I ever thought I would be asked. You have a few talking points you know you can rely on if you have to, but that’s not something we were expecting at all. The first few questions really dictate the narrative that comes out in the press. So Ellen, in her response was like, “Well, this isn’t a show about lesbians. This is a show about a lesbian, and her best friend, and their family and their friends.” So that becomes the narrative in the press. Ellen says this isn’t a show about lesbians. That is why that was the headline. Because that is the first question that was asked.

That is so interesting.

I’m so glad you asked me that because I’ve been dying to say that. We didn’t go to the TCA to be like, “This isn’t a show about lesbians!” Of course this is a show for lesbians, it’s for everyone. It has to be. When I saw all those headlines coming out, I was happy to see that the show was being written about at all, but also if I was a lesbian at home reading that, I would feel alienated by that headline. But that is truly what happened.

It’s so interesting too because I bet they thought that was a positive quote. “The show isn’t just for lesbians!”

I guess, or they’re just trying to get you to click the link. I get it, that’s their job. I think that’s a pretty hot button quote. Ellen says this isn’t a show about lesbians! Ellen says she doesn’t have an agenda! That was the first question, then I think the second question was: “Will there be more lesbians?” Which is something I’ve really started to understand better, which is that we, as lesbians, are so, so hungry to be represented. We really are. We want to watch something and say, “That’s like me.” Because we never get that. But, instead, because there is such a lack of representation on television, we look for it in these very subtextual ways on shows that are not at all about us.

You know, Rizzoli & Isles, which is a fine show, that’s not about lesbians. Even 2 Broke Girls, the show I worked on, people try to find that lesbian undertone. There is no lesbian undertone. They’re friends. We create lesbian storylines where there aren’t any. Then when there is actually something for us, which I hope is how you’ll feel with my show, this is about a real lesbian character. She’s living her life as a lesbian, wants all the things that we all want, and what I found initially is that there was a bit of resistance to it from our community. There’s a lot of really harsh scrutiny about it. So we’re willing to accept these little bits and pieces of just subtext on another show, but when there’s actually something that’s for us, we kind of immediately reject it.

That much be so interesting for you, because the main character is you.

A version, yeah.

It is weird that there’s a show with a queer person and you have to be like, “But no! It is a real lesbian!”

But that’s the point I’m trying to get out there. The point that I really wrote this, guys. This is really from me. This character is certainly a version of me. She’s a way better looking version of me. And wouldn’t you all cast Elisha Cuthbert to play you in a show?

One hundred percent.

Of course you would. She’s fantastic. She’s awesome. Like, she came out with me and a lot of my friends, like she hung out with us, and you know, did her research. She really did it. We spent a lot of time together in social situations with our other lesbian friends and she really, truly was just trying to get it right. And she did a great job.

I was also wondering if there were any questions you thought you had to be prepared for but nobody has even asked?

Yeah, I thought somebody was going to ask me why I didn’t cast a lesbian. Because I tried. I did. I would’ve loved to cast a lesbian. Tell me who I should have cast is what I would say. Unfortunately, there are not many out comedic lesbians in their thirties. That’s the truth. And the truth is, this is the star of the show. It wasn’t going to go to an unknown person. It would have to go to someone who you’ve heard of, who has had success in television before. And I would have loved to cast a lesbian in this part. But the truth is that when those auditions came and went, there were some great people, but when Elisha’s name came up, I was like, “Of course. Yes.”

So those were all the questions I had, unless there’s something you want to talk about?

Absolutely. So I used to do a show called This Just Out. It was through AfterEllen, but it was my show. They were very kind to put it on their website. The whole thing was that I interviewed famous lesbians and women who were interesting to the lesbian audience in my kitchen. Basically the gist of the show was that I hit on them. Pretty much. I was single. I had such luminaries as Kate Moennig, Tegan and Sara and Emily Deschanel, some really interesting, great people. Like Clea DuVall and Leisha Hailey, pretty much the entire cast of The L Word. I stopped doing it a few years ago because I had to start working for money.

Oh I thought you were gonna say you ran out of lesbians.

Well, that too. I mean truly it was getting harder to book people. But I recently relaunched the show!

I want to be able to tell my story the way I want to tell it as opposed to the way it’s sometimes told in the press. Sometimes it’s wonderfully told in the press, but sometimes you get quoted in a way that makes you feel crummy, in like “This is not a show about lesbians.” Because I’m really about making people feel good about themselves. Literally the tagline of that show was, “You’re so gay.” In a good way, you know? So I started doing it again, just as an outlet for myself because I have some free time while I’m waiting for the show to air.

Also just as a way to reconnect with that audience because it’s amazing. I literally stopped doing the show about four or five years ago and on a daily basis I get a Tweet or an Instagram comment or someone coming to me asking when I’m going to do it again. So I decided I’m going to do it again. You can find it on our YouTube page, but don’t worry, if you follow me on Twitter @thelizfeldman, you’ll hear about it. There will be a new episode up this afternoon.

[Editor’s note: You can watch the new episode below, thanks to the magical power of YouTube embedding!]
Okay, great. I can’t wait to see it and hear about it and also see One Big Happy.

I can’t wait for you also. Thank you for reading this and thanks for watching One Big Happy. It premieres March 17th, 9:30pm/8:30 Central.

 

VIDEO: “This Just Out With Liz Feldman” Is Back With Sara Quin and Jokes and Stuff

Hi. Liz Feldman got a haircut, created ONE BIG HAPPY (premiering on NBC, March 17th), wrote some jokes for The Oscars, and brought back THIS JUST OUT WITH LIZ FELDMAN.

WE GET IT, you’re wonderful. Stahhhhp.

Top 5 reasons to watch her first episode:

1. Sara Quin (I wanted to say “hubba hubba” but that feels weird)
2. RAINBOW LIGHT SABERS
3. She refers to her wife, Rachael, as a “Lizbian” and this is my favorite joke that anyone has ever made about anything.
4. Does her blazer have a LEATHER LAPEL!?
5. Two of the gayest quotes of all time (no given context included):

“Eating a plate of salmon while staring at Scar-Jo, pretending she was that salmon” – Liz Feldman

“The Lil Pussies” – Sara Quin

Bonus: Liz and Sara have a gay-off and unhook a bra with one-hand.

Double Bonus: Kate Moennig is the next guest…

Thank you for your time.

A fun thing to do is watch this episode and then watch an episode from 2010 starring Tegan Quin:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEQTGWORpmM

Remember hairstyles?

Ellen Degeneres Developing New Lesbian Sitcom With Liz Feldman, There Is Hope For Us

Last week, in response to GLAAD’s latest “Where We Are On TV” report, I’d lamented the lack of lesbian-led network comedies on our slate this season— I mean, considering the runaway success of gay sitcoms Will & Grace and Modern Family (and the upcoming program Sean Saves the World and the terrible-and-now-cancelled-thank-goddess show The New Normal) and the runaway hilariousness of lesbians in general, lezzers are definitely overdue for our moment to shine in prime time. Historical evidence suggests that should such a show appear, it would likely be penned by a lady-loving-lady already working in Hollywood, and today that special someone was revealed to us: Ellen DeGeneres, the last lesbian to bring us a network sitcom about a lesbian, will now also be the NEXT lesbian to bring us a sitcom about a lesbian! She’ll be working with writer/executive producer Liz Feldman (former star of This Just Out, former writer for The Ellen DeGeneres Show, present write for 2 Broke Girls), who is already very popular with the ladies.

Warner Brothers TV is producing the show with DeGeneres’s studio-based A Very Good Production, and what we know about the plot thus far is that it will center on “a lesbian and her straight male best friend who get pregnant just as he meets and marries the love of his life.” I think that’s three lesbian television tropes already and it doesn’t even have a title yet!

This isn’t the first time in recent history we’ve gotten really excited about a new lesbian sitcom in development, but hopefully this particular sitcom will actually make it to our television sets. In 2009, it was announced that lesbian comedian Carol Leifer (The Ellen Show, Rules of Engagement, Seinfeld) was developing a show for CBS called “You and Me and He,” which “centers on a recently divorced woman who enters a gay relationship only to find out that she is pregnant with her ex-husband’s baby.” The show never panned out. In 2011, Robert Greenblatt took over NBC and immediately picked up a Jhoni Marchinko (Will & Grace) pilot called “I Hate That I Love You,” a “single-camera romantic comedy in which a straight couple introduces two lesbian friends to one another, eventually leading in a pregnancy.” Anna Camp (True Blood, The Good Wife, The Mindy Project, Pitch Perfect) was set to star, but NBC passed on the pilot.

Will we ever see the birth of this particular baby? I don’t know, I have a pretty good feeling about it!

“2 Broke Girls” and Another Lady-on-Lady Kiss, Courtesy of Liz Feldman

Hi there. This week’s episode, “2 Broke Girls and Hoarder Culture” was written by real life lesbian, Liz Feldman. You should have entered this viewing experience excited and hopeful. People generally agree that this episode was one of, if not the best of the season. I don’t have feelings, thoughts, or opinions because I am a robot so just trust the AV club which echos my sentiments on this show and CBS in general. Max kissed another black. I can say that because I am one. Privilege!

The “young people please relate to this show” joke

Caroline: Here we are. Craigslist. Ok. How does this job sound?
Max: Disgusting and depraved.
Caroline: You didn’t even hear it yet.
Max: Did I not hear craigslist?

The dark joke

Max: Jackpot. This place is a frickin’ cat factory.
Caroline: And they’re alive. How refreshing.

The edgy joke

Max: It’s such a bummer when people can’t handle their heroine.

The non-PC joke

Caroline: What is Johnny doing here at 3AM? I thought it was a rapist or something.
Max: Rapists don’t knock and wave.

The joke that leads to a lot of questions

Johnny: What, you don’t have a penis?
Max: Oh, I have one. In a drawer in my bedroom.

Does everyone volunteer this information? Why do people keep them in drawers? Will we see this alleged penis? Is it normal to call it a penis? Does it have a nickname? What color is it?

What did y’all think? Hopeful for the future? Or could you not tell the difference between this episode and all the others?

I Watched “2 Broke Girls,” Didn’t Throw Rocks At The TV

Yesterday everyone’s favorite kitchen talk show host Liz Feldman told you why 2 Broke Girls is relevant to your interests. Well did you watch? Didja? Didja? DID YOU!? I did so I know that 2 Broke Girls is a show about two white girls that work in a diner and are surrounded by lots of ethnic characters that talk funny. This includes the old guy from The Jamie Foxx Show and Martin.

Am I showing my age with that reference? No, just my race? That’s fine.

The show begins with a boob joke followed by hipster shaming. Two things I approve of wholeheartedly. This was quickly followed by a cum joke, a vagina joke, and well…you get the point which I think was This Is a Female-Fronted Comedy. And also A Comedy For Young People because we’re all broke assholes and the only things we find funny are cruel and scurrilous jokes. We are the future.

The thing about CBS is I feel like my IQ drops 10 points every time I watch a show on that channel (except for The Good Wife). Which is fine. I have points to spare. I guess what I’m saying is you know what you’re in for.

2 Broke Girls, like Two and a Half Men and Big Bang Theory, is one of those shows that will be polarizing. For every million middle-America viewers that tune in, there’ll be one hundred liberal elite types scratching their heads wondering what drug they’re putting in Hungry-Man dinners for people to find this funny, nay, hilarious. I guess I fall somewhere in the middle right now.

I’m hoping that the show gets better as it goes on because I think Liz Feldman and Morgan Murphy are hilarious and for the record I would be their friends even if this turns out to be a shitty show. I hope you all caught the gay joke in the first half of the episode because that’s the closest the networks are going to come to a black lesbian on TV all season. BOOM.

A Few Random Notes

+ Hipsters don’t listen to Coldplay.
+ I have accidentally called this show 2 and a Half Girls on multiple occasions.
+ Will the chef ever say anything funny? My bet’s on no.
+ Kat Dennings is funny but this doesn’t seem like her brand of humor.
+ If the blond went to Wharton, why didn’t she already have a job? Who goes to Wharton for funzies?
+ I hope that “female-fronted comedy” doesn’t mean that all of the guys are going to be Six Sigma Douches.

You should all weigh in about how much you hated it or loved it or if you were generally meh about the whole thing. Your gay voice counts and if you comment enough on this article, this show will definitely begin pandering to the queer lady audience. In fact, I think about midseason it will be revealed that the horse is a lesbian and that’s not just one but FOUR steps in the right direction.

Liz Feldman Tells Us Why ‘2 Broke Girls’ is Relevant To Your Lesbian Interests

Auto-friend Liz Feldman has seemingly been off our radar lately, after a series of high profile writing jobs on The Jay Leno Show, Hot In Cleveland and last year’s Academy Awards. However! She’s actually been hard at work writing and producing the brand new sitcom 2 Broke Girls set to premiere TONIGHT at 9:30 on CBS. Liz recently checked in to give us the heads up that lesbians will absolutely love this new series about two twenty-something waitresses in New York City. The series stars Kat Dennings (Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist) and Beth Behrs (a cute girl who slightly resembles Brandy Howard) and comes from the collective brain of Michael Patrick King (Sex and the City, The Comeback) and Whitney Cummings.

I talked to Liz about why she thinks 2 Broke Girls is comedy’s answer to Rizzoli and Isles, her experience pitching lesbian shows to network big-wigs, and what the future holds for everybody’s favorite super-awkward gay talk show, This Just Out.

In a nutshell, why will our readers dig 2 Broke Girls?

2 Broke Girls appealed to me immediately, and I don’t know if you know this, but I’m a big lesbian. It’s about an unlikely friendship between two very different yet equally attractive girls. When I watched the pilot, I was immediately taken by both of their characters and so impressed at how well rounded they were. They’re empowered, they’re irreverent and they’re smart. And the actresses, Kat Dennings (Max) and Beth Behrs (Caroline), have incredible chemistry with each other. And they’re both seriously funny. I think lesbians out there will fall in love with this show. I’m thinking that 2 Broke Girls is the comedy world’s answer to Rizzoli and Isles. It premieres this Monday, September 19th at 9:30 on CBS. I really hope all my friendos out there will watch!

Which storylines in the show have you directly influenced/introduced?

I can’t divulge any upcoming story lines but suffice it to say that I have been a part of developing pretty much every episode. It’s a very collaborative effort and I’ve been loving being a part of the incredibly funny writing team. Working with Michael Patrick King is an actual dream that has come true. I have seen every episode of Sex and the City, and I remember watching it so many years ago and just relishing in how well written it was. Now I get to work side by side with MPK, SATC’s head writer. I thank my lucky stars every day.

[yframe url=’https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hr3FXTioTIo’]

Are Whitney & MPK hands on with the show, day-to-day and writing episodes? Or, did they simply create the show and then left it to another show-runner?

MPK is the showrunner and the head writer and I have never seen anyone handle those responsibilities more impressively. He’s a genius and he’s incredibly funny and he makes coming to work something that I look forward to. Whitney, also a brilliant person, is busy working on her other network sitcom, “Whitney,” for NBC. She still reads every script of ours and weighs in with her thoughts and pitches hilarious jokes too. I would imagine she never sleeps.

Thoughts on the NBC pilot “My Best Friend Is a Lesbo” and Ellen/Portia’s joint venture announced over the weekend? Based on your experience pitching lesbian themed shows, what has been the biggest stumbling block toward networks picking up these series?

I remain one of Ellen’s biggest fans, and I think Portia is a great comedic actress. So, that they would be working on something together really excites me. Can’t wait to see what they come up with. Last year I wrote a lesbian themed pilot for NBC that was very well received but ultimately did not make the cut. My goal is always to tell stories that are close to me but hopefully relevant to a wide audience. I would love to get a lesbian lead character on TV, but I won’t be developing any pilots this year, as my commitment is to 2 Broke Girls. So, if another writer is lucky and talented enough to sell a lesbian themed pilot, I’m thrilled for them. If the end result is a great lesbian character on TV, we all win. It will happen one of these days, and I hope it’s sooner than later.

Any hope for new This Just Out episodes during your hiatus?

This Just Out is always alive in the back of my mind; it’s something that I would love to return to. But it’s also something that I care so much about that I don’t want to do it half-assed. I’m an all or nothing kind of person when it comes to my creative endeavors. I can’t promise that I will have the time to do more in the near future, but I haven’t buried it either. Raimy and I talk about it all the time. And I can’t tell you how great it feels to know that people still care about it and want to see more. Makes a girl feel real good.

Anything else you’re listening to or reading right now you’d like to recommend or give a shout out?

I just re-watched one of my fave documentaries, Ruthie and Connie: Every Room in the House. It’s a doc about these fantastic old Jewish lesbians, who have been a couple for forty years. They risked so much to be together and their love is still so alive. They’re so sweet and wise and hilarious. I love them so much, I want to grow up to be them. I also can’t stop listening to the new Little Brutes EP, from Rachael Cantu and Harlan Silverman. I wake up with these songs in my head. They’re so catchy and well-written, and you gotta love Rachael Cantu’s voice. So, so good!

Liz Feldman Licks Leno, L Word & Ellen: The Autostraddle Interview

Liz Feldman is really f*cking funny, right? Like, who doesn’t like Liz Feldman? After winning an Emmy for her work on The Ellen DeGeneres Show (not to mention having been invited to write material for the Academy Awards hosted by Ellen herself), she went on to create her own extraordinarily gay online talk show, This Just Out with Liz Feldman. The show filmed in her kitchen and garnered an impressive guest roster, including nearly half The L Word cast: Kate Moennig, Leisha Hailey, Erin Daniels, Rose Rollins, Clementine Ford, plus Auto-faves Tegan & Sara, Erin Foley and Nicol Paone. She’s SO close with those girls that Leisha Hailey and Uh Huh Her band mate Camila Grey even recorded an original theme song for This Just Out! She was recently featured as a correspondent on The Jay Leno Show, seen teaching the elderly how to Tweet and training to be “America’s Next Average Model.” Her fearless, self-deprecating style of humor has shades of Ellen but pushed to the way-gay extreme.

Jess chats with Liz about the lack of gay material on The Jay Leno Show, how she became tight with The L Word crew, her own coming out story, auditioning for Saturday Night Live, what she learned from working with Ellen, and all the dirty details on that fabulous blue blazer.

Jess: You’re obviously very out on the internet. Did NBC or The Jay Leno Show producers suggest that you quiet down the gayness during your appearances?

Liz: Noooo. Not at all!  My persona that I was on that show was up to me and I wouldn’t have done the job if anybody asked me to be anybody other than myself. Obviously I wasn’t as overtly lesbionic on the show, but that’s because I’m a comedian and I like to entertain my audience and you have to know who your audience is, and my goal was to appeal to as many people as possible. If people wanted to see me be super gay they could watch me online [laughs]. But I really wanted to do the job which was to entertain the Leno audience.

Jess: What about at other end of the spectrum with others encouraging you to be more out on mainstream television?

Liz: All of the ideas were mine, everything came from me. The Twitter piece, the modeling thing… honestly it was refreshing to not have to be super gay!  Because I am more than just a “gay comedian.” I’m also just a comedian and a writer and a creative person so it’s actually really challenging to have to think outside of “my box,” so to speak. Maybe people expected me to bring that sort of uber-gayness to the Leno show, but I had to do the job of entertaining middle America.  I got like two comments on Twitter asking me to be more gay on Leno, but I wasn’t NOT gay, you know! I wasn’t out there wearing dresses and high heels! [laughing]  It wore the same…. blue blazer… every single time I was on the show.

Jess: Which brings me to my next question. We have to talk about the blue blazer.

Liz: Of course!

Jess: Where did you get it, how long have you had it and what does it mean to you?

Liz: Well, the blue blazer was clearly the best purchase I ever made. I had no budget for This Just Out but I knew I wanted to get a couple of new items so I went shopping with my friend Alexis who’s a stylist.  We were at a second-hand store and she plucked out that blue blazer and I was like, “ooo, I don’t know… that’s really bright!” and she goes, “It’s amazing. Put it on.” It fit me like a glove, and I was like alright… let’s do this! And it became my whole thing, and it carried over to the Leno show, meaning — I’m not a fashion plate. I think I kinda have a look that works for me, whether or not it’s fashion forward I don’t really care.

I started wearing the blue blazer every show because that way I didn’t have to think about what I was going to wear. And, the more I wore it the more people commented about it and went a little crazy about it, and it was hilarious to me that people were picking up on the fact that I kept wearing this stupid blue blazer every week. Now, it’s obviously taken on a life of its own…. Honestly, what it means to me is that I don’t really have to worry about what my next look is going to be, because I pretty much know it’s going to be me in some kind of blazer, and I’m so happy it takes the pressure off.  Ironically, I was also fortunate enough to go to a prep school and we had to wear blazers as part of our uniform so it’s always been my go-to thing as a natural extension of what I had to wear growing up.

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Jess: You had amazing guest stars on This Just Out, including a ton of L Word actresses: Kate Moennig, Leisha Hailey [with Uh Huh Her bandmate Camila Grey], Erin Daniels, Clementine Ford, Rose Rollins, etc. How did you become tight with the L Word crew?

Liz: Camila and I have been friends for many, many years and she started Uh Huh Her with Leisha and began hanging out with Leisha’s crew and I was lucky enough to get the residuals of that. I actually met some of them at Dinah Shore in 2008, where I was doing stand up.  So, when I was approached to do my own vlog, I thought how fun it would be to interview some of these people who have become icons to young lesbians everywhere. So, I owe it all to Camila…. I really do.

Jess: That’s a great little lesbian phone tree you have there.

Liz: I’m completely aware of the fact that people only watched my show at the beginning so that they could see Kate and Leisha and Erin and all these amazing people that I got to have on the show. Luckily the first show that I did with Kate went really well and I think was pretty funny and so her friends were more willing to do it because they saw that she had a good time doing it.

Jess: Wanna share your coming out story?

Liz: I would say my mother dragged me out of the closet when I was 17. She claims that she’s psychic but I think she read a journal of mine… I mean, she is a very intuitive person and I think she always knew on some level.  But I wasn’t like a totally typical gay kid – I always had boyfriends, I played with barbies, I definitely was a tomboy and I always will be, but… she just kind of figured it out. I’m grateful to her now because I really don’t know how that would have changed my process if it were left entirely up to me. I was not ready to come out. I didn’t really know the full scope of who I was yet cause I was really young and that was a very different time than now. That was many moons ago, long before Ellen came out, so it was still a pretty taboo thing. There was no one out in my high school and…. I simply wasn’t going to be the first person! As much as I’m definitely an activist now, I was not a martyr back then.

Jess: I know you’ve worked with Ellen DeGeneres a bit. You worked on her talk show and were invited by her to write jokes for the 2008 Oscars. What did you learn from working with Ellen?

Liz: Oh my gosh… I learned so much that it’s really hard to sum it up. I learned things on professional, personal and comedic levels… I think the most important thing I learned from working with Ellen was that I had to be my authentic self. I wasn’t doing stand up at the time that I worked for her, I had been taking many years off from it because I wasn’t sure who I wanted to be on stage, so to speak. And, when, I started working for her it sort of re-energized that part of me to want to get back on stage and really be myself because I got to see her be herself and being applauded for it and it was very inspiring.

From working on the show in general I learned that I love the talk show format, that it’s a really difficult job to do because you’re doing a show every day and it requires a tremendous amount of focus, energy and creative ideas. I also learned from being behind the camera that I might want to try being in front of the camera. Like, hmmm, that looks like fun, I would really like to be doing that!  This Just Out is just the super, super gay version of my talk show. I get to be super gay, really inappropriate, and never have to leave my kitchen.

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Jess: Aside from Ellen, who are your other comedic influences?

Liz: I’ve always loved Betty White. She’s not a comic in the sense of writing her own stuff, but I think she’s been so amazingly funny for so long and she was always someone I was really inspired by, which might sound funny but it’s true. Growing up I always loved Paula Poundstone and…. I mean, Ellen really was in the top spot for me in terms of my idol, but I also loved Chris Rock.  In terms of writing, Norman Lear is a really big hero of mine. He’s the creator of shows like All in the Family and The Jeffersons… really socially responsible television programming at a time when it wasn’t the coolest thing to do and I would very much like to be able to do that for our generation.

Jess: Do you have a career highlight so far?

Liz: I’m so blessed because I realize I’ve had so many… Definitely writing for Ellen for the Oscars was a huge career highlight. Something that I don’t think I would’ve dared to dream cause it seemed like such an odd specific to dream about, but, just to be backstage at the Oscars with her was incredibly powerful. Also, working with Betty White on the Ellen show and as far as the Jay Leno Show, every time I got to be on was amazing, but if I could pick a moment I would say getting Janice Dickinson to eat a Snickers bar on national television was definitely a career highlight.

Jess: Was Saturday Night Live ever something you dreamed of doing?

Liz: Oh, yea, totally.

Jess: Did you audition?

Liz: Yes, I did actually, about 2 years ago. Saturday Night Live was always a big dream of mine… I did a lot of sketch comedy and character stuff when I was in my 20s. Kristen Wiig is a good friend of mine from The Groundlings. I actually did audition. I submitted a video and actually got flown to New York and got to audition for Mr. [Lorne] Michaels. That was also sort of a career highlight in a way, just because I got so close. Flying on the plane and going to New York and knowing that I was being flown out to [audition at 30 Rock for Lorne Michaels] was a really cool moment. It almost made up for not getting cast!

Jess: What’s next for you?

Liz: Well, I actually just got a job… I get to write jokes for Betty White! I’m going to be a writer/producer on Hot in Cleveland which is a new show on TV Land with an incredible cast: Valerie Bertinelli, Wendie Malick from Just Shoot Me, Jane Leeves from Frasier and Betty White. I’m very excited… it’s my first job writing for a sitcom. I found out I got the job just a few days ago and I start next week…. and it premieres June 16th on TV Land. In this business you really feel like you just won the lottery anytime you get any job.

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Follow Liz on Twitter @lizinhollywood!