why it was cancelled

Need some Ritalin?

"Hill House, not sane, stood by itself for eighty years and might stand for eighty more."

I also agree with you. I think it would have lasted longer if she did not come out. If Ellen came on today I know it would be a smash hit.

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If she hadn't come out, then her character probably wouldn't have come out either, and therefore the show wouldn't have degenerated into one gay joke after another, and would have probably continued to be funny, so yes, in a way you could say her coming out of the closet indirectly contributed to the collapse of the show. But I wouldn't say that it was homophobia that did it. What was funny about the show was the very innocent quality of it. It wasn't bogged down with sexual chemistry between the main character and other characters, and politics and heavy issues like that. It was just light and carefree. Once she made her character gay, the whole show changed. It no longer really felt like a comedy. It felt like Ellen's social statement.

Plus, the show had been going on for five years. That's long enough.

This sucks worse than I Heart Huckabees ----Stewie Griffin

The ratings took a plunge but the Network failed to promote the show. They also kept slapping warnings on the show that "kids should not watch"

The shows final season was groundbreaking. Ellen was also under fire by Elton John who was quoted saying "Ellen should just shut up and be funny" Chasity Bono who said the show was "Too gay".

ABC was also owned by (and still is) by Disney. They were afraid of boycotts. SO promotions for the show were cut down to near zero. That is a death blow. They wanted the show gone. This is when the company was ran by Micheal Eisner.

I am happy however that Ellen went on to huge success with her talk show. She is a pioneer. Also Disney became a bigger force to recon with once Michael Eisner was gone from the company!

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The ratings fell because Ellen went from an interesting, multi-faceted character to a one-dimensional one over the course of one episode. Every subsequent episode after the coming out episode was treated like a theatre in which Ellen was given the chance to stand on the stage and proclaim "I'm a lesbian!" to the masses. It got boring FAST.

If the ratings did indeed fall because she was a lesbian, then that's still not the network's fault. Ratings fall because people stop watching. I know I personally wouldn't watch a show whose sole purpose is to tell the world "I'm here, I'm queer, get used to it!" Even "The L Word", in this day and age, rounds their characters out enough that you enjoy watching them as people with real life problems and joys and fears and successes. Ellen (who I believe is THE funniest woman alive, btw) squandered not only a passable sitcom with likable actors (Joely Fisher and Jeremy Piven, to name a couple), but she also squandered an opportunity to further her cause. Tragic, really.

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The show was cancelled because after the coming out episode, "Ellen" basically became a gay dating show. As I remember it, they sacrificed the comedy and storylines in favor of "what woman will Ellen's friends try and hook her up with this week" plots. In all fairness, a gay lead was a new thing in network television. You should remember the controversy. I think the show failed because the networks honchos and the show's producers got scared. They wanted to support Ellen and show they were "OK" with her newfound gayness and pushed the fact that she was gay every episode. Because of this, Ellen lost creative control over her own show. Nowadays (and it doesn't seem like that much time has passed) a gay character is no big thing. Ellen was just the first, and was unfortunately sacrificed because of it. But, she did pave the way.

Cubby: I have a few things to say about your post.

First of all, When you say "Gay people don't bother me (except really angry lesbians)," not only are you not only qualifying this statement to make it not true about yourself anymore, but you are also categorizing people. I don't think that "really angry lesbians" is actually a sexual orientation identity. Why would only be bothered by really angry lesbians? Why not also have these same feeling toward really angry gay men or really angry straight people?

Secondly, no, it isn't enough that you "tolerate homosexuality." And, you have missed an entire step between "tolerate" and "endorse." You could try by accepting it as a reality of this world. To tolerate something means that you are not OK with it, but you aren't going to do anything to stop it. For example, I tolerate the people who come into my office with chewing tobacco in their mouth and spit into a bottle while they are talking to me. I'm not OK with it, but I don't ask them to stop. If I were to accept this, I would know that it's going on in my office, but not be annoyed by it. I would notice that the person in my office is spitting into a bottle but think it's a perfectly normal activity. Were I to endorse it, I would be passing out chewing tobacco and bottle, or participating in the activity myself, or asking the people in my office if they would like to chew or spit. So going back to the beginning of this paragraph, no, it's not enough that you tolerate it. There are people in this world with sexual orientations other than straight, so if you want to keep your "homosexual friends" (as you phrased it), you should learn to accept them for who they are rather than tolerate them in spite of it.

FInally, you say that you felt that "Ellen" dealt with gay issues on every episode. Don't most shows with no gay characters deal with straight issues? Take the show "Friends," for example (a show that I LOVE). Joey's main focus is finding a girl to sleep with. Chandler and Ross also spend a lot of time thinking about this. Phoebe exploits sexual politics by being aggressive with men (and sometimes making passes at women, but even still, ends up with a man). Rachel and Monica struggle to find ways to win men over. At the point when a gay person is first coming out, like Ellen's character was in this show, learning what that means can consume the gay person's life. There is a whole new freedom where dating is something gay people want to do because they can finally feel comfortable. Right after coming out, a gay person must learn to balance society's expectations of how they are to be with who they want to be. It's entirely logical that it will consume that person's entire life, like it did for Ellen on the show.

you all make it sound like she's some sort of lesbo martyr. "Oh ellen was the first gay lead character on tv" "she was sacrificed for the greater good or the cause"

GIVE ME A FRIGGIN' BREAK

Personally i never found the show funny even before she "came out". Then when she did it became nothing but a vehicle of ideology for gays and lesbians. The whole aspect of the show changed. Other main characters were sacrificed to make way for "hollywood guest stars" as some sort of actors guild support of her lesbianism. So what it ended up being was a huge ego trip for Ms deGeneres and the viewing public whether fans or not being preached to

Actually, I loved the Radio one. I never watched Frasier.

This sucks worse than I Heart Huckabees ----Stewie Griffin

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The show was not cancelled because Ellen was a lesbian. The show was cancelled because after Ellen came out, the show became all about her being a lesbian, people stopped watching, and the ratings began to tank.

Ellen is one of my favourite sitcoms of all time. I loved it. I loved it when she came out too. But I admit the show was very hit-and-miss, not as witty as "Frasier" or always very polished. I guessed that's why I liked it though. The characters weren't all amazing looking, and they were more believabe financially than most other sitcom characters.

What I missed the most in Season 5 when a lot changed was Buy the Book. Think that was the only big mistake they made - getting rid of it. I understand why Ellen felt she couldn't work with Ed anymore but she should've gone back and kicked his ass or contacted Tom and Larry about the problem.