The Five Best ELLEN Episodes of Season One

https://jacksonupperco.com/2023/04/18/the-five-best-ellen-episodes-of-season-one/

Like Cybill, Ellen is mediocre relative to all the greats we’ve covered on Sitcom Tuesdays. It’s not a top-tier contender up there with Seinfeld, Frasier, or Friends, and it’s not as joyously fun as a, say, Martin or 3rd Rock From The Sun. But it is one of the most memorable sitcoms of the 1990s, boasting an iconic moment in American popular culture — when a famous standup comic came out as gay through her character on a very visible television series. This makes it a genuinely reflective exhibit of its era. Accordingly, when it was the most requested ’90s sitcom in my recent reader survey, I decided to find room for it here — I felt our look at the decade would benefit merely by addressing this oft-cited ambassador. Now, as far as the series’ mediocrity is concerned — and setting aside the recent PR controversy surrounding Ellen DeGeneres that might color how we perceive her personally — I think Ellen is nevertheless a fairly affable sitcom, much more so than Cybill. That is, it has laughs — she’s funny, the cast (once it settles) is pretty good, and there are episodes that I enjoy, both in the context of the show itself and this blog’s entire study.