74: Alice Dates a Homo

“Alice Gets a Pass” (September 29, 1976)

Why on earth was this the second episode of this show? When a former football star-turned-movie actor comes into town, Linda Lavin’s Alice is happy to take him out on a date, but she and everyone else are surprised to learn that he’s gay. Of all the episodes we’ve discussed so far, this one more than others captures a very particular flavor of homophobia: it being masked as maternal concern about predatory men.

John Forget, this one is for you!

Listen to Talking Simpsons’ Cape Feare episode to hear the theory about why Linda Lavin deserved it. (This part starts around 34:20.)

The episode’s outro track is “Don’t Tell Me This Is Love” by Alice & The Wonderboy, which doesn’t seem to be on any of the music streaming services, so I guess just listen on YouTube?