17: Married With Children Lets Its Out Star Play Gay

“Lez Be Friends” (April 28, 1997)

For a lot of ’80s kids, Amanda Bearse was one of the first gay people they ever heard about. And while Bearse came out in 1993, she got to put LGBT themes in the spotlight in a 1997 Married… With Children episode in which she plays both Marcy D’Arcy and her lesbian cousin, Mandy. It’s a product of its time, for sure, but at its heart is a fairly thoughtful depiction of a happy, function person who’s better off for having come out of the closet. Bonus points for Elaine Hendrix.

Read the transcript for this episode here.

Listen to Drew talk about Amanda Bearse in the Fright Night episode of You Have to Watch This Movie, itself the gayest episode of that podcast.

And please enjoy Glen’s rendition of Marcy as, of course, a chicken.