Behind the scenes on "Ellen" - the coming out episode

It's been well over 10 years since Ellen DeGeneres famously came out on the Ellen show, paving the way for others. I've talked about my "Oprah" moment before, but I came across this piece I wrote about being part of the coming out episode, so I thought I would share it with you.

the inside story.....

Ten years ago, I was the Casting Director of the "Ellen" show. We had stopped trying to force Ellen's character into dating guys and instead just played up her comedy. I remember Ellen coming to me and telling me how much she wished that she could be out - We talked about when (if ever) the time would be right for her to come out. In the next season, we began laying secret plans for the now infamous PUPPY episode.

But before we filmed the coming out episode, there was an episode that some of you may remember - Ellen went to a rock n' roll camp with Bonnie Raitt and Aaron Neville and David Crosby. They sang a song together at the end. During the taping of that song, Sheryl Crow came out on stage too. The 5 of them were all singing the song, and then Ellen solo'd with this verse: "I am gay and it's ok" and Sheryl, Bonnie, Aaron and David, all echoed "What did you say, you are gay? That's ok!". The audience went crazy... they couldn't believe what they were hearing (Remember this was many months before she uttered her now famous line "I'm gay" in the airport lounge with Laura Dern). Disney pulled that tape and locked it away in a vault, and it has never seen the light of day.

As we started to prepare for the Puppy episode, it was kept very, very quiet. We called it the Puppy episode to try to lead people astray - we coudn't let anyone know what the episode was ACTUALLY about, so we all pretended it was Ellen getting a puppy. The script was being written by 4 of our producers and Ellen . We knew that we had to find a very special actress for the role that Laura Dern played. I recently pulled out my old ideas list and here is who was on it:
Jennifer Aniston
Ashley Judd
Robin Wright Penn
Laura Dern
Courtney Love
Toni Collette
Madonna
Mira Sorvino
Parker Posey
Anne Heche (!! - this was months before they had even met)
Bridget Fonda
Sarah Jessica Parker
Helen Hunt
Jodie Foster
Julianne Moore
Nicole Kidman
Uma Thurman
Tea Leoni
So, it could have been any one of these ladies, BUT most of them were afraid to do it! No one had done it before. Laura Dern was very brave. Ellen and I both spent time talking to her on the phone, and in fact, she almost got cold feet the day before - she got nervous, but Ellen was able to talk her back in to doing the role. I just read the other day that after this episode Laura wasn't hired for any roles for an entire year!

Filming that episode was overwhelming. On the day of the shoot, we had enlisted many of our friends (k.d. lang, Demi Moore, Billy Bob Thornton, Jenny Shimizu) to be part of a dream sequence. The set was so exciting - but only hours before we were to start shooting, we got word that there had been a bomb threat at the studios. Word had gotten out to the religious extremists and someone called threatening to blow up the stage. We quietly and solemnly evacuated and waited until we were allowed back in. We began filming the show - when it came time for Ellen to utter those famous words, "I'm Gay" there was a moment that felt frozen in time, a silent beat, before the entire stage and the audience ERUPTED with joy and cheers. Everyone was crying, especially Ellen, and it took over 15 minutes before we were able to shoot the scene again.

I will never forget being part of that amazing episode of television, watched by 30 million people back in 1997. And now you know a little bit of the back story.