It's been twenty years since Ellen DeGeneres famously came out on her sitcom "Ellen," and she was sure to celebrate the occasion in this sneak peek from Friday's episode of "The Ellen DeGeneres Show."
In her monologue, Ellen remembered the day that her life changed forever when she came out as a lesbian on national television. The episode aired in 1997, a time that DeGeneres noted was very different than today.
"My character character Ellen Morgan came out as a lesbian on national television and I Ellen DeGeneres came out at the same time. This was before Facebook so if you wanted to announce something, it was the only way. You had to get a sitcom."
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View StoryDeGeneres said that this was the first time a lead character on a sitcom had come out. The show was titled, "The Puppy Episode" and she revealed why they went with that name.
"The reason we called it 'The Puppy Episode' is because when the writers told the executives that they wanted me to come out because my character needed to be in a relationship after four years of not being in a relationship, someone at the studio said 'well get her a puppy, she's not coming out."
DeGeneres proceeded to talk about how hard it was to get the episode made, because at the time it wasn't something that people were openly talking about, especially on a sitcom.
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View StoryLater in the show, DeGeneres was joined by Oprah Winfrey (who appeared in the episode as her therapist) to talk more about the moment.
Winfrey told DeGeneres: "You would not be who you are...open hearts and touch hearts and change peoples minds and make a difference in the world had you not had the courage to do that. And 20 years ago, you had no idea that it would put you in this seat.
Laura Dern sat down with the ladies thereafter, to talk about her role in the episode as well. Dern played Susan, DeGeneres' love interest.
"I have to say, just watching the clip made me so emotional because of all the things I feel privilege to experience in my life, as a human and also as an actor, there's no greater gift than being the person that was with you and was looking in your eyes when you said those words," she said.
