Ellen DeGeneres marked the 25-year anniversary of her coming-out sitcom episode on Thursday.- On "
The Ellen Show ," she recalled people warning her that it would end her television career.
Ellen DeGeneres celebrated the 25th anniversary of her coming-out sitcom episode on Thursday's episode of "The Ellen Show."
On "The Puppy Episode," a 1997 episode of the now-defunct ABC sitcom "Ellen," the comedian's character Ellen Morgan told Laura Dern's Susan, an out lesbian, that she's gay. The episode aired around the same time that DeGeneres publicly came out on the cover of Time Magazine and on "The Oprah Winfrey Show."
"When I came out, people warned me that it was going to ruin my career. They were right for a while. For exactly three years, I lost my career. But look at me now," the 64-year-old told the studio audience.
She continued: "It goes to show you how important it is to be your authentic self and how important it is to accept others as their authentic selves. I didn't see a lot of people like me on television when I was a kid."
"The Puppy Episode" ignited a wave of backlash when it aired in the late '90s. ABC placed a parental advisory before the subsequent "Ellen" episodes, and the network canceled the sitcom the following year.
DeGeneres became a late-night punchline and was left with "no agent" and "no possibility of a job," she recalled on a 2018 episode of the "Armchair Expert" podcast. "Because the show was canceled, I was looked at as a failure in this business. No one would touch me," she said.
Dern told Vulture in 2019 that she had to have a "full security detail" because of her involvement in the episode and immediately stopped getting roles offered to her, despite her success in the then-recently released blockbuster hit "The Lost World: Jurassic Park."
Regardless of the threats and career lull that followed, Dern said being in "The Puppy Episode" with DeGeneres was the "greatest thing I could've ever been part of."
DeGeneres began hosting her eponymous talk show in 2003, and the comedian, who married Portia de Rossi in 2008, told Thursday's audience that "a lot of people didn't think this show would work because I was openly gay."She told them: "You proved them wrong."
The comedian went on to say that her role as the show's host has been "one of the greatest honors of my life."
"Thank you for inviting me into your homes for 19 years and accepting me for who I am. I am so grateful that I've had this platform to not only give a voice to the gay community, but to all people who feel like they're not seen," she said.
"The Ellen Show" is currently in its 19th and final season.
DeGeneres announced in May 2021 that the talk show, which saw dwindling viewership numbers in the first quarter of that year, is leaving the air. The news arrived after months of increased scrutiny of the host. She's been accused of being rude, entitled, and unpleasant towards people she worked with, and some ex-staffers have described the show's on-set culture as "toxic."
However, DeGeneres told The Hollywood Reporter that her decision to walk away from the show was unrelated to the accusations.
"It almost impacted the show. It was very hurtful to me. I mean, very. But if I was quitting the show because of that, I wouldn't have come back this season," she told the outlet, adding that she had been planning on the exit "all along."
"I'm a creative person, and when you're a creative person you constantly need to be challenged," DeGeneres said, continuing, "And as great as this show is, and as fun as it is, it's just not a challenge anymore. I need something new to challenge me."