What if we broke format to discuss America’s favorite smartypants game show? Well, we did it. And special guest Emily Heller joins us to discuss Amy Schneider, who became Jeopardy’s second-longest-running winner ever — and as a result became a household name and a trans icon.

Listen to Emily’s Jeopardy podcast, What Is…? A Jeopardy! Podcast on Apple or Spotify!

Listen to Peaches Christ and also Drew on Matt Baume’s new My So-Called Life podcast!

Follow: GEE on Facebook • GEE’s Facebook Group • GEE on Twitter • GEE on Instagram • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter

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And yes, we do have an official website! We even have episode transcripts courtesy of Sarah Neal. Our logo was designed by Rob Wilson. This episode’s art was designed by Ian O’Phelan.

This is a TableCakes podcast.

“The Courtship of Bess Richards” (October 4, 1986)

The second episode of Amen concerns Sherman Hemsley’s Ernie trying to land his choir a new singer in Nell Carter’s Bess, and the result is a comedy of errors in which both he and she perform romantic interest that neither is capable of actually feeling. The result is a WWF-style wrestling match between these two iconic sitcom stars, and we’re joined once again by Dr. Alfred L. Martin to discuss how this is rendered all the stranger because Hemsley and Carter both were closeted and therefore all too accustomed to acting out hetero identities different from how they lived privately.

This episode mentions a TV Guide article about Sherman Hemsley’s private life that I now cannot find online. However, I bought the issue on eBay and will post as soon as it arrives. You can see Zach Wilson’s posting of it on Twitter. Thanks, Zach!

Buy Dr. Alfred’s book, The Generic Closet: Black Gayness and the Black-Cast Sitcom.

Listen to Hemsley in the performance of Purlie that Alfred mentions.

Watch a clip of Hemsley’s gay villain turn in 2000’s Screwed.

Listen to Dr. Alfred’s previous episodes:

• Roc Has a Gay Uncle
• Moesha Meets a Gay Guy
• Sanford Arms Meets a Gay — And He’s Black!

“Menage a Phyllis” (November 2, 1974)

In the third-season episode “My Brother’s Keeper,” Rhoda famously said the word “gay,” turning a plot about her association with Phyllis’ brother on its head. Two seasons later, Phyllis shows up in another episode that discusses gay issues but weirdly doesn’t say that word. Regardless, there’s perhaps more to be made of the newsroom’s opinions about what codes as gay, and Dan Steadman returns to discuss this and what we’ll call the “Murray Slaughter problem.”

Read Dead Buckley’s 2018 piece “Queer Coding on the Mary Tyler Moore Show”

Episodes referenced:

• Dan’s previous episode, “Mike Seaver Actually Said the Word ‘Gay’”
• Our previous Mary Tyler Moore episode, “Mary and Rhoda Meet a Homo”
• Our episode “Phyllis Dates a Homo”
• Our episode “The Dream On Guy Has a Gay Dad”