The decade’s 10 most lesbilicious TV moments
December 14th, 2009It’s been a busy decade for lady loving ladies in that business we call show. We’ve come out of the closets and onto the small screen. But what were the highlights? Here, Kaite Welsh gives an entirely subjective view about her top 10 lesbian TV moments.
1) The L Word
Let’s get this one out of the way, shall we? It may have had as much relation to our lives as Sex in the City does to our straight sisters, but come on – it was trashy fun, and it brought Kate Moennig into our lives.
And let’s face it, who hasn’t wanted to be told that they’re “looking very Shane today”?
2) Tipping the Velvet
Like The L Word, but set in Victorian London. And featuring the foxy Anna Chancellor as a sometime-dominatrix. The mental image that that conjures up means that I have to go and have a lie down before getting to…
3) Willow and Tara’s first kiss (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
OK, so we had to wait until well into Tara’s second season before we saw the smoochies, but we got them in the end. Writer Joss Whedon gave us a surprisingly realistic portrayal of two early-twentysomething women in their first serious relationship, given the fact that they both had superpowers. And then he took it all away from us with one shot to the heart. Damn you, Joss Whedon. Damn you.
4) Kerry Weaver coming out (ER)
“I am the Chief of Emergency Medicine and I am a lesbian.” Oh, Kerry Weaver. After years of being the cranky, bitchy boss on ER, Actress Laura Innes got to come into her own when Dr Weaver unexpectedly fell for a blonde (and female) psychiatrist.
And thus a TV trend of older women coming out was born, and there was joy throughout the land. Or at least in my living room.
5) Erica Hahn’s sexual awakening (Grey’s Anatomy)
Clearly, my bias for medical shows is coming through here. Blame Dr Quinn Medicine Woman, but I’ve always had a thing for hot doctors. It may be why my GP refuses to see me anymore.
But Erica Hahn - tough, sassy, and very much missed by this Grey’s Anatomy viewer - melted my heart when the character ecstatically announced her late-in-life realisation “I am so gay. I am so, so, so gay. I am extremely gay!” Well, sleeping with the ridiculously sexy Sara Ramirez will do that to you.
6) The series finale of Star Trek: Voyager
Slightly controversial this one: it isn’t exactly canon lesbianism. But when husky-voiced Admiral Kathryn Janeway travelled back in time in order to save her Borg protegee Seven of Nine from dying (and from marrying a guy with a dodgy tattoo), it was done out of 100% pure lesbian love. And nothing will convince me otherwise.
7) Marcia Cross and Felicity Huffman snogging at the GLAAD awards
Showing the world that she didn’t give a damn about the (sadly untrue) rumours that she was a lesbian, Titian-haired actress Marcia Cross locked lips with her fellow Desperate Housewife at an awards ceremony in 2004. And then a very happy little aspiring journalist made the resulting screenshot her computer wallpaper, where it stayed for three months. Happy, happy times.
8) Olivia Wilde batting for both teams on The OC and House MD
First Olivia Wilde kissed Marissa Cooper on Josh Schwartz’s so-bad-it’s-good teen soap opera Te OC, and then she arrived on House MD as Thirteen, a bisexual doctor battling Huntingdon’s Disease and a deranged boss.
Best moment so far: Hugh Laurie’s misanthropic Dr House describing her as a lesbian and then explaining “I was rounding up. From 50%.”
9) Ellen getting her own daytime talk show
She’s the new Oprah, except gay(er). Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, Ellen Degeneres recovered from her cancelled sitcom and break-up with Anne Heche to become one of America’s best-loved entertainers. Whilst her sexuality isn’t the focal point of her show, she doesn’t shy away from it either. Plus, she and Portia Rossi are the world’s cutest couple - science fact. Now can we please get her show on a terrestrial UK channel so I don’t have to resort to YouTube every time I need my fix?
10) Jane Lynch on Glee
UK viewers won’t have seen Glee yet, but here’s a heads up on an unmissable new TV series – worth watching solely for Jane Lynch. And no, she’s not playing a sister on the show, but she is one in real life.
Jane Lynch’s turn as the delightfully bitchy cheerleader coach Sue Sylvester on this sassy small screen musical is fabulous with a capital FABULOUS. Also, she’s Jane Lynch. What more do you need? Glee has been a smash hit in the States and it’s about to hit our screens, so stay tuned.
So what did Kaite miss out? What have been your favourite moments of sapphic screentime from the last ten years?
Xena anyone? Pick an episode, just about any episode.
DJ ∼ December 15th, 2009 12:30 amWell done…makes me want to rewatch them all right this second! xx
Esmerelda ∼ December 15th, 2009 2:48 amThe l word
Aron ∼ December 15th, 2009 2:57 amCan’t help but say this series is sensational.
The actors are so liberating they give u a real sence of there relationships they are all so complex. I absolutly love all the girls.
Yes, i am a man and baring the lesbianism in this series the writers and story lines should get academy awards. I truly believe this is the greatest thing on tv please dont stop.
Big Big Big Fan!
What about Anna, the runner-up on the first Big Brother series?
She spent 10 weeks being lovely and normal and generally proving to middle Britain that lesbians aren’t all bunny-boiling dungaree-wearing nymphomaniacs.
Milly Shaw ∼ December 15th, 2009 1:09 pmI am LOVING this top ten. Special yays for Kerry Weaver - I had a massive crush on her before I even knew she liked girls, and in fact before I knew I did…
You’re so wrong on Janeway and Seven, though. Janeway/Torres all the way!
Cathryn ∼ December 15th, 2009 8:20 pmJapanese TV, while not quite your focus, had some wonderful moments. There was the geeky Lucky Star cartoon a year or two ago, which even included an artist of questionable cartoons among its cast. She kept chastising herself for using her own friends as inspiration for her slash adventures. This series was, in fact, part of an ongoing trend of cartoons by, for, and ABOUT the geek crowd, who are claimed to be a cornerstone of the Japanese economy ever since the 1960s.
A major trendsetter, I suspect, was Genshiken, which was all about a club of social misfits at a Japanese university. Its main strength was in creating over-the-top, yet believable characters. Several discussions among the characters involved their choice of (almost inevitably cartoony) masturbation fodder, and the club was not without its cute-yet-opinionated female members.
Personally, my OTP would have to involve a triangle between Pretty-boy-with-nasty-fetish Kosaka, the girl desperate to get into his pants (Saki), and the poor blushing geek-in-denial Ogiue from the second season. But then, my biological plumbing setup might make me too much of a victim of the “male gaze” here.
Bug ∼ December 16th, 2009 1:31 amI like to watch lesbians kissing, hope that is not a sin lol. They are so cute and sweet :D
Lebians Kissing ∼ December 16th, 2009 8:06 amYay for Willow and Tara! i will never forgive Joss Whedon for killing Tara, he didnt just kill and character, he killed hope.
Brandon ∼ December 22nd, 2009 3:43 pmI’m glad Thirteen got mentioned, despite everything about her relationship being down to Foreman and stuff but I did enjoy Lucky Thirteen a lot and found Olivia Wilde’s interactions believable.I also loved that she was at Chase’s bachelor party.
Alice ∼ December 22nd, 2009 5:10 pmI’m with Alice on Thirteen/Remy’s believability. Despite anything David Shore throws at us out of heteronormativity, a lot of her bi-ness rings true in my book.
PK ∼ December 23rd, 2009 2:08 amWhat was life before the L-Word? lol…..the best lesbian tv drama ever (perhaps the only one)…and of course introduced the lovely lovely lovely shane lol
Luce ∼ December 23rd, 2009 8:32 pmMy personal favourite Lesbian-theme Drama is definitely Channel 4’s ‘Sugar Rush’ - it was fun, fast, heartbreaking and sweet all at once, and I was completely addicted to it :)
Dawn ∼ December 24th, 2009 12:50 pm