The One with the Lesbian Wedding
"The One with the Lesbian Wedding" | |
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Friends episode | |
Episode no. | Season 2 Episode 11 |
Directed by | Thomas Schlamme |
Written by | Doty Abrams |
Production code | 457312 |
Original air date | January 18, 1996 |
Guest appearances | |
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"The One with the Lesbian Wedding" is the eleventh episode of the
Plot
One of Phoebe's massage clients, Rose Adelman, dies on the massage table and her spirit apparently gets stuck inside Phoebe for a while. Rose, via Phoebe, corrects people's behavior and makes weird jokes using references to obscure people or events. Upon talking to Rose's husband, who states that Rose wanted to see everything, Phoebe takes Rose sightseeing around New York, but is not able to rid herself of Rose. However, during Carol and Susan's wedding, Rose blurts out that she has now seen everything and promptly bolts out of Phoebe's body. During the reception, Phoebe muses to Chandler about how she misses Rose; one of the wedding guests (Lea DeLaria), comically assuming that Phoebe and Rose were a lesbian couple, suggests that Phoebe find a way to forget about Rose and move on with her life, and offers to buy her a drink, which Phoebe accepts.
Meanwhile, Rachel's mother, Sandra (Marlo Thomas), makes a major life decision after seeing how Rachel has learned to fend for herself: she is considering leaving Rachel's father. Rachel is horrified at the thought of her parents splitting up and angry at her mother, but Sandra admits she wants to do this because Rachel did not marry her Barry, the man she never loved, but she did hers. Rachel, stunned at this revelation, gives her mother her blessing to move on.
Early on in the episode, Joey makes his first appearance on the long-running soap opera Days of Our Lives as Dr. Drake Ramoray. He shares with the group a "smell-the-fart" acting tip he had learned from the actress he did his first scene with.
Reception
As a result of its portrayal of a lesbian couple marrying, the episode attracted some controversy across the
While this episode of Friends was one of the first mainstream portrayals of gay marriage on U.S. television, it was actually the second gay marriage on a sitcom.
The episode was the highest-rated television program for the week, with 31.6 million viewers.[4] According to Marta Kauffman, 'NBC expected thousands and thousands of phone calls and hate mail' but actually received only four complaints by telephone.[5]
References
- ^ a b Ron Becker. Gay TV And Straight America, Rutgers University Press, 2006, pp. 161-163.
- ^ "GLAAD Condemns Censorship of Friends Episode." GLAAD 18 January 1996. Internet Archive Wayback Machine. Web. 27 April 2012. Original, now a dead link: [1]
- Cleveland, Ohio) 15 January 1996 page 11D.
- ^ Staff writer (1996-02-02). "Here come the brides". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2007-08-14.
- ISBN 0-7553-1321-6.