TODAY IN QUEER TV HISTORY
THE ELLEN SHOW: Premiere - 9/24/2001, CBS
After her famous nineties ABC sitcom (during which she and her character came out as gay), Ellen DeGeneres was back in this one-season CBS series with a fantastic supporting cast.
This time she played Ellen Richmond, who after a breakup and the failure of her business in the dot-com bust, moves back to her quaint small hometown and takes a job at her old high school. Martin Mull plays her boss, the principal, and Jim Gaffigan is her old high school sweetheart, who would love to get back together with her.
Ellen Richmond is gay, too, and it's largely treated as a nonissue.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urMERZ-BO6k