Last Season’s ‘Ellen’ Fire Settles Down to a Slow Burn

Ellen DeGeneres and her TV persona, Ellen Morgan of “Ellen,” came out of the closet last season, igniting a new national debate about homosexuality and television’s role in depicting it. This season, the furor has largely gone back in the closet, even though the ABC comedy is increasingly revolving around Ellen’s love life.

ABC and Disney, which produces the show and owns the network, say the outcry that erupted in May when DeGeneres’ character realized she was a lesbian has died down. “It seems to have gone away,” said an ABC spokesman.

Or maybe it’s just the mail that has dropped off--along with the show’s once-rising ratings. The controversy is still bubbling beneath the surface.

Executives with the Rev. Donald Wildmon’s American Family Assn., which has called for a boycott of Disney, said they are continuing their campaign against the entertainment company on a variety of issues, but placing no special emphasis on “Ellen.”

“This is all Disney’s responsibility,” said Tim Wildmon, vice president of the organization, which has long complained about the sex and violence in TV entertainment. “That’s who we hold responsible. But on the other hand, we were led to believe last spring this was a one-shot deal, that they would move on with other comedy. But the show has turned into a campaign to promote homosexuality, to make it more acceptable.”

Wildmon added: “If ‘Ellen’ continues to make this a major theme and cause instead of a comedy show, it will begin to lose viewers as well as advertisers.”

The series has been averaging 14.3 million viewers a week this season, compared to about 16.8 million a week at the same point last season.

On another front, DeGeneres and ABC have also clashed over the network placing parental advisories on the comedy, angering gay rights activists.

“By doing that, the network has poured gasoline on a fire that was pretty much out,” said Chastity Bono, entertainment media director of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and a consultant on the show. “If they continue to do that, it will be an ongoing problem.”