How did the Puppy Episode get its name?

[nowvoyager]

Hey all,
I tried doing search but had no luck. I was just wondering if anyone knows the story behind The Puppy Episode title? Why Puppy? Granted, it's a cool title but what is its relevance to the episode?

thanks!

[zoel]

I may be wrong, but i heard somewhere that they were originally going to have ellen get a puppy. they needed something different to create new story lines, but then she decided she wanted to come out and that created the perfect oppertunity for new storylines. they kept the name anyway as kind of a joke i think.

[xblondexpinkx]

I had heard that there was so much fuss surrounding ellens coming out and she didnt want people to know exactly which episode she was coming out on so they named it the puppy episode to blow people off the scent and make them think oo maybe shes gettin a puppy in this episode, so that her coming out was still a little bit of a surprise.

[cernere]

Hi nowvoyager,
I'm not sure about it, but I found this:

The title "Puppy-Episode" is something like a camouflage.
I've read that someone (executive director?) suggested the plan to give Ellen a puppy. Why? Because she didn't want a man and wasn't allowed to have a woman.

Hope this makes sense.

Love,
cernere

EDIT: Oh, well ... next time I'll use the refresh button before starting to think and write ... :cool:

[nowvoyager]

Thanks guys! That's cleared it up for me. Pretty interesting:-)

[Mushanga]

next monday and tuesday the puppy episode is going to be on dutch tv. i think that these episodes can really help people who are still in the closet. you see the struggle of ellen. maybe if there are people on this forum and you live in the netherlands and you are still in the closet you can watch it with your parents?

[Ronja]

RIght now I am reading Ellen - The real story of Ellen Degeneres and I am in Season 3 now..maybe they will mention it in the book. I'll keep you up to date.

[DrGoodhead]

From the Time magazine article "ROLL OVER, WARD CLEAVER" from 1997:

"He is getting at something that has long plagued Ellen, which sometimes feels like Seinfeld after a game of telephone. Although the show debuted three years ago in the Nielsens top five as These Friends of Mine, the sitcom has since stumbled through a number of cast, staff and time-slot changes, never quite jelling creatively, even by DeGeneres' estimation, and settling into the ratings' upper midrange. A major problem has been the indistinct character of Ellen Morgan, who seems to drift wackily through each show without ever offering much in the way of believable motivation, even in the elastic sense that usually applies to sitcoms. For a while she owned a bookstore, but the profession seemed more an arbitrary choice to inject "workplace humor." After the second season she stopped dating--some writers say because DeGeneres was uncomfortable with overtly heterosexual story lines, although she says she simply wasn't interested in doing a show that focused on relationships. As it happens, the code working title of the coming-out script, The Puppy Episode, is an in-joke reference to one of the lamer attempts to juice up the show: an executive's suggestion--DeGeneres won't say whose--that the show's creative problems might be solved if Ellen Morgan got a puppy."

You can read the whole article at www.time.com