Queerview television guide for April 23rd

Rainy days and Mondays always get some people down (or so I've heard). But it's gorgeous here in NYC, and there's a ton of gay stuff on television. So why let a melancholy singer from the seventies tell you how to feel?

The Ellen Degeneres Show (Syndicated) Check local listings
Ten years after her groundbreaking coming out on television as the first lead gay sitcom character in history, Ellen has Laura Dern (to whom Ellen so clumsily came out) on the show to reminisce about the historic event. Ellen's been doing a lot more "serious talk" on the show lately when it come to gay visibility (T.R. Knight's touching appearance, Neil Patrick Harris's casual coming out chat last week), and we of course are all over it. Oh -- and Sanjaya is also a guest. Wonder if Ellen will bring up the way that the homophobic fratboy press has been treating him?

Two and a Half Men (CBS) 9:00PM EDT
In yet another installment in a recent spate of "gay episodes" on network primetime, Alan (Jon Cryer) and Charlie (Charlie Sheen) meet a gay single dad (Matt Roth) and of course are led to question their own situation and sexual identities as a result. Because in sitcomland, that's really what gay people are here for -- to make the straight people wonder about themselves (although if I had played Ducky in Pretty in Pink, I likely would have done that years ago, truth be told).

'Til Death Do Us Part (Court TV) 10:00PM EDT
This episode was actually supposed to air a while ago but didn't -- but better late than never, eh? Dean Armstrong (Blake from Queer as Folk, pictured at left) appears in this week's attack on wedded bliss, which tells the story of a football hero and his wife -- one of whom of course brutally murders the other. John Waters hosts as The Groom Reaper.