By the time the fourth season rolled around, the show’s ratings had sunk below the top 30, and DeGeneres as well as the show’s producers were growing frustrated with Ellen Morgan’s lack of love interest. One producer famously suggested that since Ellen Morgan didn’t seem to be interested in dating, she should get a puppy—a suggestion that eventually turned into “The Puppy Episode.”

During the summer of 1996, DeGeneres and the show’s writers began negotiating with ABC and its parent company, Disney, to have Ellen Morgan come out during the next season. Although efforts were made to keep the discussions top secret, word leaked out in September and set off months of speculation about when and where Ellen (both real and fictional) would step out of the closet.

It wasn’t until March 1997, after the first version of the coming-out script had been rejected, that Disney executives gave the official go-ahead to tape “The Puppy Episode.” What followed was a media blitz: DeGeneres went on The Oprah Winfrey Show, was interviewed by Diane Sawyer, and was featured on the cover of Time with the headline “Yep, I’m Gay.” At the same time, DeGeneres had just met Anne Heche, a heretofore heterosexual actress whose career was beginning to take off. DeGeneres and Heche also made the media rounds, even attending the White House Correspondents’ Dinner together in late April.

By the time “The Puppy Episode” aired in a one-hour special on April 30, 1997, the first day of May sweeps, the hype had grown out of proportion to the episode itself. The Human Rights Campaign even issued “Come out with Ellen” party kits, complete with an Ellen trivia game.

The episode, which took pains to be as inoffensive about its coming-out storyline as possible, featured a cast of Hollywood stars including Oprah Winfrey, Demi Moore, Billy Bob Thornton, and Laura Dern as Ellen’s love interest. It also included Jorja Fox as an uncredited extra and Gina Gershon in a cameo, and a number of lesbian celebrities, past and future. k.d. lang and Melissa Etheridge made appearances, and Leisha Hailey and Jenny Shimizu were both background extras.

In the episode, Ellen reunites with her college friend Richard, a television reporter, who introduces her to his producer, Susan (Laura Dern). Ellen and Susan immediately hit it off, but when Susan reveals that she’s a lesbian and that she thought Ellen was one too, Ellen freaks out. After trying unsuccessfully to sleep with Richard to prove that she’s straight, Ellen’s therapist (Oprah Winfrey) convinced her to admit that she’s gay—something she’s known since she was a teen but was afraid to admit. In a touching and also hilarious coming-out scene, Ellen rushes to the airport to intercept Susan before she leaves, and stammers through her confession: