Claim: Ellen DeGeneres has acted as an openly lesbian character on TV.

Ellen is an American television sitcom that aired on the ABC network from March 29 , 1994 , to July 22 , 1998 , consisting of 109 episodes . The title role is Ellen Morgan , played by stand-up comedian Ellen DeGeneres , a neurotic bookstore owner in her thirties . The title of the series was These Friends of Mine for the first season , but it was subsequently changed to avoid confusion with the NBC series Friends , which premiered in September 1994 .   The series centered on Ellen 's dealing with her quirky friends , her family , and the problems of daily life . The series is notable for being one of the first with a main character to come out as gay , which DeGeneres ' character did in the 1997 episode `` The Puppy Episode '' , which aired shortly after DeGeneres publicly revealed that she was gay in real life . This event received a great deal of media exposure , ignited controversy , and prompted ABC to place a parental advisory at the beginning of each episode .   The series ' theme song -LRB- used in season 3 onwards -RRB- , `` So Called Friend '' , is by Scottish band Texas . A running gag during the third and fourth seasons was that each episode had a distinct/different opening credits sequence -LRB- often with singing and dancing -RRB- , resulting from Ellen 's ongoing search for the perfect opening credits .