NBC, Ellen DeGeneres Team for Lesbian Family Comedy

Ellen DeGeneres made television history in 1997 by having her character come out of the closet on a two- party episode of Ellen.

Now, DeGeneres is a force behind One Big Happy, a new sitcom pilot featuring a pregnant lesbian and her gay best friend.

[One Big Happy] marks the latest gay-themed vehicle at NBC, including this season’s Thursday half-hour Sean Saves the World, which reunites Will & Grace star Sean Hayes with the network. Last season’s cancellations wiped out a score of show with gay characters on broadcast television. Among them: NBC’s Smash, which featured several LGBT characters; Go On, also on NBC; and ABC’s Happy Endings, among others. NBC Entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt, who is openly gay, has a history of LGBT-themed programming dating back to his time as the head of Showtime, where he greenlighted lesbian-themed The L Word as well as a U.S. adaptation of gay-themed Queer as Folk.