VIDEO : 20 Years Ago Ellen's 'I'm Gay' Moment Made History

This marks 20 years since Ellen DeGeneres came out on her show in 1997. When ABC was thinking of ways to reinvigorate her sitcom, Ellen, one suggestion was to cast a puppy but DeGeneres had her own idea. "I had been on the job for about five minutes when Ellen asked to see me and said she wanted her character to come out on the show," says then-ABC Entertainment president Jamie Tarses. "The Puppy Episode" became a one-hour special in which Ellen Morgan (and DeGeneres herself) came out as a lesbian.