The L Word

This article is about the TV series. "The L Word" can also refer to love, liberal, lesbian or a variety of other words starting with the letter L.

The L Word
The L Word title logo
Created by	Michele Abbot Ilene Chaiken Kathy Greenberg
Starring	Jennifer Beals Erin Daniels (2004–2006) Pam Grier Leisha Hailey Laurel Holloman Mia Kirshner Katherine Moennig Rose Rollins Daniela Sea Rachel Shelley and more
Country of origin	Canada USA
No. of seasons	6
No. of episodes	70 (list of episodes)
Production
Running time	approx. 50 mins per episode
Original release
Network	Showtime
Release	January 18, 2004 – March 8, 2009

The L Word was an American and Canadian co-production television drama series on Showtime portraying the lives of a group of lesbian, bisexual and transgender men and women and their friends, family and lovers in the trendy Los Angeles-area city of West Hollywood, California. The show ran from 2004 to 2009.

Main crew

The show was created by executive producer Ilene Chaiken (Barb Wire, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air). Other executive producers include Steve Golin (Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and Larry Kennar (Barbershop). Besides Chaiken, writers of the show have included Guinevere Turner (Go Fish, American Psycho) and Rose Troche (Go Fish, Six Feet Under).

Production

The pilot episode premiered on January 18, 2004. The original six year run ended with the series finale's airing on March 8, 2009. Outside the US, the series is distributed by MGM Worldwide Television. The L Word was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, at Coast Mountain Films Studios, which was formerly known as Dufferin Gate Studios Vancouver. The studio was once owned by Dufferin Gate Productions, the sister company to Temple Street Productions, the Canadian producer of the U.S. version of Queer as Folk.

Characters

Main articles: List of The L Word actors and List of characters from The L Word

Below is the list of the main characters throughout the series, showing the seasons in which they appeared and left:

Actor	Role	Seasons (guest)
BeaJennifer Beals	Bette Porter	1—6
HolLaurel Holloman	Tina Kennard	1—6
HaiLeisha Hailey	Alice Pieszecki	1—6
KirMia Kirshner	Jenny Schecter	1—6
MoeKatherine Moennig	Shane McCutcheon	1—6
GriPam Grier	Kate "Kit" Porter	1—6
DanErin Daniels	Dana Fairbanks	1–3 (4)
SheRachel Shelley	Helena Peabody	2—6
GavJanina Gavankar	Eva "Papi" Torres	4 (5) (6)
LivEric Lively	Mark Wayland	2
LomKarina Lombard	Marina Ferrer	1 (4) (6)
MabEric Mabius	Tim Haspel	1 (2) (3) (6)
MatMarlee Matlin	Jodi Lerner	4—6
RobDallas Roberts	Angus Partridge	3–4 (6)
RolRose Rollins	Tasha Williams	4—6
SeaDaniela Sea	Moira/Max Sweeney	3—6
ShaSarah Shahi	Carmen de la Pica Morales	2–3 (6)
SheCybill Shepherd	Phyllis Kroll	4—6

Title

The original code-name for the project was Earthlings, a rarely used slang term for lesbians.

Contemporary use of the phrase "the L word" as an alias for lesbian dates to at least the 1981 play My Blue Heaven by Jane Chambers, in which a character stammers out: "You're really ...? The L-word? Lord God, I never met one before."

Historical use of "the L word" as code language can also be found in the sentence of a letter written by Daphne du Maurier to Ellen Doubleday: "By God and by Christ, if anyone should call that love by that unattractive word that begins with 'L', I'd tear their guts out." (Du Maurier [author of Rebecca, Jamaica Inn, Frenchman's Creek, My Cousin Rachel, The Birds, Don't Look Now, and other works] rejected the existence of homosexuality in her attraction and unrequited passion for Doubleday -- a homophobic sentiment that also masked her affair with Gertrude Lawrence.)

Season synopses

See also: List of The L Word episodes

Season 1

Season 1 was first aired in the United States on January 18, 2004, on Showtime and featured 13 episodes presenting several entwined storylines. Set in West Hollywood, the series first introduces Bette Porter and Tina Kennard, a couple with a seven-year relationship who want to have a child. Tina eventually becomes pregnant through artificial insemination but has a miscarriage during episode 1.09: Luck, next time. Later in the series, Bette develops an affair with Candace Jewell, which Tina learns of during the season finale.

The pilot introduced a coming out/love triangle storyline involving Tina and Bette’s neighbor, Tim Haspel, his new-in-town girlfriend, Jenny Schecter, and Marina Ferrer. Marina is part of Tina and Bette’s circle of friends, and owns the neighborhood café, The Planet, which serves as the group's hang-out and focal point for the show. The season also introduces Shane McCutcheon, an androgynous, highly-sexual hairstylist and serial heart-breaker; Alice Pieszecki, a girly, bisexual journalist looking for love in any way she can, and Dana Fairbanks, a professional tennis player who is still in the closet and torn between pursuing her career and finding love. In the first season, Dana falls for a sous chef named Lara Perkins whose sexuality is questioned by the group until Lara has an unexpected meeting with Dana in the locker room.

Season 2

Season 2 began airing on Showtime on February 20, 2005. It starts by unveiling to the viewers a secret Tina is keeping from everyone: she successfully became impregnated after a second insemination. Tina begins seeing Helena, while Bette’s life is portrayed as a wreck, with alcohol abuse, problems with her job, the death of her father in episode 2.12:L'Chaim, and being fired during the season finale. Tina and Bette reconcile during the final episode. The character of Marina was written out of the show, and the Planet was bought by Kit Porter.

Introduced in the second season are Carmen de la Pica Morales, a confident DJ who becomes part of a love triangle with Shane and Jenny; Helena Peabody, the daughter of a wealthy supporter of the arts who later becomes Tina's love interest; and Mark Wayland, a documentary filmmaker who moves in with Shane and Jenny. Mark makes them part of his latest documentary by setting up hidden cameras in the house to videotape them. During episode 2.09: Late, Later, Latent, Jenny discovers Mark’s tapes and also discovers the truth about Carmen’s true love.

Season 2 introduces a developing affair between Alice and Dana, which becomes public in episode 2.07: Luminous. It also presents insights into Jenny’s past as an abused child in episode 2.11: Loud and Proud, and reveals episodes of self-mutilation that reach their climax in the season finale.

Season 3

Season 3 first aired on January 8, 2006. It begins six months after the birth of Tina and Bette's daughter, Angelica. Tina's and Bette's relationship as a couple is decaying. and finally ends when Tina begins a heterosexual relationship on episode 3.10:Losing the light The estrangement between the two leads to a climactic showdown over Angelica's custody.

New characters in this season include Moira Sweeney (a working class butch who is Jenny’s girlfriend for most of the season) and Angus Partridge, Angelica’s male nanny who later becomes Kit’s lover. Sweeney starts the process of transitioning from female to male, switching his name to Max. Shane and Carmen's relationship (begun in season 2) leads Carmen to face her family and reveal her homosexuality to them in episode 3.09: Lead, follow or get out of the way.

At the beginning of the season, Dana and Alice's relationship has ended and Alice is having a hard time dealing with it. Dana is back with Lara, but is diagnosed with cancer and dies in episode 3.10: Losing the light of heart failure. Dana's death inspires Shane to ask Carmen to marry her; Carmen agrees, but in the season finale, Shane does not show up to the ceremony.

Helena's character storyline is switched from being Bette's rival into a new member of the circle of friends, paired mostly with Alice. During episode 3.01:Labia Majora she buys a film studio, and later Tina begins to work for her. Further in the season, Helena meets a documentary producer, Dylan Moreland, portrayed by Alexandra Hedison, with whom she has an affair. A sexual harassment lawsuit filed by Dylan during episode 3.09:Lead, follow or get out of the way , along with Helena’s prodigal behavior (Helena has given $10,000 to Shane's father Gabriel for the purpose of buying Shane a wedding present) puts her family business in jeopardy. During the season finale, Helena's mother Peggy (portrayed by Holland Taylor), cuts Helena off financially when she realizes that Helena cannot discriminate between people who are friends with her because of her money and people who are legitimately friends. Gabriel skips out with the money and a woman he has met at a bar inside the hotel where the group was staying for the wedding, triggering Shane to question whether she can commit to a relationship with Carmen.

Throughout this season, each episode begins with a short pre-credits vignette of two individuals meeting romantically or sexually. As the season progresses, lines from Alice's chart (see below) connect one member of each vignette with a new individual in the next. Beginning in the early 1970s with a housewife named Marilyn, these connections eventually wind through several of the series' main characters, showing scenes of their earlier lives until it ends with Lara, alone in Paris. A much older Marilyn is introduced in the season finale, showing once again the interconnectedness of all of their lives.

Season 4

Showtime announced renewal of the series, in a February 2, 2006, press release:.

On the heels of a year highlighted by industry recognition and critical acclaim for its award-winning original programming including Weeds, Huff and Sleeper Cell, Showtime has ordered a fourth season of its hit drama series The L Word.

The season premiere of the fourth season, Legend in the Making, first aired on January 7, 2007. The filming of the season's twelve episodes began in Vancouver, on May 29, 2006..

New cast members for the show's fourth season included Academy-Award winner Marlee Matlin, three time Golden Globe winner Cybill Shepherd, Kristanna Loken,, Rose Rollins and Janina Gavankar. Karina Lombard reprised her role as Marina Ferrer for two episodes. Film and television star Annabella Sciorra guest-starred in several episodes as lesbian film director Kate Arden, chosen to direct the film version of Jenny's (Mia Kirshner) book Lez Girls.

Season 5

Showtime picked up a fifth season of The L Word for 12 episodes, touting the show as "a signature franchise among our viewers". Production began in Vancouver the summer of 2007 and ended in Los Angeles early November 2007. The fifth season premiered on January 6, 2008, with episode "501 - LGB Tease".

The 5th season led to the mysterious disappearance of Eva "Papi" Torres (Janina Gavankar), as well as the departures of Dallas Roberts' male token character Angus Patridge (who was dumped by Kit), along with season four recurring guest stars Paige Sobel (portrayed by Kristanna Loken) and Kate Arden portrayed by Annabella Sciorra.

Clementine Ford, daughter of Cybill Shepherd, reprised her role as Phyllis Kroll's daughter and began a relationship with Shane McCutcheon, played by Katherine Moennig.

The character of Helena Peabody is arrested in the beginning of the season for her actions in the previous season finale: stealing money from her wealthy lover Catherine Rothberg. After a few early episodes depicting her time in jail and subsequent release, she temporarily departs from the series when her character allegedly runs off with a new lover she met in prison. Helena does not return until the season finale, back from exile and reinstated into the main cast.

Elizabeth Keener joined the show as entrepreneur Dawn Denbo, who started a rival lesbian bar with her lover Cindi.

Malaya Rivera Drew and Kate French were cast as guest characters for this season. Malaya played Adele, a young fan of Jenny's work who gets hired as her personal assistant. Kate played Niki Stevens, an ambitious young actress who lands the lead role of Jenny's character, Jesse, in the movie production 'Lez Girls'.

In season five, the main characters' story lines and the filming and production of Lez Girls, Jenny's book-based movie, are somehow intertwined. Jenny secures her position as director of the movie and expects to have the last word on everything; Tina is one of the executive producers and must put up with Jenny's moods and whims in order to meet the project's deadlines. Jenny personally hires Shane as a hairstylist and picks Adele Channing at the Planet as her new personal assistant. Jenny also becomes romantically involved with lead actress Niki Stevens though this is kept secret from the media as it may harm Niki's career in acting. Adele soon becomes essential to the production company by solving unexpected problems that happen to arise anytime, thus selling an efficient and reliable picture of herself to the producers. That is why everyone is shocked when she threatens the movie producers to disclose a compromising tape of Niki and Jenny together. In exchange of her silence she demands to take up Jenny's position as film director. As a result, Jenny gets fired and is also betrayed by Niki, too coward to stand by her. However Jenny can still count on her friends and realizes she's always had feelings for Shane but before Jenny can tell her so, she finds Shane in another of her one-night adventures with no other than Niki Stevens this time.

While all this was going on in Jenny's life, Bette and Tina were having an affair behind Jodi's back and when the truth finally came out, Jodi and Bette had an unusual ugly break up soon followed by the former couple's reunion. Tasha faced a military trial for homosexual conduct in the U.S. Army, causing her to take a break from her complicated liaison with Alice. In the end she chose Alice over her career and resigned from the Army. When everything seemed going well, Alice started having second thoughts about their relationship. Kit was first robbed at gunpoint at The Planet, then she faced sly competition from Shebar owners "Dawn Denbo and her lover Cindi" and finally was forced to close the club for a while when rats were found to have infested The Planet. Kit eventually lost her temper when Denbo boastfully announced on her face she had just bought the Planet's majority shares from Kit's business partner. Fortunately Helena came to her friend's rescue when she returned to L.A. after hearing of her mother's poor health conditions. Helena bought both the clubs and resolved to run the businesses with Kit.

Season 6

Showtime confirmed a sixth and final season for The L Word. Unlike the show's previous seasons, it only lasted 8 episodes to conclude with 70 episodes in total. Studio executives commented on the longevity of the show, with the Showtime president of entertainment Robert Greenblatt saying that The L Word has "surpassed its niche as a gay show". The sixth season premiered on January 18, 2009 and ended its original run on March 8 of the same year.Producers and writers of The L Word took viewers' opinions regarding the final season’s episodes. The main story of the season is related to the death of Jennifer Schecter and the rest of the season is a flashback from that point.

Before airing the show, Creator Ilene Chaiken denied reports of socialite Paris Hilton guest starring on an interview on gaydarnation.com. Ilene Chaiken said in an interview with the New York Post Magazine that she had offered DJ Samantha Ronson a guest spot in Season 6 but Ronson declined as she was busy. In July 2008, it was confirmed that Elizabeth Berkley would star as Kelly Wentworth (née Freemont) in a multi-episode arc of the final season. Mei Melançon also made guest appearances for the last season as Jamie Chen, a counselor from the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Youth Center who befriends Alice and Tasha and becomes their third-wheel crush.

Interrogation tapes

Shortly after airing the final episode, Showtime began releasing short videos in which characters reveal secrets that weren't revealed during the course of the show. Each video showed the interrogation of one character with a new video being released each Monday after the final episode via the Showtime website. All episodes feature Lucy Lawless as Sgt. Marybeth Duffy and Sean Tyson as Det. Sean Holden who are investigating the death of Jenny Schecter.

Following the seven interrogation tapes, the same URL offered an interview with series creator Ilene Chaiken in two weekly installments. Chaiken discussed several aspects of the show's history and plotlines, but would only consent to reiterating that Alice went to jail for Jenny's murder while not necessarily being guilty of the crime.

Music

Main article: List of The L Word soundtracks

As of March 2008, The L Word has released five compilation CDs with the show's soundtrack. The music composer of the show is EZgirl.

All three of Leisha Hailey's bands have been referenced in the series. A song by The Murmurs, Hailey's first band, was used in a first season episode and included on that season's soundtrack. During the second season, the character Shane is sometimes seen wearing a t-shirt for Gush, Hailey's second band. Songs of Hailey's most recent band, Uh Huh Her, were featured during the show's fifth and sixth seasons; the character Tasha Williams is seen wearing an Uh Huh Her t-shirt during the sixth season.

The Chart

See also: Six degrees of separation

A small portion of The Chart, covering some of the relationships established between the most important characters along the series through Season 6. Pink represents main female characters, blue represents main male characters, purple and green minor characters featured in the series (female and male respectively), and grey signifies characters that are only alluded to.

"The Chart" is a graph of the affairs that occur among Alice's friends and acquaintances; it is an undirected labeled graph in which nodes are labeled with people's names and the lines represent affairs or hookups.

According to the storyline, Alice first started the Chart on the back of a napkin. In Season 1 it was moved from the whiteboard stretched across one wall of her apartment to an internet site of Alice's own creation.

During episode 1.02: "Let's Do It", Alice attempted to write an article about the chart in Los Angeles magazine. As she was unable to convince her supervisor editor of the validity of such an article, she opted to publish the Chart on the internet instead. The network was then enriched by the visitors, and was one of the resources used in season 1 when Lara's sexual orientation was in question.

Late in season 2, the Chart regains plot relevance in the show when a disturbing encounter with Alice's former girlfriend Gabby Deveaux prompts her to put it up as a topic during an interview at KCRW. In the story, the producer was amazed at the complexity of the affair network and granted Alice a section for its public discussion. The program's low popularity is mentioned during episode 2.11: "Loud and Proud", but by the third season it is pictured as a hit among the lesbian community, even heard at public places (Dana is forced to listen to an ad of the program while visiting the hospital in episode 3.04: "Light My Fire").

From Alice's point of view, the Chart is about her and how she is connected to everyone else on it. Any of the main characters can be connected to Alice in less than four moves. In episode 2.08: "Loyal", Alice claimed she could connect almost anyone to her in less than six moves.

In episode 1.02: "Let's Do It", it is mentioned that the major contributor to the Chart is Shane, which is later confirmed during episode 1.12: "Locked Up" by a comment in which she points out her connections could sum up to about twelve hundred.

During Season 3, the Chart serves as a marginal storyline that advances through each episode and concludes in the season finale. The Concept of the Chart was further exploited in Season Four. Within the series, the Chart evolves into a social network hosting profiles and provides the introduction for the character of Papi in Episode 4.01:Legend in the Making, when a larger "hub" than Shane is found by Helena on the server. At the same time, a real-world parallel project OurChart.com was launched. The website, which allowed registered members to create their own profiles and also hosted several blogs on the show, was fully operational until the launch of the Sixth Season, after which OurChart.com was merged with Showtime's website.

In the episode 5.04: "Let's Get This Party Started", as the investigation of Tasha for homosexual conduct escalates, Alice scrubs the chart off her apartment wall to hide evidence of her relationship with Tasha.

Originally, The L Word was to be based around a lesbian Kit Porter, and "The Chart" was tattooed on her back. When Kit Porter was changed into a straight character, The Chart was given to Alice instead.

Reception

The show's first season was "broadcast to critical acclaim and instant popularity"; as an article from The New York Times pointed out:

Before "The L Word," lesbian characters barely existed in television. Interested viewers had to search and second-guess, playing parlor games to suss out a character's sexuality. Cagney and Lacey? Jo on "Facts of Life"? Xena? Showtime's decision in January 2004 to air The L Word, which follows the lives of a group of fashionable Los Angeles lesbians, was akin to ending a drought with a monsoon. Women who had rarely seen themselves on the small screen were suddenly able to watch lesbian characters not only living complex, exciting lives, but also making love in restaurant bathrooms and in swimming pools. There was no tentative audience courtship. Instead there was sex, raw and unbridled in that my-goodness way that only cable allows.

But co-creator and executive producer Ilene Chaiken had some issues with the reaction:

I do want to move people on some deep level. But I won't take on the mantle of social responsibility. That's not compatible with entertainment. I rail against the idea that pop television is a political medium. I am political in my life. But I am making serialized melodrama. I'm not a cultural missionary.

While the show is seen as fulfilling lesbians' "obvious and modest representational need" or even the "ferocious desire not only to be seen in some literal sense... but to be seen with all the blood and angst and magic that you possess", the show has been criticized for various scenes which serve to "reify heteronormativity". The show has also been praised for its nuanced consideration (in the first season) of how and in what ways lesbians should stand up to the religious right, with the "Provocations" art show storyline being "a fictionalized version of what happened when Cincinnati's Contemporary Art Center booked a controversial exhibition of Mapplethorpe photographs in 1990".

Some critics find The L Word to be "a better written series than Queer as Folk and seems less exploitative", with relationships being more important than sex. Some reviewers (and fans) are put off by the theme song (introduced in the second season) and the "graceless, clunky dialogue".

By the time the sixth and final season began, The New York Times was calling the show a "Sapphic Playboy fantasia" that has "shown little interest in variegating portrayals of gay experience. Instead it has seemed to work almost single-mindedly to counter the notion of lesbian bed death" and repeatedly remind the viewer of the "limits and tortures of monogamy" while "never align[ing] itself with the traditionalist ambitions [for same-sex marriage] of a large faction of the gay rights movement."

Awards

In 2005, Laurel Holloman won a Satellite Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama for her portrayal of Tina Kennard; the International Press Academy also nominated the show for a Satellite Award for Best Television Series – Drama. In the second season, Ossie Davis won a posthumous Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a drama series in recognition of his portrayal of the father of Bette and Kit Porter. The show received multiple nominations for GLAAD Media Awards and both Pam Grier and Jennifer Beals were repeatedly nominated for NAACP Image Awards.

In 2008 The L Word's companion website was honored at the 59th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Advanced Media Technology for Best Use of Commercial Advertising on Personal Computers.

International broadcasts

• Australia: Seven Network (season 1-2), W. Channel (Season 1-2), Movie Extra (Season 3-4)
• Argentina: Warner Channel
• Bosnia and Herzegovina: OBN
• Brasil: Warner Channel
• Belgium: VijfTV
• Bulgaria : FOX Life
• Canada: Showcase Television (English), illico on demand (Season 1-2), ARTV (Season 3-5) (French)
• Chile: Warner Channel (season 1-2-3-4)
• Colombia: Warner Channel
• Costa Rica: Warner Channel, currently broadcasting season 4
• Denmark: DR 2
• Finland: Subtv, "L-koodi" (The Code L)
• France: Canal+
• Germany: ProSieben, Timm
• Greece: Alpha TV
• Hungary: Cool TV
• Iceland: Skjár 1
• Ireland: Channel 6
• Israel: Yes stars

• Italy: Jimmy, La7
• Japan: FOXlife HD
• Latin America: Warner Channel
• Lithuania: Tango TV
• Malaysia: ntv7
• Mexico: Warner Chanel
• Netherlands: Rtl 5
• New Zealand: Prime TV
• Norway: TV3
• Philippines: 2nd Avenue, Velvet (Season 2)
• Portugal: RTP2 and FOX Life
• Peru: Warner Channel
• Russia: MTV Russia (Season 1-4)
• Serbia : FOX Life
• Slovenia: Kanal A
• South Africa: Series Channel [Sony Entertainment] DSTV
• South Korea: Catchon
• Spain: Canal+
• Sweden: TV400 (Season 4- and reruns of 1-3), TV3 (Season 1-3)
• Switzerland: TSR 1
• United Kingdom: Living
• Uruguay: Warner Channel

Unaired Spin-off Series and Film Proposals

Series creator Ilene Chaiken recently wrote and produced a 20-minute presentation for a possible spin-off centering around women's prison in which Leisha Hailey's character Alice Pieszecki is detained. The Farm as it was so named started shooting in December 2008, while the sixth and final season of the L word premiered in January 2009. Famke Janssen, Melissa Leo and Laurie Metcalf were part of the cast.

Showtime's CEO Matthew Blank announced plans for the new show at the Television Critics Association press tour in July 2008. "We're doing this interesting thing: The storyline at the end of The L Word, the final episode in the final season, there will be an open-ended component to it," Blank confirmed. "And Ilene is going to carry that story along on the Internet, which we think is an interesting way to keep The L Word experience going. Then if we decide to go ahead with the spin-off that storyline will segue into the new series"..

It was announced in April that Showtime declined to pick up The Farm as a series, which may leave the open-ended element of the series finale as permanently unresolved..

It is popularly believed that Showtime and Ilene Chaiken have plans to make a The L Word movie to tie up "loose ends" of the series. However, while Chaiken herself has expressed interest in producing a film based on the series in a recent interview, she claims that it probably would not emphasize any of the unresolved plotines and would simply continue the story of the characters' friendships. No official proposals or greenlighting related to an L Word film have been publisized.

References in pop culture

Several shows have referenced the The L Word:

• The teen-drama South of Nowhere, in Season 1's episode Girls Guide to Dating, Ashley asks Spencer a question, with the prize being - "two tickets for the Ellen DeGeneres show and a box set of the first two seasons of The L Word".
• In According to Jim, Jim is asked what "The L Word" is (obviously in this context relating to the word "love"). Instead, Jim states that "The L Word" is "Lesbian".
• On the medical drama House, Dr. Gregory House said he watches The L Word, but only on mute.
• On the dark comedy series Weeds, after finding her daughter Isabel kissing another girl, Celia Hodes tells Isabel that she can't become a lesbian to avoid losing weight, citing the slim lesbians on The L Word.
• News satire program The Daily Show, which features news headlines altered to reflect pop cultural gags, referred to its coverage of the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict as "The L War" on the July 24, 2006 episode. Host Jon Stewart is a close friend of The L Word actress Jennifer Beals, and has previously invited her on to promote the show.
• On Chapelle's Show: The "Lost Episodes", Dave Chapelle mentions "watching The L Word On Showtime, BYAAAAH!!" in his impersonation of Howard Dean's famous outburst in the election runnings. Dave (as Dean) - "I love lesbians. BYAAAAH, I watch The L Word on Showtime, BYAAAAH! *Smells his finger* BYAAAAAH!!!"
• On The Sopranos episode "Live Free or Die", Tony Soprano references The L Word while speaking to his psychiatrist stating that "all that lesbian thing, with the, uh, Jennifer Beals...it's not bad. She a dyke in real life?"
• In the US version of The Office, when Michael Scott feels he is being accused of discrimination toward homosexuals, he cites watching The L Word as evidence to the contrary.
• The fourth season Gilmore Girls episode "Scene in a Mall" features a scene where a germophobic Paris Geller is trying to keep her shared dorm room with an ill Rory Gilmore clean (including spraying Lysol on the doorknob), and mentions she'll be sleeping with the other girls in the dorm in their room that night, causing Rory to joke "How very The L Word" at the sleeping arrangement.
• On G4's Attack of the Show, the skit "Lesbionic Women" has the protagonist mentioning watching The L Word.
• Creator of the show Supernatural, Eric Kripke, commented on watching "The L Word" during the commentary for the Pilot episode of Supernatural, an episode which features Sarah Shahi.
• The Big Gay Sketch Show (Logo Network) references The L Word on several occasions. In a sketch from Season Two: Episode Six, in which two women plan a birthday party, one explains to the other that several guests will not be able to attend the party because they will be busy planning their "pre-L Word recap meeting" on Saturday nights. In an episode from Season One: Episode Three, a woman calls a lesbian erotic hotline and proclaims to the operator that what she "really wants" is for "The L Word to be written better." The series also created a parody advertisement to coincide with The L Word's syndication on Logo. It was not part of any specific episode but is available on The Big Gay Sketch Show's website and the DVD bonus features.
• In the movie Puccini for Beginners a character asks if the girl that is about to enter the room was "a glamour dyke like those in The L Word".
• In an episode of The Simpsons entitled You Kent Always Say What You Want, Ned Flanders makes a list of shows that he considers unruly, one of which is The L Word (For using "The L Word").
• Comedian and former writer for The Big Gay Sketch Show Rebecca Drysdale created a rap and music video called L Word Serenade.
• In the movie, I Can't Think Straight, Yasmin, Leyla's sister, refers to the L Word when trying to tell Leyla's ex, Ali, that Leyla and Tala are in love with each other.
• In a Family guy episode, Brian Sings and Swings, Meg becomes a lesbian to make friends, just for be mocked by Peter saying that "the Bible and Showtime tell us that all lesbians are insanely hot and covered in oil".

External links

• Official L-Word Wiki for Showtime Showtime's Official L-Word Wiki
• AfterEllen's L Word section Comprehensive news, reviews, interviews, recaps, and polls related to the series.
• The L Word at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com