Author Rodger Streitmatter described Ellen DeGeneres's coming out in the media as well as an episode of "Ellen", "The Puppy Episode", as "rank, hands down, as the single most public exit in gay history", changing media portrayals of lesbians in Western culture. In 1999, Russell T Davies's "Queer as Folk", a popular TV series shown on the UK's Channel 4 debuted and focused primarily on the lives of young gay men; in particular on a 15-year-old going through the processes of revealing his sexuality to those around him. This storyline was also featured prominently in the US version of "Queer as Folk", which debuted in 2000.