WATCH: Ellen DeGeneres Gets Emotional On 20th Anniversary Of Her ‘Coming Out’ Episode

Twenty years ago, Ellen DeGeneres made history with an iconic “coming out” episode on her eponymous ABC sitcom "Ellen." The controversial move marked the first time that a lead character came out on national television. In the weeks before the episode, DeGeneres made her personal pronouncement that she was gay, paving the way for future LGBTQ representation in pop culture. DeGeneres celebrated the episode’s 20-year anniversary on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” Friday.

The “coming out” episode aired on April 30, 1997. Just a couple weeks before on April 14, 1997, DeGeneres appeared on the cover of Time magazine with the caption reading, “Yep, I’m gay.”

As Ellen revealed Friday, the episode was alternatively named the “Puppy Episode.” The title was given when writers of the show told executives that DeGeneres’s character, Ellen Morgan, needed to come out because the character needed to be in a relationship after four years. As DeGeneres tells it, the studio allegedly said, “Get her a puppy; she’s not coming out.”

DeGeneres was later joined by Oprah and Laura Dern, both of whom had important roles in Ellen Morgan’s coming out in the episode. Dern and Oprah faced their own share of backlash for participating in the episode, with Dern reportedly struggling to find work for nearly a year after the episode aired.

A reel celebrating the incredible moment in television history and its subsequent polarizing media coverage was highlighted in a reel that celebrated DeGeneres’ decades-long fight for LGBTQ rights and visibility. The reel also included footage of former President Barack Obama awarding DeGeneres the Presidential Medal of Freedom in November of 2016.

Read: Ellen DeGeneres breaks down while receiving Medal of Honor from President Barack Obama

“Again and again, Ellen DeGeneres has shown us that a single individual can make the world a more fun, more open, more loving place — so long as we just keep swimming,” President Obama said during the ceremony.

DeGeneres was visibly emotional as her Friday audience gave her a standing ovation for her lifelong work as a persistent activist and comedian. “It was the hardest thing that I ever had to do in my life,” she told her audience, “and I would not change one moment of it because it led me to be exactly where I am today: standing in front of all of you, which is a joy.”