WATCH: Goes Gay

TV Land, the network that brought us the subtextually lesbian comedy Hot in Cleveland, just got a bit gayer. On the most recent episode of The Exes, Phil has a toothache that somehow led to sex with Stuart's long-time dental assistant. To let her down easy and to make sure it doesn't happen again, Phil comes out as gay to the woman, who too readily accepts the premise that Phil and the recently divorced Stuart are both gay men in a serious, committed relationship.

While the gay fake out is a plot device on nearly every TV comedy at some point -- sitcoms like Caroline in the City and Spin City employed the trope for cheap laughs -- The Exes didn't take the easy way out with Stuart getting uncomfortably homophobic and blurting out how un-gay he really is at the end of the show. In fact, as the epsidode concludes, Stuart's assistant still thinks he's gay and in a serious relationship with Phil, a premise that promises to continue in the upcoming episodes.

What TV Land and The Exes producers should remember now is that in a world where three men share an apartment -- in this case it's Stuart (David Alan Basche), Haskell (Wayne Knight), and Phil (Donald Faison, who played homosocial in Scrubs) -- that's owned by Holly (a tall butchy divorce lawyer, played by Third Rock from the Sun's towering hottie Kristen Johnston), at least one of those folks would surely be gay. Maybe Stuart just doesn't know it yet.

The Exes airs on Wednesdays on TV Land.