advisories before even when dealing with themes such as drug use, gambling addictions, theft, crime, and violence. A warning similar to the one displayed at the beginning of this episode was used in front of the gay-themed "The Puppy Episode" of the Ellen series. The buzz "There's Something About Marrying" had received attracted a lot of viewers to its broadcast, and therefore the Fox network chose to air it during the ratings sweeps. The episode was watched by 10.5 million people in the United States, making it the highest-rated episode of the sixteenth season of The Simpsons. It was up by two million from the season's average rating. Reception "There's Something About Marrying" featured the first appearance of an animated same-sex marriage on network television. Television columnist Ray Richmond wrote that the episode was a cultural milestone for The Simpsons and that the "issue [of gay marriage] was mainstream to some degree, but now that [the staff has] deigned it worthy of the show it is interwoven into the popular culture. The Simpsons bestowed upon something a pop culture status it never had before, simply by being ripe for a joke." John Kenneth White, author of the book Barack Obama's America, similarly called "There's Something About Marrying" a cultural barrier breaker. The episode, dealing with "one of the most divisive issues in American society" according to The New York Times, became a subject of controversy after its broadcast. The authors of The Marriage and Family Experience called it "one of the more controversial episodes of a frequently controversial cartoon." Several conservative groups and American Christian conservatives thought it was promoting same-sex marriage. Parents Television Council president L. Brent Bozell III criticized "There's Something About Marrying" for bringing up the issue. Even though he had not seen the episode himself, he commented that "at a time when the public mood is overwhelmingly against gay marriage, any show that promotes gay marriage is deliberately bucking the public mood." A researcher for the American Family Association, named Ed Vitagliano, claimed the presentation of same-sex marriage in the episode was "very one-sided". He said that this episode proved "Hollywood's blatant pro-homosexual bias" because despite The Simpsons being "generally kind of a wacky animated program" it was not neutral on the issue. Bozell also worried about the influence the episode would have on children, despite the parental discretion advisory at the beginning, commenting: "You've got