Ellen, on ABC
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This was called "These Friends of Mine" for the first season. I think I might've seen a little bit of that, but I probably saw more of the show later, after it was retitled "Ellen." Still, I'm not sure how much I saw of that, either. I'm afraid I don't remember the series as well as I'd like to, and I was never big into it, but I found it reasonably amusing, whenever I did watch. It starred Ellen DeGeneres as Ellen Morgan, who worked in a bookstore called "Buy the Book." Her friends included Paige, Adam, Audrey, and Spence; though not all of them were in every season. There was a guy named Joe (in all five seasons) who worked at the coffee shop in the bookstore. I remember thinking he was funny. (He was played by David Anthony Higgins, whose work I later enjoyed in Malcolm in the Middle.) I can't tell you anything specific about the show or any of the characters, but I always kind of felt like it was a show about nothing (much like Seinfeld, or any number of other 90s sitcoms). Still, it gained significant cultural relevance when Ellen revealed she was gay in a season four episode. (It was about that time that DeGeneres herself came out in real life.) This provided a surge in popularity for the show, but also backlash from conservative groups, and eventually lead to cancellation. Personally I don't remember it being a big deal, plotwise, after the episode in question. But maybe that's just because my memory sucks. *shrug*