Gay TV comedy The New Normal took a surprising political turn on Tuesday with an episode touching on some hot button election issues - from all points of view.

The NBC show about the efforts of two gay men to have a baby through a surrogate, took on racism, health care, abortion, religion, same sex marriage and the Republican and Democratic contenders for the White House in the episode called "Obama Mama."

Creator Ryan Murphy, one of Hollywood's prominent supporters of President Barack Obama, said he wanted to give as many points of view as possible through the show's different characters.

"I thought it would be interesting to do an episode that is not what you would expect us to do," Murphy told reporters in a conference call on Tuesday.

"You have two clearly gay liberal guys at the heart of the show. But we all thought it would be great to do an episode where we presented Ellen Barkin's character's point of view, the conservative point of view, the Republican point of view, in a way that hopefully was as eloquent," Murphy added.

The New Normal is based on Murphy's own life as a gay TV producer and writer who is exploring surrogacy with his partner.

NBC's Salt Lake City affiliate, owned by a subsidiary of the Mormon Church, in August said it would not broadcast the show as it felt "inappropriate on several dimensions, especially during family viewing time."

Murphy said he was "very proud of the episode," adding that he was inspired by 1970s TV comedy All in the Family and the heated debates between its characters on social and political issues.

NBC, Murphy said, gave the episode the network's full support.

The New Normal is getting an average audience of 6.4 million viewers, and is particularly popular with 25-54 year-old women, NBC said.

NBC is majority owned by Comcast.

Reuters