Cousin Liz
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"Cousin Liz" is an episode of the American television
sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ...
''
All in the Family ''All in the Family'' is an American television sitcom that aired on CBS for nine seasons, from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979. Afterwards, it was continued with the spin-off series ''Archie Bunker's Place'', which picked up where ''All in ...
''. The story concerns Edith Bunker's inheritance of a silver tea service from her deceased cousin Liz and her decision to let her lesbian lover keep the tea service to remember Liz by. The second episode of season 8, "Cousin Liz" originally aired on October 9, 1977 on
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
. "Cousin Liz" was critically acclaimed, winning an Emmy Award for its script. The episode aired at a time when protections for gay rights were being challenged through ballot initiatives, and one of the writers believed that "Cousin Liz" was associated with the defeat of one such initiative.


Plot

Archie Bunker Archie is a masculine given name, a diminutive of Archibald. It may refer to: People Given name or nickname * Archie Alexander (1888–1958), African-American mathematician, engineer and governor of the US Virgin Islands * Archie Blake (mathemati ...
(
Carroll O'Connor John Carroll O'Connor (August 2, 1924 – June 21, 2001) was an American actor, producer, and director whose television career spanned over four decades. He became a lifelong member of the Actors Studio in 1971. O'Connor found widespread fame a ...
) and his wife
Edith Edith is a feminine given name derived from the Old English words ēad, meaning 'riches or blessed', and is in common usage in this form in English, German, many Scandinavian languages and Dutch. Its French form is Édith. Contractions and var ...
(
Jean Stapleton Jean Stapleton (born Jeanne Murray; January 19, 1923 – May 31, 2013) was an American character actress of stage, television and film. Stapleton was best known for playing Edith Bunker, the perpetually optimistic and devoted wife of Arc ...
) travel out of town to attend the funeral of Edith's cousin Liz. Archie wonders how much Edith, as Liz's closest living relative, will inherit from Liz's estate. Edith says that she doesn't stand to inherit much because Liz worked as a teacher for 25 years, and since teaching didn't (and doesn't) pay much, she rented an apartment with her friend and colleague, Veronica Cartwright (
K Callan Katherine Elizabeth Callan (née Borman; January 9, 1936) is an American author and actress known for playing Clark Kent's mother Martha in the ABC television series '' Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman''. Early years Callan was born ...
), to save money. After the funeral, Archie and Edith attend the repast at Liz and Veronica's apartment, where Archie speculates about what items in the apartment Edith will inherit. She responds that the only thing she will inherit is a valuable silver tea and coffee service, an heirloom which has been in Edith's family for 100 years. Archie initially scoffs at the tea service until Edith tells him that it is worth at least $2,000. Overhearing their conversation, Veronica pulls Edith aside into the bedroom to speak with her privately. Veronica asks to keep the tea service, explaining that for 25 years she and Liz spent an hour together every afternoon over tea. It is then that Veronica reveals that she and Liz were more than just friends, colleagues, and roommates: they had been in a committed lesbian relationship for the past 25 years. After some initial confusion and shock, Edith immediately accepts Veronica and Liz's relationship and gives Veronica the tea service. As the Bunkers prepare to leave, Archie instructs Edith to collect the tea service. Edith informs Archie that she has given the service to Veronica and explains their relationship. Archie hits the roof and demands that Veronica to return the tea service, and when she refuses, he threatens to sue her, which would expose her relationship with Liz and possibly cause her to lose her job. Edith insists that Veronica keep the tea service, and Archie relents and then suggests that she find a man.


Critical response and cultural impact

Bob Schiller,
Bob Weiskopf Bob Weiskopf (March 13, 1914 – February 20, 2001) was an American screenwriter and producer for television. He has credits for '' I Love Lucy'' which he and his writing partner Bob Schiller joined in the fifth season. They also wrote for ''The ...
,
Harve Brosten Harve Brosten (born May 15, 1943, in Chicago, Illinois) is an American Emmy Award-winning screenwriter for television. Brosten is best known for working on ''All in the Family'', a sitcom from the mid-1970s. Credits *''All in the Family'' (TV ...
and
Barry Harman Barry Michael Harman (born March 14, 1952) is an American writer and producer for television and a book writer and lyricist for Broadway theater. He wrote and directed the Broadway musical ''Romance/Romance'', which starred actor Scott Bakula and ...
received the
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series The Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series is an annual award presented as part of the Primetime Emmy Awards. It recognizes writing excellence in regular comedic series, most of which can generally be described as situat ...
for writing "Cousin Liz".''All in the Family''
- Awards & Nominations at IMDb
The episode was cited by ''
The Christian Science Monitor ''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles in electronic format as well as a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 as a daily newspaper ...
'' as being "compassionate" and Veronica's coming out to Edith as "one of the most delicately handled sequences of the entire series". "Cousin Liz" aired at a time when Anita Bryant and her
Save Our Children Save Our Children, Inc. was an American political coalition formed in 1977 in Miami, Florida, to overturn a recently legislated county ordinance that banned discrimination in areas of housing, employment, and public accommodation based on sexua ...
coalition were sponsoring a series of ballot initiatives to repeal gay anti-discrimination ordinances across the country. Notably in
California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
, state senator John Briggs was sponsoring the
Briggs Initiative California Proposition 6, informally known as the Briggs Initiative, was a ballot initiative put to a referendum on the California state ballot in the November 7, 1978 election. It was sponsored by John Briggs, a conservative state legislator ...
, which would have barred gay and lesbian people from working in the state's public schools. Writer Barry Harman recalls that series creator Norman Lear (who has cited "Cousin Liz" as among his favorite episodes) wanted to do an episode that commented on the issue of gay teachers. Although Harman misremembered the year that "Cousin Liz" was first broadcast, he recalled that it was repeated soon before voters decided on the Briggs Initiative and associated the defeat of that initiative with the message of the episode.Neuwirth, p. 153


See also

*
List of 1970s American television episodes with LGBT themes Following the Stonewall riots and the birth of the modern gay rights movement in 1969, gay activists began challenging the way American television episodes with LGBT themes presented homosexuality. With the slowly increasing visibility of LGBT ch ...


Notes


References

* Neuwirth, Allan (2006). ''They'll Never Put That on the Air: An Oral History of Taboo-breaking TV Comedy''. Allworth Communications. .


External links

* {{EmmyAward ComedyWriting 1977 American television episodes All in the Family episodes American LGBT-related television episodes Emmy Award-winning episodes