TODAY IN QUEER TV HISTORY ALL IN THE FAMILY: "Archie the Hero" - 9/29/1975, CBS Drag performer Beverly LaSalle (a recurring role played by San Francisco drag comedian Lori Shannon) made the first of three appearances in this episode. Bigoted cab driver Archie Bunker (Carroll O'Connor) boasts that he has saved the life of a passenger, a tall "classy dame" who turns out to be a professional "female impersonator." It's hard to emphasize what a strong impression this beloved character made on mid-1970s TV audiences. I suppose viewers assumed that any character that was a friend of kind-hearted Edith Bunker (Jean Stapleton) had to be all right. In the 1990s when I told people I was writing a book about queer characters on television, people constantly asked if I would be including Beverly. Though Beverly is clearly identified as a cis man in this episode, I recall many trans people telling me that in an era without trans recurring roles on TV, they felt for this gender-nonconforming character who looked so much less confident in men's clothes than in women's. Beverly would be killed in a third and final appearance, in a two-part Christmas 1977 episode that was one of TV's first serious treatments of anti-queer violence (though there were a few earlier examples on less popular series).