Original Airdate: February 9, 1971
Michael and Gloria's friend Roger comes over to the house, which bothers Archie as he's positive that Roger is homosexual (only using such colorful language as "fag" and "fairy"). Disgusted with Roger and his flamboyance, he leaves and hangs out with a bunch of friends at a bar, including a former football player Steve, who he admires for his physique.
Michael discovers that Steve's gay, unbeknownst to Archie. Archie grates on Michael, though, and keeps making snide remarks about Roger, and Michael tells him. At first, Archie doesn't believe him, and meets up with Steve later to confirm that he's straight. With a wide smile, Steve let's Archie know that he is indeed gay, to Archie's shock.
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| Michael and Gloria welcoming Roger (center) |
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| Archie speaking to Steve |
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| Steve informs Archie that he is indeed gay |
This was a rather decent episode. There was a bit thrown in that wasn't as interesting, about the ability of different sexes to pick up a chair whilst their head's on a wall (and leads to an amusing ending where Archie meets a woman who he believes to be a man), but the focus of the episode was pretty solid, in which Archie's convinced that Roger's gay, but it's actually a friend of his, a straight-laced, "manly man," who turns out to be gay.
Archie's intolerance, and language, is rather jarring. Just days after a horrific night club shooting in Orlando, which shocked the LGBT community and allies alike, going back and watching an intolerant individual like Archie refer to gay people as "fag," "fairies," and other derogatory language really shows you how far we've come as a society, but more importantly, as there are still plenty of anti-gay individuals out there, how far we still need to go.
I don't know if Steve or Roger will appear again, or Jerri (the individual at the end who Archie at first thought was a man), but all three were pretty good characters. Steve in particular was a fantastic character, and a good way to juxtapose the stereotypes of gay individuals with actual gay individuals. Philip Carey, the actor playing Steve, was great in this episode, and overall, this is certainly a fine piece of television.
Quote of the episode:
Michael: "You know something, Archie? Just because a guy is sensitive, and he's an intellectual, and he wears glasses, you make him out a queer."
Archie: "I never said a guy who wears glasses is a queer. A guy who wears glasses is a four-eyes, a guy who's a fag is a queer."
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