The Golden Girls is an American sitcom created by Susan Harris, which originally aired on NBC from September 14, 1985, to May 9, 1992.

Any television show that features plot lines about topics like gay marriage, AIDS, women's sexuality, death, and immigration could be considered controversial. But a television show that debuted in 1985 -- in the middle of Ronald Reagan's presidency -- tackling those topics? That's downright radical.

"Cousin Liz" is an episode of the American television situation comedy All in the Family. The story concerns lead character Edith Bunker's inheritance of a valuable tea service from her deceased cousin Liz and her decision, upon learning that Liz's "roommate" Veronica is really Liz's surviving longtime companion, to give Veronica the service. The second episode of season 8, "Cousin Liz" originally aired on October 9, 1977.

"Cousin Liz" was critically acclaimed, winning an Emmy Award for its script. The episode aired at a time when gay rights protections were being challenged through ballot initiatives and one of the writers believed that "Cousin Liz" was associated with the defeat of one such initiative.

Bob Schiller, Bob Weiskopf, Harve Brosten and Barry Harman received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for writing "Cousin Liz". The episode was cited by The Christian Science Monitor 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 coalition were sponsoring a series of ballot initiatives to repeal gay anti-discrimination ordinances across the country. Notably in California, state senator John Briggs was sponsoring the Briggs Initiative, 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 the night before voters decided on the Briggs Initiative and associated the defeat of that initiative with the message of the episode.