Before TV was willing to portray ongoing believable LGBTQ characters, it was willing to use queerness as a cheap joke. In the late 1970s, there was a hit sitcom about a straight guy who had to pretend to be gay so his conservative landlord would let him share an apartment with two women friends.

In the THREE'S COMPANY episode that aired on today's date in 1978: After a drunken party, the tenant and landlord wake up in the same bed, and the landlord worries what they might have done while drunk. Wackiness ensues.

THREE'S COMPANY was based on the classic UK series MAN ABOUT THE HOUSE, which softpedaled the pretendingtobegay angle after a while.