Lady Godiva was a freedom rider
She didn't care if the whole world looked
Joan of Arc, with the lord to guide her
She was a sister who really cooked....

We have topic threads for Good Times and the Jeffersons, but no Maudie? For shame! Welcome to scenic Tuckahoe, New York and meet the Findlay family: Bea Arthur (in full majesterial bellow) as Maude, Bill Macy as husband Walter, and Adrienne Barbeau and her Amazing Dancing Cleavage as daughter Carol.

Bea Arthur was a perfect Norman Lear sitcom lead: phenomenal comic timing, unafraid to sound harsh or even unsympathetic on occasion, and a personality like a hurricane.

"God will get you for that, Walter!"

(SBG steps out of Good Times thread for a minute, plays organ music for Maude, dashes out)

Was I the only one a little disturbed by that line in the theme song?

The first episode I saw was the infamous two parter where Maude gets an abortion. Very gutsy at the time, and I'm glad they just went ahead and did it.

I love the one where some old friend of one of the characters dies, and it turns out she stole a broach of the character's and is going to be buried with it. The funeral director is a great deadpan presence: "When you see grief like that, it makes the whole job worthwhile."

I watched the two-parter where Maude gets a face-lift. Wow, this show was bad. But just bad in the way most '70's sitcoms are: no flow to the plot, just one long boring scene.

Anyway, it's somewhat funny, but mostly it's just bad.

Is it just me or did Maude look exactly the same after her "face-lift?"

And also, 47?!!!!!! Jesus Christ! She looked well into her 60's!

I loved this show. Wish Nick @ Nite or TV Land would re-air it.

That's what 47 used to look like. Are there even any women of that age on TV now? I can't think of any.

I haven't seen an episode of Maude in a long time, but as a TV character, she was great.

How many episodes did she spend on that damn psychiatrist's couch? I swear, it felt like all of 1975.

I used to really enjoy this show. Bea Arthur's comic timing was so sharp you could shave with it. My mom, who doesn't like sitcoms, caught one episode with me that struck her as so funny that she would start laughing hysterically, days later, telling people about it. It was the one where Walter's depressed about some milestone birthday that's coming up. Maude secretly flies in his best childhood chum to surprise him on the day; the best buddy arrives and Walter is thrilled, they do some crazy friendship dance they used to do and the buddy says, "Walter, I'm so happy I could just die!" - and does! The next scene shows Maude on the phone with the airline... they lost the friend's body, but his luggage arrived safely. Walter is now more depressed than ever... there's a rhyme he makes up for Maude's grandson Philip on the subject of ettiquette when using the bathroom facilities: "When water falls on water, it makes a sound for all the world to hear, but when water falls on porcelain, it makes no sound, that's crystal clear."

I think I'll call my mom and make her laugh....

[back]

We lived on a railroad line that passed through Tuckahoe and for awhile whenever we were taking the train into the city, as we passed through we'd announce that it was the home of "The Terror of Tuckahoe - Maude Findlay!"

I loved the one where Maude tries to get arrested for pot possession, but her source falls through, so she (and a whole group of other women) go down to the police station with baggies of oregano.

It doesn't sound funny now, but if you see it . . . .

No, no you weren't the only one.

Here's what I remember about Maude:

Maude was loud - she'd actually scream. Adults I knew didn't do that!

Maude's daughter was attractive, and seemed young to have that son. I guess she was meant to be divorced, which was pretty radical at the time. (I was a kid when this was on; my own son just turned 21, and I'm not yet 42, so now I don't think she was so young to have that son.)

Maude was kind of mean to her husband. Maybe if I saw this show now, it would seem different, but that's how I saw it then!

I think on the show, Carol was actually supposed to be something like 27 when it started, which would make sense (Adrienne Barbeau was also 27 when Maude premiered).

Adrienne Barbeau? Wasn't she famous for something else?

I loved Maude. I mean loved it. IIRC it used to come on Nick @ Nite in like 89, 90. I just though Maude was the shit. She cracked me up.

I remember the abortion episode. I remember the episode where Carol is going to get married. I remember an episode that starred Betty White and Rue McClanahan and it involved alcoholism or something serious.

This is a show I would get on DVD. I need to start a DVD savings acct so that I can purchase all the necessary DVDs of TV shows that I must have.

Was married to horror director John Carpenter...

Gave birth to twins in her early 50's...

Was featured in HBO's Carnivale...

Did a bunch of wonderful and/or awful B sci fi/horror flicks including The Fog, Escape From New York, Swamp Thing, Creepshow, and Cannibal Women In The Avocado Jungle Of Death...

Was nominated for a Tony for playing Rizzo in Grease on Broadway...

Was one of the first TV actresses known for having her breasts enter a scene well before the rest of her...

I adore her!

I've been watching Maude on Comcast INDemand and love it! I didn't think I would at first because everyone was yelling all the time and then I got into it and crave the fighting scenes.
I haven't gotten to the part where Maude is on the shrink's couch - that sounds annoying.

I love her and Walter to pieces. And Florida, Vivian, Arthur, Carol and even little kid Philip, mostly for the way he relates to Walter.

Two eps I love: Maude getting Arthur to comfort Vivian because she's striking out and they end up together. At first I was PO'd beyond belief, the way Walter thinks it's "funny" the way Arthur mauls Vivian. Just like when Walter actually hits Maude (terrible moment) - the stupid audience is cracking up. Like they don't understand this is serious. Domestic abuse and attempted rape are not funny dummies. The actors must have been disoriented doing these scenes and having the audience laugh. But Maude's reaction to Arthur is perfect. Mama Bear is maaaad!

The other is the charity show. Bea Arthur can SING! I love her songs - esp Hard Hearted Hannah. She did it a little on GG, but she performed the whole song on Maude and I wish I could tape it. It was so damn good.

Adrienne Barbeau was definitely stacked and not afraid to flaunt what she got - but she really let loose in that episode. I actually kind of like the way she dances - she's all over the place and bouncing like she's on a trampoline, but she's got some rhythm.

Has it ever aired there? I'm surprised it hasn't.

Me and the parents used to love this show. But honestly, I can't really remember any of the episodes(I do remember that famous abortion one) but I'm sure my memory would jar if I saw them again. One thing I'll aways remember were those long sweater things Bea Arthur wore a lot.

I always connect her with The Cannonball Run. I seem to remember her boobs played a significant part in that movie too.

Thanks for mentioning this. I had no idea they were carrying the show -- I watched two eps last night, after not having seen it in maybe 15 or 20 years. I expected that it would be mildly funny, but I found myself laughing out loud several times.

And my biggest memories of Barbeau were here frequent appearances on Fantasy Island and The Love Boat.

TV Land aired it for about three years, from about 1999 to 2002. At first they'd air it all the time and then it started getting an afternoon slot, then when they finally cut it off, it was airing at 7AM or something.

I think that is it.



I have Comcast ONDemand so I have to check it out.



I think they aired it like in late 80s b/c I remember watching at our new house in NJ, which we moved into in 88.

ETA:

I came home and found Maude on ONDemand.

1) AB's clevage is not that big. I didn't remember from when I used to watch so I was expecting to be like, "DAMN!" Didn't happen.
2) Bea wears those long things to cover her butt and her paunch in her stomach. I could totally tell she had one in the episode where Arthur "mauls" Vivian. Speaking of Viv, why was she wearing those shoes with that dress?
3) Speaking of butts, Carol looks like she had some junk in her trunk in the episode where they put on a show for charity. She cracked me up with her dancing.
4) Maude is kinda mean and pushy. I still love her. She totally reminds me of myself when I stuff to Mr. Nice.
5) Florida's afro is jacked up. It needs to be smoother.
6) Does Maude have a job?
7) I don't think Maud looks bad for 47.

Okay, Comcast got me hooked, and then they cut off the supply. There's less than a single season up, and I've already been through them. I want more!

I had completely forgotten that Maude's Republican neighbor was played by Mr. Drummond. Even more surprising was seeing that he actually had some talent. He's such an odd character, and I love the fact that despite the fact that he and Maude are enemies, he calls her "Maudie" and she lets him get away with it.

Of the episodes I just watched, I'd have to say that "The Commuter Station" (with the main cast stuck at a small train station in a snowstorm on the way back from Arthur and Vivian's aborted wedding in Vermont) is the one that made me laugh the most. Seeing Higgins (of Magnum, P.I.) as the anonymous drunk was funny enough, but then to realize that the entire purpose of his character was to set up a single perfect joke -- it's such a great episode. "My God, you really are a Yale man."

LTG - never fear. Comcast is rotating old shows out and new shows in on (usually) a weekly basis. Check in every Monday morning. They go frustratingly slowly - one new ep a week, sometimes if we're lucky two (and SOMETIMES they don't add a new one and you have to wait a week. grrr).

They started with the pilot a while back, so I hope they're going to just keep going. Hmm...that reminds me, I'm going to see what new eps they have for Maude and Barney Miller!

I was talking about TV Land, which came on the air in 1996. I don't know if Nick at Nite aired those episodes in 1988. I was two or three then. ;) I'll take your word for it.

Really? All's I've seen is the episode about the facelift on ON DEMAND and I must say, she looked WELL into her 60's to me.

That's one of the things I love about those Norman Lear shows -- the people look like people. I think the thing that tends to make Maude look older to us is her hair -- it's full of gray, and the big pouffant looks "old."

I was getting TV Land and Nick @ Nite mixed up. :-)

MooshyMooshy, thanks for the tip. I only got to see 4 episodes on Friday. I plan to watch the rest sometime this week. I'm going to have my own personal marathon.

Bringing this thread back from the dead for some good Maude news.

They'll be releasing the first season of Maude on DVD on March 20. 22 episodes for 29.95. Pretty good deal.

It strikes me as interesting that someone pointed out upthread that the abortion episode was controversial for its time. It seems to me that it would be just as controversial now - there seems to be an unwritten agreement that series characters will not have abortions, no matter what the circumstances of their pregnancies [one recent and startling exception was Addison on "Grey's Anatomy" admitting that she had aborted Mark's baby - offscreen and in the past]. A character considering abortion either changes her mind when the baby kicks or moves, or the father shows up and proclaims his love, or the decision is rendered moot when the character has a miscarriage. And it's not that there haven't been recent tv characters who one could imagine having an abortion - the terms of the debate have been reframed in such a way that it's hard to see a major character on any current tv series having an abortion, even if it's someone who in real life might do so.

"Maude's Abortion" was truly different for its time, and perhaps for all time. She discovered she was pregnant, examined her life, decided that having a baby at this time was not right, and had the abortion. It was not a decision she made easily, or without some regrets, but she made it, stuck by it, and lived with it.

I agree wth just about everything you said.

TV has really gone backwards on this issue--rather than groundbreaking stories like this one, or AMC's Erica Kane's having TV's first legal abortion (after the Roe vs. Wade decision), we're at the point where the word isn't even spoken--in what was undoubtedly the worst soap storyline of last year, Erica's abortion was UNDONE when the child in question showed up in Pine Valley.

THe most any character dealing with an unplanned and/or unwanted pregnancy will say is, "I haven't decided what I'm going to do.", allowing abortion to be alluded to, but never spoken outright.

But GH did an excellent storyline last year when the teenage Lulu, after much consideration, opted to abort her unplanned pregnancy.

I for one am wholeheartedly looking forward to the dvd release of this show, March can't get here soon enough for me. At least I can finish my Bea Arthur love w/the last release of the Golden Girls next week.

In regards to the abortion storyline, I thought that Scrubs did a great storyline early on in their latest season when the Jordan character admits she had an abortion, and how upset it makes her looking back on it. I believe her 3 or 4 year old son even says out loud "Mommy had an abortion." She has this look and very sadfully says "Yes she sure did." I think the subject is still way to touchy today, but some shows, all the ones we have mentioned pulled it off very well.

Um what? Are you serious??

I find that a lot of shows in the 70s, particularly Norman Lear shows, are a lot more daring and courageous than the crap we have on now. No way George Jefferson would get away with calling Willis a "Honky" today. We're way too overly PC.

Maude was an amazing show, 70s taint and all. I didn't actually see the show until after I became a Golden Girls fan and found out Bea had another show. I was pleasantly surprised and impressed when I finally saw it. Yay for DVD's.

Aw, now I'm nostalgic for the 70s and 80s sitcoms that aren't currently being rotated to death on air.

Yes, the storyline's premise, was that the doctor who had performed Erica's abortion had instead harvested the fetus and implanted in the uterus of his wife, who eventually gave birth.

The technology to do that doesn't even exist TODAY, there's no fucking way it was around 30-something years ago.

And again, I agree about the bravery of the 70's shows.

The closest we've gotten to an abortion discussion in recent years was Friends' Rachel (uncertain relationship with baby's father), stating, "I'm going to have the baby"--abortion was never spoken of or alluded to, but for her to make a statement like that, she must have considered it, albeit briefly. And there was ER's Abby, who had an abortion offscreen, years before becomng a character (fearful of passing on her mother's mental illness), and Elizabeth, when asked if she would continue with her pregnancy if her fiance's cancer proved inoperable, stated, "yes".

Don't forget Miranda on "Sex and the City." When she found out that she was pregnant, she decided to get an abortion, and she made an appointment for one and showed up for it. (And she used the word "abortion.") However, later on, instead of telling her friends that she had it done (they all knew ahead of time that she had made the preparations for it), she told them that she had changed her mind and walked out of the waiting room.

Speaking of "Sex and the City" didn't Carrie have an abortion? I'm pretty sure that happened in the past, prior to the start of the show, but it was referenced a few times. Or am I remembering wrong?

You're right, Mennyn. Carrie mentioned having gotten an abortion after a one night stand with a waiter who worked at The Salon or The Saloon or something similar. She then went back to the restaurant and found him still working there, and he didn't remember her at all. IIRC Samantha mentioned having gotten one or two abortions.

To get back to "Maude," Florida's husband's name was Henry. I remember an episode in which he came over and went on and on about something, and Florida kept saying, "Oh, Henry," but he wouldn't let her get a word in. When he ran out of breath, she said to Maude and Walter, "Have you met my husband - Oh Henry?" But in "Good Times," his name was James. Maybe because TPTB thought that "J.J." was a better name for the son than "H.J."

I always had fond memories of this show, then TV Land or Nick started showing it. Wow. Sometimes memories should just remain memories.

Not that it was bad, mind you, but it was so LOUD and STRIDENT sometimes. Especially with all the yelling between characters, which seemed to happen on every single episode. Someone yelling at someone else. It got tiresome.

And really, AB's breasts should have had been listed as a character.

What I always remember is the ep where her friend Grace calls, and apparently she just wants to talk and you can't get her off the phone, so all you have to do is say "I know, Grace" every so often. Maude actually puts the phone down and goes on with whatever she was doing, then comes back in a few minutes and says "I know, Grace" into the phone and puts it down again. At one point another character does the same. To this day I'll still say "I know, Grace" when someone's gone on too long.

Oh, I remember that! Bea Arthur's timing was just wonderful...

I also remember an episode where Louis Jourdan guest starred as an old beau of Maude's who starts dating Carol, to Maude's consternation. When Carol breaks up with him, Maude can't wait to find out why. Turns out he called Carol "Maude" at a key, unforgiveable moment. Maude assumes they were making love and that her ex has never found anyone as good as she was... turns out she's got the context wrong...

That was typical of all Norman Lear's sitcoms and their spin-offs.

Well, don't leave us hangin'!




I think, previous to Lear's influence, most of sitcomland was about characters being nice to each othere (the ever-present threat of physical violence looming over Lucy from Ricky notwithstanding). Lear brought conflict to comedy on tv.

If you think about it, most sitcoms today revolve around people insulting their best friends and family.

It turned out that he'd called Carol 'Maude' while they were fighting....

On thirtysomething, Susannah considered an abortion (and said the word) when she discovered she was pregnant with Gary's baby. But you're right, most shows today avoid the "A" word and just hint at the procedure.

On both Maude and Good Times it seemed like the actors shouted their lines most of the time, even whe the situation didn't call for that level of emotion. Maybe boom mikes weren't as sensitive back then?

My sister will be very happy to learn that Maude is finally coming out on DVD. No longer will she have to roll her eyes after I've said, for the 100th time, "they've put [insert name of crap TV show] on DVD, but not Maude."

The Norman Lear sitcoms were recorded live on tape before a studio audience (I'm sure there's an exception to this rule, but I can't think of it), and many of the actors had theater backgrounds. The MTM shows were quieter, even though they were made at the same time. I don't remember if the MTM shows were done live before a studio audience, but I doubt that they were.

They all were; that fact was just never announced as a voice-over, but rather as a blink-and-you-miss-it written statement at the end of the closing credits.

More on topic, I do remember that Bea and Bill Macy (not to be confused with William H. Macy) did have a habit of overemoting their lines, Bill especially. I also remember reading that the cast (again, particularly Bill) drove Norman Lear crazy with some of the junior-high level pranks they regularly pulled, and he once ripped them all new ones for it. One incident in particular was described by TVGuide as Bill performing a "lewd act" with a microphone cord--and you know, 30-plus years later, I still can't imagine what that act could have been that it would have mortally offended Norman Lear, who made a point of deliberately pushing the envelope on all of his shows.

I just heard that Bea Arthur and Adrienne Bar-boobs are supposed to be on The View in the morning, plugging the first season release of Maude on DVD. Should be fun.

I think the last show I really remember dealing with the abortion issue seriously was Third Watch. Very early in the second season, Faith had an abortion because she didn't want another child. They showed her on the table an everything. Very powerful stuff.

I used to love watching reruns of AITF just because so many different actors who would later break out on their own series showed up on it. Bea Arthur and Rue McClennahan (sp) both had roles, and of course both went over to Maude. I haven't seen it in so long. I'll seriously have to check out the DVD.

"Entertainment Weekly" gave the "Maude" DVD release an enthusiastic review and said it held up very well.

Hrrrmm, I find that hard to believe...