Maude

Related Topics:
Maude :: Maude,_Francis

Maude is a half-hour American television sitcom that was originally broadcast on the CBS network from September 12, 1972 until April 29, 1978.

The program was a spin-off of All in the Family and, like that show, it was a sitcom with topical story lines that was created by producer Norman Lear.

Maude starred Beatrice Arthur as Maude Findlay, a middle-aged, politically liberal married woman living in Tuckahoe, Westchester County, New York, who embraced the tenets of women's liberation, always voted for Democratic Party candidates, strongly supported legal abortion, and advocated, albeit sometimes clumsily, for civil rights and racial and gender equality.

Biography of core characters

Maude had been married three times before; two of her husbands had died and she had divorced the other. Her current husband, Walter (played by Bill Macy), ran an appliance store called Findlay's Friendly Appliances. Maude and Walter met during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Maude usually got in the last word during their many arguments, in the form of her trademark catchphrase, "God will get you for that, Walter."

Maude's divorced daughter, Carol Traynor (from her first marriage; played by Adrienne Barbeau), and Carol's son, Phillip (played by Brian Morrison and later by Kraig Metzinger), also lived with the Findlays. Though single, Carol maintained an active sex life, as evidenced by her weekend "business trips" with various boyfriends. She dated various men throughout early seasons, eventually forming a serious relationship with a man named Chris (played by Fred Grandy) in the later seasons. Like her mother, Carol was an outspoken feminist who was not afraid to speak her mind.

The Findlays' next-door neighbors were Dr. Arthur Harmon (a stuffy, sardonic conservative who clashed with Maude's political views; played by Conrad Bain) and his sweet but scatterbrained wife Vivian (played by Rue McClanahan, who in the 1980s would star again with Beatrice Arthur in The Golden Girls). Arthur had been Walter's best friend since the two men served together in World War II; he "affectionately" called Maude "Maudie." Vivian had been Maude's best friend since they both attended college together. When the series began, Arthur was a widower and Vivian was a recent divorcée (her previous last name was Cavender); they began dating at the beginning of the show's run and were married during the middle of the second season.

The housekeeper

For the entire run of the show, Maude also had a housekeeper, a fact which sometimes contradicted her earnest, liberal intentions.

When the series began, the Findleys' maid was Florida Evans, a no-nonsense African American woman who often had the last laugh at Maude's expense. Maude would often make a point of conspicuously and awkwardly demonstrating how open-minded and liberal she was. Despite her status as Maude's maid, she emphasized to Florida she felt that they were "equals", and insisted she enter and exit the Findlay house via the front door (even though the back door was more convenient).

As portrayed by Esther Rolle, the character of Florida proved so popular that, in 1974, she became the star of a new series - the Maude spin-off (and grandchild spin-off of All in the Family) Good Times.

After Florida's depature in 1974, Mrs. Nell Naugatuck (played by Hermione Baddeley), an elderly British woman who drank excessively (both while on duty and off), took over. Unlike Florida, who commuted, Mrs. Naugatuck was a live-in maid. She married elderly Bert Beasley (played by J. Pat O'Malley) in 1977 and they moved to Ireland to care for Bert's mother.

Maude then hired Victoria Butterfield (played by Marlene Warfield), a native of island St. Norman in the West Indies, whom Maude initially accused of stealing her wallet. Victoria remained until the end of the series in 1978.

Series history and topicality

Maude spun off from All in the Family after the character of Maude Findlay appeared on two episodes of the first program, the first of which aired in December 1971. Maude was Edith Bunker's cousin, and she represented everything Archie Bunker did not: she was a liberal, a feminist, and upper-middle class whereas Archie was none of those things. Although Maude's political beliefs certainly mirrored those of the series creators more than did those of Archie Bunker (the character of Maude was in fact said to be loosely based on creator Norman Lear's then-wife Frances), episodes of Maude often lampooned Maude as a naive "limousine liberal" and did not show her beliefs and attitudes in an entirely complimentary light. Just before the show's premiere in September 1972, TV Guide described the character of Maude as "a caricature of the knee-jerk liberal." ^*

While the show was written as very funny in nature, scripts also incorporated much darker humor and even drama, to the point where the show, in some episodes, could be seen as depressing rather than humorous.

Maude had an abortion in November 1972, months before the Roe vs Wade decision made abortion legal nationwide, and the episodes which dealt with the situation are probably the series' most famous and certainly its most controversial. Maude, at age 47, found herself pregnant, and she and Walter did not want to become parents again. Her daughter, Carol, brought to her attention that abortion was now legal in New York state. After some soul-searching, Maude decided at the end of the two-parter that abortion was probably the best choice. Noticing the wide controversy around the episode, CBS decided to rerun the episodes in August 1973, and members of the country's clergy reacted strongly to the decision. At least 30 stations dropped the show.

The producers and the writers of the show tackled other controversies. In a story arc that opened the 1973-74 season, Walter came to grips with his alcoholism and subsequently had a nervous breakdown. The beginning of the story arc had Maude, Walter and Arthur enjoying a night of revelry. However, Maude panicked when she woke up the following morning to find Arthur in her bed. This scared her to the point that both of them swore off alcohol entirely. Walter could not do it ("Dean Martin gets a million dollars for his buzz"), and became so aggravated during his attempts to stop that he struck Maude. Afterward, he suffered a breakdown as a result of his alcoholism and the domestic violence incident. The arc, which played out in three parts, was also very controversial and was highly publicized in the press.

In the later seasons, Maude went through menopause, and many episodes showed Maude, sitting on a couch in a psychiatrist's office, talking through her insecurities about getting old as well as life in general. During the fifth season, Walter suffered another nervous breakdown when he saw his business go bankrupt.

The Nielsen Ratings for Maude were high, particularly during the first seasons of the program (during the heyday of topical sitcoms which its presence helped to create), when it was regularly one of the top ten highest-rated American television programs in any given week.

End of program

By 1978, when the series was in its sixth season, the ratings had started to sink and CBS decided to revamp the series. The final few episodes paved the way for Maude to get elected to Congress (she helped campaign for a congresswoman who unexpectedly died in her house), causing Maude and husband Walter to move to Washington, DC, with the rest of the cast being let go. In the story, the Harmons moved to Idaho where Arthur accepted a job offer, and Carol got married and she and Phillip moved to Denver.

Those plans changed after just four episodes in the new format, when Bea Arthur decided she no longer wanted to continue the role of Maude. The idea was revamped again and again and in 1979 led to a short-lived CBS sitcom, Hanging In, starring Bill Macy; the show bore almost no resemblance to the original idea (Macy even played a different character).

Trivia

The theme song for Maude was performed by celebrated R&B/soul singer Donny Hathaway.
A 1977 TV Guide article, perhaps meant somewhat tongue in cheek, stated that Kraig Metzinger had replaced Brian Morrison in the role of Phillip because 16-year-old Morrison had grown taller than everyone in the cast but Bea Arthur.

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