"God'll get you for that, Walter": Watching 'Maude'

[ClassyCo]

MAUDE is often too liberal-leaning for my personal tastes, but I find Bea Arthur to be one of TV's finest comediennes. I don't like "message" episodes on sitcoms anyway, and MAUDE is far too left for me.

I do like, however, how the show uses the talents of Arthur. Several episodes use just Arthur and Bill Macy in two-hander teleplays, and there's one episode, "The Analyst", that uses Arthur in a solo outing as she pours her heart out to her therapist.

Bill Macy, Conrad Bain, and Rue McClanahan make for a strong supporting cast. For me, it was a little weird to see Arthur and McClanahan together outside of THE GOLDEN GIRLS -- which, as many already know, is one of my favorite sitcoms (yes, I know many here don't share the same sentiment for the show).

MAUDE was a mega-hit for many years, but they messed it up in the end when they tried to push Maude towards a political career. It didn't matter anyway. Bea Arthur was ready to hang-it-up after six seasons.

One of my absolute favorite episodes of MAUDE is "Vivian's First Funeral" from the fifth season. No political stuff, no heavy-handed humor. It's just a good, goofy episode and makes you see why Arthur called her and McClanahan "the Lucy and Ethel of the '70s."

 

[Mel O'Drama]

I don't like "message" episodes on sitcoms anyway, and MAUDE is far too left for me.

So far I feel these early episodes have mostly poked gentle fun at Maude's efforts to be liberal. I recently read that a TV Guide around the time the series began described Maude Findlay as "a caricature of the knee-jerk liberal", and that seems to fit. A lot of her own beliefs seem based on romantic inaccurate versions of repressed groups she feels it's her duty to "help" (whether they need it or not).

I share your feelings towards the whole "very special episode" sitcom thing Even as a child, I remember finding a bulimia storyline on Diff'rent Strokes cringey and borderline offensive for the way the problem was introduced, addressed and - naturally - resolved in the space of two episodes, never to be mentioned again. At the same time, I've begun Maude aware that the series is remembered for addressing some social issues which means it's not going to come out of left field for me. For this reason I'm interested to see how it's handled when the series tackles a heavier topic. I'm an episode away from finding out.

Several episodes use just Arthur and Bill Macy in two-hander teleplays, and there's one episode, "The Analyst", that uses Arthur in a solo outing as she pours her heart out to her therapist.

I've read about these and I can't wait to see them. I'm a big fan of the intimacy of one and two-handers and I'm sure with Bea Arthur at the centre I'm in for good things.

For me, it was a little weird to see Arthur and McClanahan together outside of THE GOLDEN GIRLS -- which, as many already know, is one of my favorite sitcoms (yes, I know many here don't share the same sentiment for the show).

This is something else I'm greatly looking forward to seeing. I believe I'll be watching Rue's debut this evening!

One of my absolute favorite episodes of MAUDE is "Vivian's First Funeral" from the fifth season. No political stuff, no heavy-handed humor. It's just a good, goofy episode and makes you see why Arthur called her and McClanahan "the Lucy and Ethel of the '70s."

Sounds great, and it's good to know that you feel the series was able to deliver a good episode relatively far down the line.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Yeah, MAUDE seems to make fun of its own liberal politics, if anything.

Something that, as @Crimson pointed out, would be unthinkable today.

 

[Crimson]

Norman Lear was a Liberal and his work, therefore, has a Left-leaning tilt. But he was self-aware and shrewd enough to know that one's own beliefs -- maybe especially one's own beliefs -- are open to critique and caricaturing. One need only compare Lear's work to the sledgehammer Liberal sermonizing of Linda Bloodworth-Thomason in her 90s sitcoms to see how nuanced his work really was.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Season One
Maude And The Radical / The Ticket / Love And Marriage / Flashback / Maude’s Dilemma Pt. I & II​

Thinking back over the first three of these episodes a few days after watching them, each one is catalogued in my memory by one or two “big” moments or sequences. The Radical has Maude memorably singing Some Enchanted Evening while off her face on sedatives and booze (I’m still trying to work out why I found it so funny when Bea Arthur actually sang well); The Ticket had the solid bookends of Maude’s run-in with the traffic cop and her moment in court. Love And Marriage has the crockery smashing finale.

What makes each of these moments work so well is the pipe that’s laid around them with each of the episodes built around Maude feeling the need to highlight or correct some civil concern with her usual headstrong approach.

The Radical sees her at her most neurotic and frenetic. The idea of her throwing a big party for what’s described as a black militant is certainly in character but it feels almost too big for the series at this early point. It’s more like the kind of story that a sitcom does a few seasons in. To me it feels a little shoehorned and it probably leans into situation more than I’d usually like, feeling a little more out there. Not that it doesn’t work. Even the running gags in this episode (the poor bespectacled guest’s increasing desperation to find the loo; the key characters all saying at various points that they’re “as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rockers”) made me laugh. Above all it highlighted who Maude is: a wannabe civil rights activist with a phone book full of white friends.

The Ticket has Maude crying out for justice again when given her umpteenth speeding fine. Her treatment of the traffic officer at the beginning was wonderfully entitled and condescending (and echoes her treatment of cold callers and canvassers which have given many wonderful moments already. And I’m taking notes). She radiated dismissiveness; gave him her shopping to carry and barked at him to pick it up when he tripped and fell; pinched his cheek and told him how young and naïve he was… And so it went. The courtroom sequence is possibly the one that most shows the similarity between Maude and her Republican opposite number. I could certainly hear Alf Garnett in Maude’s entitled outburst demanding to be given a trial, and since Alf gave birth to Archie Bunker, it’s fair to say his reaction would have been very similar (though I suspect might have had a different outcome).

During Love And Marriage I found myself reflecting on whether love actually is that essential as a starting point to a committed relationship. The more I considered Carol’s pragmatic take on things, the more it made sense. If a couple isn’t initially bound by love, they have to work on those things beyond that - such as common interests and having care and consideration for the other person. And if those things aren’t there or are neglected, it’s easier to address or resolve than if it’s obscured by something more nebulous. I’m not saying that’s for everyone (if we believe what we see in this episode it’s ultimately not even for Carol), but it’s another chink in Maude’s liberal armour that she was so opposed to her daughter’s different take.

Of course, with Maude it all comes down to how close to home things are. This is perfectly epitomised by a line in Dilemma Pt. I where Carol commented how Maude had backed the law in favour of allowing abortion:

Of course. I wasn’t pregnant then!

Love And Marriage ends in the style of a Greek wedding in the kitchen as Maude and Walter smash plates during their heated argument. This is beautifully underscored by Carol’s realisation that the passion driving their argument is driven by love, which gives her the epiphany that she can’t marry a man she doesn’t love. It’s certainly a choice, and arguably a questionable one given the role modelling going on at that particular moment. All the same, the writing and performances make it work and there’s a kind of stillness at the end that feels powerful after all the chaos.

The title and outline for the Flashback episode immediately put me in mind of The Way We Met from The Golden Girls’ first season (the flashback to X is of course a sitcom staple, but I suppose the Bea Arthur connection drew parallels between her two key roles). I’m not sure if I expected too much of this one, and it felt a little underwhelming. All the same, it was funny and charming.

Maude’s rigidness around her principles paired with her (mis)interpretation of what liberalism is brings out an almost bipolar duality in the character which is self-destructive. It’s like she feels she has to act a certain way due to some invisible rulebook without fully understanding why or seeing the big picture. In this episode Maude is resistant to the idea of marriage, which would be fine if she truly wanted that. But it’s frustratingly clear to everyone that she doesn’t.

It could be viewed that this is another example of Maude’s nimbyism (it’s fine for others to walk the walk by living together, but she’s secretly conservative when it comes to her own relationship). Actually, though, the character is fleshed out well enough for us to understand that it’s not about any political conviction but about Maude as a person. For any number of reasons many (perhaps most) vociferously liberal people ultimately skew conservative in a number of their own life choices without issue. Maude can’t embrace this, not because she’s truly liberal but because she’s afraid. With two divorces and a third husband dead, she doesn’t feel she’s a success as a wife. As in Love And Marriage, it’s love (and conservatism) that wins out and she gladly bends to Walter’s will as he channels his inner caveman… because his own wants are compatible with hers.

The irony is that Walter hadn’t mentioned marriage at the top of the episode. It was Maude who forced the subject (ostensibly to reject the idea) which let Walter know it was time. The psychology is interesting.

continued…​

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Maude And The Radical / The Ticket / Love And Marriage / Flashback / Maude’s Dilemma Pt. I & II
continued​

Happily, as the series progresses there isn’t a single character I don’t enjoy. The entire ensemble works for me.

As Florida, Esther Rolle has potential to steal scenes and she sometimes does, but the writing keeps her right sized and leaves me wanting more. I find myself looking forward to her scenes and I hope this continues.

Adrienne Barbeau works nicely with everyone and feels entirely believable. Every once in a while she’ll get a scene that shows how much she gets it. The close-up of her face at the end of Love & Marriage as our only clue she was about to make a life changing decision is one of the strongest so far.

Like Florida, Arthur is given just enough to do. Conrad Bain helps sell that he gets on with both Maude and Walter for very different reasons, and Arthur has actually proved a nice confidante for Walter during some key moments. His impression of The Little Engine That Could, by the way, got a big laugh from me.

Walter - the one I was least sure about to begin with - frequently gets unexpectedly big laughs. The one that did it in Flashback was his admission that his $200 suit was in fact only worth $75:

You think I’d bring a $200 suit into this house?!

It’s the kind of line where delivery is everything, and Bill Macy makes it hilarious.

And then along comes Vivian. It’s wonderful to see Rue McClanahan, and very strange to me to hear her speak in something other than her Southern Belle accent. She had a great moment in one of her first scenes where she imitated how Carol spoke as a child while going round the houses to explain that Maude was pregnant.

All of which means I’ve reached that two-parter. The episodes for which the series is remembered and the only entry in the series to have its very own Wikipedia page.

Approaching it with some degree of awareness of its trajectory, there’s quite a lot riding on this story. As I mentioned yesterday, I felt a little excited about watching. This became a low key anxiety as the time came to sit down and watch. Just as I would feel when watching a classic film that’s renowned as a masterpiece. I felt I was about to meet a legend.

The premise of Maude’s Dilemma put me in mind of a couple of of 1980s dramas.

The mid-life pregnancy and the decision over whether or not to keep the baby evoked Karen’s similar situation in Knots Landing. As watchable and well-executed as the Knots episode was, I’ve always felt the miscarriage “resolution” too much of a cop-out on the writers’ part: a way to have their cake and eat it by exploring the subject and then resetting things, absolving both characters and writer of any responsibility (Donna’s Down’s pregnancy on Dallas was an even more blatant example of this. It seems almost bizarre that it was a half hour sitcom that didn’t take the easy way out for characters or writers.

Meanwhile, Walter’s non-vasectomy played out almost in reverse in 1985 episodes of Brookside I’ve been watching just this month.

In Maude, Walter couldn’t bring himself to tell his liberal wife who didn’t want another baby he hadn’t had the vasectomy.

Over in Brookside, socialist Bobby swallowed his pride and went private in order to have a vasectomy without his staunchly Roman Catholic wife Sheila finding out (Sheila had just had her own mid-life baby and was terrified of getting pregnant again but even more terrified of incurring the wrath of God for using contraception, which meant many months of sexual deprivation for them both). Then he didn’t tell his wife he’d had the vasectomy (until she accidentally whacked him in the groin with a stepladder and he kind of had to).

Each was fascinating in its own way. And perhaps Walter’s cop out allowed these episodes, too, to retain a sense of the traditional sitcom end-of-episode reset to comfort viewers. And that was about as comfortable as it got, because there’s no mistaking that here is where the series backs itself and says something important.

Interesting to me was the initial response of the “live audience” (as the voiceover at the end always comically calls them). Knowing where this story was going, it felt almost horrifying when Maude telling Vivian she was pregnant was met with gales of laughter from the audience that went on for some time. To me, that really gives an idea of how unexpected this arc would have been at the time. Sitcom audiences were conditioned for the setup/punchline/laugh/reset kind of storytelling.

I’m a non-American who wasn’t born at the time this episode aired, so I don’t have an experiential understanding of the time and place. However, I do know that abortion had only just been made legal in New York (as mentioned in the story) and that this came shortly before a landmark legal case that had an impact on the legalisation of termination in many other states (though it’s shocking that abortion is banned in thirteen states in 2024).

In practical terms, I suspect that it would have been considered that this subject had potential to affect revenue if sponsors were put off by the risk of (or actual) pearl clutching. It seems there was, predictably, a somewhat successful campaign from Catholic groups to bury repeat screenings, which makes the episode’s existence feel even more incredible.

The biggest surprise for me was how funny I found these episodes. For me, the gags seemed funnier than usual and I’m not sure whether this is because they were funnier lines or because they provided a necessary outlet to contrast with the gravity of the subject matter; or simply because that contrast gave a balance that highlighted how funny they were. Whichever combination of these (and other) possibilities, the bottom line is that it did what any good sitcom should do and kept me laughing.

Despite Maude and Walter clearly taking their difficult decisions seriously, the episode overall didn’t feel off-puttingly heavy or preachy (though I say this having watched knowing the outcome). I found it as watchable and re-watchable as any of the other episodes. The balance was perfect. It makes me wonder how many of those who cried to abort this inconvenient episode actually watched it. But perhaps its innocuous accessibility is exactly why the same people found it so threatening.

I can understand that it’s an emotive subject about which many hold strong views and mileage will vary on the episode’s efficacy based one’s viewpoint, but the facts that the storytelling was put first and that this went ahead in 1972 America are decisions I can only applaud.

Putting controversy and subject matter aside, this ultimately feels like a traditional sitcom about miscommunication causing problems for a couple. If there's any kind of message at all, it's probably that honest discussion with an open mind and heart usually helps. Which seems reasonable enough to me.

 

[Daniel Avery]

Interesting to me was the initial response of the “live audience” (as the voiceover at the end always comically calls them). Knowing where this story was going, it felt almost horrifying when Maude telling Vivian she was pregnant was met with gales of laughter from the audience that went on for some time. To me, that really gives an idea of how unexpected this arc would have been at the time. Sitcom audiences were conditioned for the setup/punchline/laugh/reset kind of storytelling.

Though the audience is there for "reaction," the producers always have production assistants and "technology" on hand to get the reaction they want. PA's will advise the audience beforehand on remaining silent or laughing, and there is the famous blinking "applause" sign that they install in the studio to cue the audience to applaud like seals at the right points. If the laughter you describe had been deemed inappropriate by the producers, they would have simply yelled "cut" and re-done the scene, asking the audience to remain silent as the scene was re-shot. So I think the 1972 audience was likely supposed to find the announcement funny because BA, with her graying hair and adult daughter, made for a highly unlikely "new mom". It would be a similar situation years later when Rue M's Blanche on Golden Girls feared she was pregnant. The audience laughed because she was beyond the (natural) age of getting pregnant. BA's Dorothy quipped that Medicare could pay the hospital costs (Medicare being for people 65 and older).

Maybe it's a stretch, but Maude sounds a lot like Hyacinth Bucket, only she's chasing the approval of NY liberal culture rather than the upper class/aristocracy: going overboard to curry favor with a group she already considers herself a part of but making a fool of herself in the process.

The Radical sees her at her most neurotic and frenetic. The idea of her throwing a big party for what’s described as a black militant is certainly in character but it feels almost too big for the series at this early point......

Above all it highlighted who Maude is: a wannabe civil rights activist with a phone book full of white friends.

Just as Hyacinth is an upper-crust wannabe with a family full of commoners who are embarrassments (to her).

Maude’s rigidness around her principles paired with her (mis)interpretation of what liberalism is brings out an almost bipolar duality in the character which is self-destructive. It’s like she feels she has to act a certain way due to some invisible rulebook without fully understanding why or seeing the big picture.

KUA never allowed Hyacinth to see how her snobbery was self-destructive or how it annoyed everyone around her. I guess she had her nose buried in her own invisible rulebook. Hyacinth could sail through her (sitcom) life totally unaware, but I guess Norman Lear felt the US audience would not tolerate a lead character not learning anything from their failures and/or calamities that occurred due to their rigidness around their principles.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Though the audience is there for "reaction," the producers always have production assistants and "technology" on hand to get the reaction they want. PA's will advise the audience beforehand on remaining silent or laughing, and there is the famous blinking "applause" sign that they install in the studio to cue the audience to applaud like seals at the right points. If the laughter you describe had been deemed inappropriate by the producers, they would have simply yelled "cut" and re-done the scene, asking the audience to remain silent as the scene was re-shot. So I think the 1972 audience was likely supposed to find the announcement funny because BA, with her graying hair and adult daughter, made for a highly unlikely "new mom". It would be a similar situation years later when Rue M's Blanche on Golden Girls feared she was pregnant. The audience laughed because she was beyond the (natural) age of getting pregnant. BA's Dorothy quipped that Medicare could pay the hospital costs (Medicare being for people 65 and older).

I want Alexis to taunt Blake & Krystle with her assertion that she became pregnant by Blake in Singapore in Season 7. Alexis would have still been in her forties (just barely) but Joan would never have permitted it -- so they'd have to trick her.

After she careens of that bridge in the cliffhanger, she's claim she'd miscarried the baby. But we're never sure the fetus ever existed.

"Sean, I think my water broke!"

 

[Mel O'Drama]

If the laughter you describe had been deemed inappropriate by the producers, they would have simply yelled "cut" and re-done the scene, asking the audience to remain silent as the scene was re-shot.

Even though I was aware of this aspect of sitcom making, I must've temporarily blanked on it as this didn't really occur to me (hopefully a good sign that I was in the moment). I think many British sitcoms of the era frequently shot scenes "as live", more akin to theatre, so whatever the audience gave is what was immortalised.

I think the 1972 audience was likely supposed to find the announcement funny because BA, with her graying hair and adult daughter, made for a highly unlikely "new mom".

I'm sure you're right about this.

Thinking about it more deeply, I think something else that might have made this moment feel a little "off" is that Vivian's reaction was silence followed by gentle laughter as she assumes Maude is joking. Somehow the enthusiasm of the audience's laughter pre-empted this and (to my mind) stamped on it a little bit.

Maybe it's a stretch, but Maude sounds a lot like Hyacinth Bucket, only she's chasing the approval of NY liberal culture rather than the upper class/aristocracy: going overboard to curry favor with a group she already considers herself a part of but making a fool of herself in the process.

Oh yes. I wouldn't have got this myself but I can totally see it now you've said.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

I get why people find her Sophia to be funny and, technically, she was but whereas the other three ladies were nuanced actresses who created characters, even when working with slim material, Getty seemed like a punchline machine to me.

Yes, but her punchlines never really work for me. Largely because of Getty herself -- in fact, I think she was the main reason I never took to GOLDEN GIRLS like everybody else did, despite my liking the other actresses.

 

[Crimson]

I share your feelings towards the whole "very special episode" sitcom thing Even as a child, I remember finding a bulimia storyline on Diff'rent Strokes cringey and borderline offensive for the way the problem was introduced, addressed and - naturally - resolved in the space of two episodes, never to be mentioned again

Lear's work at its best and ROSEANNE at its peak are about the only sitcoms I can think of that managed to blend drama and comedy in a meaningful and adroit manner, even if they did frequently have pat solutions. The "very special episodes" of BLOSSOM and other shows of that ilk were dumbed down attempts at a similar approach by shows that never earned the right to tackle serious issues.

Conrad Bain helps sell that he gets on with both Maude and Walter for very different reasons

While I don't have very fond memories of Arthur as a character -- and I suspect I just didn't care much for Conrad Bain as an actor, since he slightly irked me on DIFF'RENT STROKES too -- it was a nice touch of the writers to portray Maude and Arthur as not just political opposites but also friends with genuine affection for one another. Lear's other political/social opposites (Archie & Mike; George & Tom) would eventually grow fond of one another but only after years of hostility.

To me, that really gives an idea of how unexpected this arc would have been at the time. Sitcom audiences were conditioned for the setup/punchline/laugh/reset kind of storytelling.

The TV viewing audience would have been well braced for the topic of the episode after a storm of advance controversy, but I can't even imagine how blindsided the live studio audience was by the subject matter and plot resolution.

. So I think the 1972 audience was likely supposed to find the announcement funny because BA, with her graying hair and adult daughter, made for a highly unlikely "new mom".

From a 2024 vantage point -- geez, they all looked so old. Bea Arthur and Bill Macy looked to be in their mid-60s, from a modern perspective, and certainly not a child bearing years. Bea looked a bit younger as Dorothy on GG than on MAUDE, despite it being more than a decade later.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

From a 2024 vantage point -- geez, they all looked so old. Bea Arthur and Bill Macy looked to be in their mid-60s, from a modern perspective, and certainly not a child bearing years. Bea looked a bit younger as Dorothy on GG than on MAUDE, despite it being more than a decade later.

I'm pretty old, but even much-younger people today have marveled at how aged everybody used to look.

In the mid-1970s, viewers swooned over "how young" Angie Dickinson looked in her mid-forties on POLICE WOMAN (despite her perpetually terrible hair), and in the '80s "how young" Joan Collins looked in her fifties on DYNASTY ("that woman belongs in a wax museum!") ... Today, tons of people in their forties and fifties look that young, with or without cosmetic surgery.

So, what is it? Fewer people smoking and drinking? Consuming more water? Because their processed food consumption sure hasn't dropped... Maybe it's mind-over-matter: people realize today that they don't have to look 60 at 35.

 

[Crimson]

despite her perpetually terrible hair

Hair and fashion has a lot to do with it, of course. Those hairstyles and clothes might have been age appropriate decades ago, but in hindsight they now look like "old lady" styles. Same with the showbiz men of the era, with their bad toupees or worse comb-overs; you could never tell if they were 45 or 87.

Fewer people smoking and drinking?

Fashion choices aside, yea those early 20th century generations aged hard. Smoking, drinking and slathering themselves in baby oil to bask in the sun certainly didn't help.

 

[Daniel Avery]

A while back there was a similar conversation about this after someone posted a famous clip from the film A Summer Place. The scene featured Constance Ford's character slapping Sandra Dee's character. Someone referred to the scene as "an old lady slapping another old lady and making her fall over a Christmas tree." Ford was late-30s and playing Sandra Dee's 40-ish mother. Dee was seventeen (playing 16). Though the film was trying to emphasize teen idol Sandra Dee's youthful beauty, she was indeed styled "like an old lady" by our standards.

 

[Crimson]

Dee was seventeen (playing 16).

And with that hairstyle, looked liked a 37 year old divorcee bitter about having to work as a diner waitress.

One helluva good slap though!

 

[DallasFanForever]

Yes, but her punchlines never really work for me. Largely because of Getty herself -- in fact, I think she was the main reason I never took to GOLDEN GIRLS like everybody else did, despite my liking the other actresses.

I’m surprised at the opinions here regarding Estelle Getty as Sophia Petrillo. I’m seeing I’m in the minority on this one but her one liners were one of the main reasons I watched The Golden Girls. I can’t picture that show without her picking on the other girls and their faults.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

I’m surprised at the opinions here regarding Estelle Getty as Sophia Petrillo. I’m seeing I’m in the minority on this one but her one liners were one of the main reasons I watched The Golden Girls. I can’t picture that show without her picking on the other girls and their faults.

Almost everybody with whom I was acquainted, usually males of a certain persuasion, laughed uproariously at every line -- particularly hers. I sat there stone-faced, not cracking a smile.

Again, the other actresses I liked. But, for me, Getty was the weakest link. Obviously, millions of viewers felt otherwise, and the show was a huge hit.

But then, the show received a major media build-up well-before it premiered -- a very specifically '80s build-up, and I could anticipate what the show would feel like and, alas, I was not wrong.

Also, I've never been very fond of Susan Harris' sitcoms, as a rule.

I think I would have preferred even Elaine Stritch in the role, but Harris hated her (Stritch's own description).

 

[Chris2]

Also, I've never been very fond of Susan Harris' sitcoms, as a rule.

I’m sure you know this, but Susan Harris wrote for Norman Lear’s sitcoms early in her career, including the “Maude’s Dilemma” two-parter.

By the time she had her own production company, she had developed a style distinct from Lear’s.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Season One
Maude’s Reunion / The Grass Story / The Slumlord / The Convention​

If there’s one episode that I feel I’ve watched before it’s Maude’s Reunion. I’m quite certain I haven’t seen it, but the story and episode structure just feel very much like episodes of other sitcoms I’ve previously watched (all of which, no doubt, were made many years after this one). In particular, I’m sure there’s an episode (probably several) of The Golden Girls which is Maude’s Reunion almost beat for beat. I have a feeling it involved an old friend of Blanche, but it might even have been Dorothy in the “Maude” role. I’m sure @Daniel Avery can confirm whether or not I’m imagining this.

Oh - thinking about it, it’s also similar to the Reunion episode of Knots Landing with Jessica Walter, where a similar dynamic emerged between Karen and her old college roommate.

It’s lovely to see Barbara Rush, most familiar to me from Peyton Place, but who I’ve watched more recently in (re)-watches of The Bionic Woman (where she played Jaime’s mother) and Batman. She’s as gorgeous as ever and the on-screen chemistry is good, so it’s a little disappointing to see that this appears to have been her one and only episode.

As always, Maude’s reaction is interesting. Phyllis is everything Maude should admire but it’s her successes in business and life that make her such a threat. The balance is tipped, naturally, because the ugly bunny has blossomed into Jessica Rabbit. And so Maude falls back on what she has that Phyllis doesn’t in a bid to undermine her friend. It’s a very human response based on security (or lack thereof) and instinct

Meanwhile, The Grass Story has superseded Maude And The Radical to become the definitive “Maude pushes her way into social justice” episode. The kinship with Hyacinth Bucket is unmistakeable here as she goes to increasingly silly lengths to get arrested for possession of some pot - finally substituting oregano after the grass she’s scored is confiscated by her husband (Walter at his weary best even evoking the spirit of browbeaten Richard Bucket). Naturally, the stakes are high since Maude has roped in numerous friends who add to the pressure when everything starts to unravel.

There’s a really interesting - almost moving - moment of almost silence towards the end of the episode when it’s announced that it’s all been for naught because the teenager whose plight they’re trying to highlight has been given three years for possession.

As ever, Maude’s role in the campaign is driven by her knowing that as a middle-class housewife she would be able to enjoy a doobie with an impunity the teen can only imagine.

The points about social injustice between classes is well made, but almost immediately undone by the writing in The Slumlord. Walter and Maude unwittingly becoming slumlords through a property investment of Walter’s is one thing - such miscommunications are the stuff of which sitcoms are made - but more problematic for me is the “resolution” of them offloading the property to someone with less of a conscience in such matters, and then joyfully telling the poor protesting tenant that all’s well because they are no longer slumlords.

Sadly, it’s probably a very truthful kind of response for many, but it seems very much at odds with the previous episode’s message. Maude was willing to get herself arrested on behalf of a stranger who was arrested for possession of drugs, but so relieved at being off the hook as a slumlord that she couldn’t have cared less about the position of the tenants whose plight she was at least complicit in creating. It’s still a strong message that draws attention to a cruel reality, but it certainly wasn’t a good look for Walter and Maude as characters.

If I’m paying attention, The Convention is the very first Maude two-hander. And I had to pay attention to notice this because it didn’t feel like a two-hander on the basis that I was so wrapped up in the story and the dialogue and the descriptions of what had transpired in the evening away from the motel that the significance it didn’t register until afterwards.

As previously mentioned, I’m a fan of these theatrical type episodes featuring a limited cast on a single set. It allows so much more room for character and allows the actors to stretch their muscles a bit. Many British sitcoms have lengthy, verbose scenes of this kind as their stock-in-trade (Till Death Us Do Part had a number of these, with many early episodes’ first acts essentially being fifteen minute diatribes from Alf with some input from whoever else was around; and the “spouses get ready for bed while putting the world to rights” aspect puts me in mind of Happy Ever After).

One minor note is that it’s not a true two-hander since we heard someone in a neighbouring room call out to them. But that’s a detail I can live with. Even EastEnders had the (silent) window cleaner pop up in that first two-hander between Den and Ange.

For me, the flow of this episode was damn near perfect and as the first of its kind in this series, it’s a terrific start.

Maude continues to give me a little feel-good boost at the end of the day, and I feel very glad to still have something like 125 episodes ahead of me.

I don't have very fond memories of Arthur as a character -- and I suspect I just didn't care much for Conrad Bain as an actor, since he slightly irked me on DIFF'RENT STROKES too

Since this seems to be the prevailing feeling, I keep waiting for the moment where I feel the same way. Thankfully it's quite the opposite to date.

it was a nice touch of the writers to portray Maude and Arthur as not just political opposites but also friends with genuine affection for one another.

Absolutely. I have colleagues, neighbours and even extended family members I like very much and get on well with but whose political views I either suspect or know are quite different from my own. Of course, in television such things are frequently the root of easy conflict, but it's nice that we see those moments in between this as well.

From a 2024 vantage point -- geez, they all looked so old. Bea Arthur and Bill Macy looked to be in their mid-60s, from a modern perspective, and certainly not a child bearing years. Bea looked a bit younger as Dorothy on GG than on MAUDE, despite it being more than a decade later.

Even for the time, the writing suggests that Maude looks older than her years. In The Grass Story she initially refuses to give her age to the desk sergeant. He says he'll just write down how old he thinks she looks and she swiftly replies:

Forty seven. And I just saved your life!

I think I would have preferred even Elaine Stritch in the role, but Harris hated her (Stritch's own description).

While I knew that Elaine was in the running for Dorothy, it's only very recently that I've learnt that Elaine also played Bea Arthur's role in the British remake of Maude.

I haven't watched Nobody's Perfect (as mentioned, I probably won't since I'd invariably compare it unfavourably with the original), but I did find a couple of poor quality clips/outtakes which happen to be from the remake of Maude's Reunion which is fresh in my mind from watching it last night:

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Seems the reasons the outtakes are available because the network "accidentally screened a rough edit by mistake, including line fluffs, director instructions and an incomplete ending."

 

[Crimson]

I’m quite certain I haven’t seen it, but the story and episode structure just feel very much like episodes of other sitcoms I’ve previously watched (all of which, no doubt, were made many years after this one)

If you watch enough American sitcoms, particularly of the 1960s through 1980s, you'll notice not just recurring themes or plots but if often seemed liked entire scripts were reused with characters names crossed out.

Sadly, it’s probably a very truthful kind of response for many, but it seems very much at odds with the previous episode’s message. Maude was willing to get herself arrested on behalf of a stranger who was arrested for possession of drugs

Whether the different behaviors of Maude in those two episodes were intentional or just somewhat inconsistent writing, it's recurring motif of Maude's personality in having her well meaning liberalism undercut by self-serving hypocrisies.