Maude

File:Maude 7067.jpg

"...and then there's Maude!" —Opening Theme

A spin-off of the hit sitcom All in The Family created by Norman Lear, the title character, Maude Findlay, was originally written as Archie Bunker's foil: female, liberal, new age, free-thinking, and yet every bit as domineering and pushy. Though the show was overtly political, it didn't suffer from the problems with strawmen that plagues so many other "hot button" shows. While Maude's political views were usually cast in a positive light — helping the needy, racial sensitivity, women's liberation — the greatest handicap to the character was her personality: she was too forceful, stubborn, ego-driven, and often out of touch with the very issues she claimed expertise of. Thus the show wasn't necessarily a Take That at left-wing beliefs the way All in The Family was for Archie's stubborn traditionalism, but more a character-driven sitcom that simply had politics at its surface.

The show is usually remembered for featuring one of the first (positive) portrayals of abortion in TV history, when Maude realizes she's pregnant by her husband but makes the decision that she's just too old to have a baby. Her family supports her and she comes out of the situation (for the most part) better for it. Keep in mind this episode premiered just two months before the Roe v. Wade decision made abortion legal nationwide. Oh, and part I of the two-part episode was written by Susan Harris, who would go on to create the show that would revitalize Bea Arthur's career over a decade later - The Golden Girls.

Lasted for six years in no small part to good writing and Bea Arthur. Just Bea Arthur. It's also gotten a lot of Retroactive Recognition from Golden Girls fans due to the fact that it also starred Rue McClanahan (albeit this time as The Ditz, Vivian).

Not to be confused with Harold and Maude.

Tropes used in Maude include:

• All There Is to Know About "The Crying Game" - The only thing most people know about this series is that Maude has an abortion. So when she discovers in a Very Special Episode that she is pregnant, it's a pretty safe bet she won't be welcoming a new baby into the world.
• Alliterative Name: Nell Naugatuck and Bert Beasley (although Mrs. Naugatuck insists on keeping her maiden name when she marries Bert).
• Ascended Extra: Rue McClanahan's Vivian. She appeared infrequently during season one, but became a major supporting character in season two.
• Awful Wedded Life: Maude and Walter have more than their fair share of tiffs, and the marriage comes close to ending on more than one occasion, but their love for one another ultimately always proves stronger.
• Bait and Switch Comment: In "The Election - Maude Runs," after she loses:

Walter: Maude, I voted for our marriage! Maude: What a rotten thing to do. Walter: I'll tell you: I voted for the most beautiful, the most adorable, the sexiest candidate in the race. Maude: Oh, Walter... Walter: Did you ever see Kunkle in a bathing suit?

• Bottle Episode: "Maude Bares Her Soul," which stars only Bea Arthur and Gene Blakely (as the psychiatrist), features Maude in a psychiatrist's chair spilling out her heart about her dead father, her resentment of her mother, and her dread of turning 50.
• Bourgeois Bohemian: Maude and Carol.
• Bragging Theme Tune: Implies Maude is the latest in a long run of important women throughout history, including Lady Godiva, Joan of Arc, Isadora Duncan and Betsy Ross. Later parodied on Family Guy with additional lyrics mentioning 15 other women, ranging from Pocahontas to Amelia Earhart to Cleopatra to Indira Gandhi.
• Brief Accent Imitation: Rita (Conchata Ferrell), who interviews to be Florida's replacement in "Florida's Goodbye." She's Puerto Rican, but is light-skinned enough to pass for white and speaks fluent English with no accent. When Maude interviews her, however, she adopts a stereotypical "Hispanic" dialect complete with Gratuitous Spanish and a hard luck story about growing up poor and dreaming of a better life in Los Estados Unidos. Maude hires her based on this (and only based on this, since she specifically wanted a minority maid), but it can be assumed it didn't work out, since Rita is never seen again and Mrs. Naugatuck was ultimately hired.
• Catch Phrase- "God'll get you for that, Walter", and "Mauuuude...SIT!!".
• Closer to Earth- Pretty much averted. Both Maude and Walter and pretty frequently shown to be childish, petty, and self-involved. The only difference is that Maude is at an advantage as far as delivering crippling put-downs.
• Deadpan Snarker- Ignoring the obvious mention Bea Arthur as the undisputed Queen of Deadpan Delivery, it's hard to think of a character on this show who wasn't a deadpan snarker at least some of the time.
• Distaff Counterpart - Maude was a mirror reflection of Archie Bunker: female instead of male, middle-class instead of working-class, and a liberal instead of a conservative. However, though their ideologies were very different, their personalities were very similar.
• Drop in Character- Next-door neighbor Arthur Harmon, particularly before he married Maude's friend, Vivian. It was understood that as a bachelor, he couldn't cook for himself and depended on Maude to feed him. Arthur and Viv continue to drop in after they marry, though, if only so Arthur can continue to stir up arguments with Maude.
• Easily Forgiven: In "Walter's Problem (Pt. 1)", a drunken argument between Maude and Walter culminates in Walter slapping Maude across the face and giving her a black eye. Seeing Walter's tearful, remorseful reaction, Maude tearfully comforts him and promises to stand by him while he gets help for his alcoholism. Bill Macy still choked up talking about this scene decades later.
• Game Show Appearance: Before there was Dorothy and Blanche on Grab That Dough, there was Maude and Vivian on Beat the Devil. Game Show Announcer Johnny Olsen appeared as himself, and Conrad Janis played emcee Lyle Bellamy.
• Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Perhaps the earliest well-known aversion of this trope.
• Grand Finale: "Maude's Big Move" albeit unintentionally, see Retool.
• Ham to Ham Combat: Maude vs. Mrs. Naugatuck.
• Hey, Let's Put on a Show: "Maude's Musical," "The Telethon," and "Musical '78." They all afforded Bea Arthur (and her costars) a change to show off their singing and dancing chops.
• Lady Drunk- The second maid, Mrs. Naugutuck, was the butt of lots of drunk jokes, even though most of the characters drank a lot all of the time.
• Lampshade Hanging: In a few episodes, Vivian was in a cast with crutches. In universe, it was because Arthur ran over her foot with the car. In real life, it was because Rue McClanahan nearly bled to death after falling through a glass door.
• Ms. Fanservice: Adrienne Barbeau as Carol, though it took the producers a while to realize it.
• Make Up or Break Up- Over the six-year course of the series, Maude and Walter almost split up numerous times. Is it any wonder they have four previous marriages between them?
• Mars and Venus Gender Contrast- Done a lot, although frequently tempered with doses of Not So Different
• Not Important to This Episode Camp- Carol's son Philip also lived at Maude's house, but only appeared on an as-needed basis. When they pulled The Other Darrin with him late in the series, it didn't disrupt the show in the least.
• Obfuscating Disability:
  • Baby Sally in "Musical '78," an allegedly disabled child tap dancer who is also an insufferable brat with a manipulative agent. Before the titular musical (a charity telethon to raise money for the child) goes on the air, Maude learns Baby Sally is faking her condition, but since the agent threatens to sue them if they cancel the telethon (thus possibly resulting in Maude losing her house), she goes along with the charade for a time.
  • Mrs. Naugatuck obfuscates someone else's disability - Bert's - in "For the Love of Bert," claiming that Bert is going deaf and can only converse by Reading Lips. It's a ploy to get money from the Findlays, and Bert's not in on it, which leads to a hilarious scene where the Findlays and the Harmons speak slowly and loudly to Bert, who doesn't know what's going on. Maude makes a sotto voce comment about Bert's deafness, which Bert can hear perfectly and responds to, exposing Mrs. Naugatuck's deception.
• Pie in the Face: Showed up in a few episodes, most notably "Musical '78," in which a charity telethon for a disabled child (who turns out to be faking her disability) devolves into a pie fight, with most of the main cast (Adrienne Barbeau got off easy) ending up plastered.
• Please Don't Leave Me: Played straight by Maude in "Walter's Crisis (Pt. 2)," after Walter attempts suicide with a sleeping pill overdose. He recovers.
• Retool: The last season of the show ended with a three parter that saw Maude becoming a congresswoman, her and Walter moving to Washington DC and the rest of the cast put on buses. This was an attempt by Norman Lear to give the show's ratings a boost after it had gone from being a top 10 show (peaking at #4) its first four seasons to falling out of the top 30 in its fifth and sixth seasons. This never really panned out because after the last episode of the season Bea Arthur decided she no longer wanted to play Maude as such the three parter ended up becoming an unintentional Grand Finale.
• Sassy Black Woman- Florida was normally a little too deadpan to fit this trope, but the sass would really come out if Maude made too many pointed attempts to show she was enlightened about black people and/or maids.
  • Francie Potter (from Season 2) is a junior example.
• Sick Episode: "The Doctor's Strike." Walter develops a glandular infection, but Arthur, because of the titular strike, refuses to treat him. Arthur eventually relents once Vivian also gets sick and he realizes refusing to treat a sick person goes against the very nature of his profession. He then gets sick himself, but since he used the last of his medicine on his wife and Walter, his only option is a homemade West Indian remedy of Victoria's made from frogs.
• Spin-Off- of All in The Family. The show itself spun off Good Times.
• Stop Helping Me!: Maude's attempts at proving she was not prejudiced tended to irk Florida quite a bit, since Florida just wanted to do her job. In Florida's first episode, Maude believed that having Florida come into the house through the back door was somehow offensive (even though that's where they parked), so Maude made Florida walk all the way around the house to the front door to bring in the groceries.
• Take That!: A frequent occasion. Even Bea Arthur's fellow future Golden Girl wasn't exempt: in one episode, Maude, tired of slapping herself in the face to stay awake, decides to watch TV, but when she sees Betty White and Allen Ludden on screen, turns it off and decides to slap herself again.
• Transatlantic Equivalent: Nobody's Perfect, a short-lived UK version starring Elaine Stritch which aired on ITV in the early 1980s. Ironically, Stritch would later be considered for the role of Dorothy Zbornak on The Golden Girls - which ended up going to Bea Arthur.
• Unintentional Period Piece: Like all of Norman Lear's contemporary productions, this is a very 1970s show in every respect.
• Very Special Episode- A few, and none of them were Anvilicious. The most controversial, of course, was the abortion episode.
• White Man's Burden: Maude often tried too hard to show how "enlightened" she was about Black people, so hard that she ended up relying on stereotypical assumptions to make herself seem "hip," and would piss off the very people she was trying to impress. Florida, Francie Potter and Victoria are three examples.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: In "The Runaway," Francie, hoping to get money so she can elope with her boyfriend, tells Maude a tearjerker of a sob story about her abusive, drunken father. The lie unravels when Maude confronts Francie's father and he turns out to be nothing like his daughter's story.
• Your Favorite: For Arthur - Beef Stroganoff.

Maude: Yes, I invited Arthur to come over to eat with us...you know his favorite meal is Beef Stroganoff....we're having beans and franks.