Interesteg What makes it different from others?

ChikPapa Very disappointed :(

Protraph Lack of good storyline.

ScoobyWell Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

bkoganbing Bea Arthur's outsize personality so well used in Golden Girls got a start as Edith Bunker's cousin Maude visiting Archie and Edith in All In the Family. Maude proved so popular and such a worthy adversary for Archie that Norman Lear gave Arthur her own show and the title role in same. It ran for six seasons. In the 70s Norman Lear could practically do no wrong.Maude was a liberated woman, liberated in fact from three previous husbands before settling down and marrying Bill Macy. The family also had Adrienne Barbeau living with them and her son as well. Barbeau was Maude's daughter by marriage number 2.Maude's hero was Eleanor Roosevelt and like Eleanor she lived in upstate New York in the rich suburb of Tuckahoe. From there she debated and worked for various liberal causes always indulged in by her husband. She didn't need Archie Bunker to debate her issues, she had wealthy Repubican doctor Conrad Bain next door. Bain had a lot more education than Archie did and he was a more formidable adversary.I always liked Bill Macy in this show. The ever patient Walter Findlay who decided that the other three husbands had it wrong and he should just go with the flow. He did, but he also said some wise things every so often that brought up his outspoken wife very short.Bea Arthur bought some real life into this character. She and Macy were a matched pair. And Maude was wonderful viewing.

Syl Unfortunately, I never saw Maude until I got the DVD first season of her show. It appeared nowhere in syndication maybe because it was too controversial and might offend too many people. Compared to other shows today, Maude is quite mainstream and ahead of it's time. I loved Beatrice Arthur in this role of Maude, forget Dorothy Zbornak. Bea plays a terrific Maude Findlay, the cousin of dimwitted Edith Bunker, from All in the Family. Anyway, the casting of Bill Macy as Maude's fourth husband is genius. They work so well together. Adrienne Barbeau is terrific as her divorced daughter, Carol. Of course, we never see Philip, the eight year old dimwitted grandson. Then there is the supporting cast which is stellar like Conrad Bain as the conservative Republican right wing doctor neighbor and friend to Walter's character and Esther Rolle who plays the African American maid, Florida Evans who is fawned over by Maude's character in the beginning that she doesn't get much work done. Don't forget Rue McClanahan as dimwitted Vivian and friend of Maude. I can't help but like Maude. For all things that she gets wrong, she gets a lot of it right. Today's television writers and developers should learn from the sitcom master, Norman Lear, that a great show like Maude's can be both controversial and funny and genius too. Most sitcoms today lack the balance between left and right. Lear's sitcoms provided both sets of opinions without winning the battle. I'm sure if the sitcom people today would watch, they might learn something about developing quality sitcoms. Remember it's not quantity but quality and it's a shame. They think we want to see beautiful people like Friends in sitcoms with minor problems and the same point of view.

harpo-19 I think Maude was the best of Norman Lear's shows of the 1970's. Maude was probably the first show to tackle such issues as abortion, face-lifts and alcoholism. Bea Arthur was simply priceless as Maude--the rest of the cast was great, too, including Bill Macy as Walter, Conrad Bain as Arthur, Rue McClanahan as Vivian and Adrienne Barbeau as Carol. Maude is usually hard to find on TV.

Skinny-15 Norman Lear is notorious for his liberal (so they called it ground-breaking) television series of the 70's in which he tampered with conservative censors' traditional television taboos. "All in the Family" was the first step, and despite the over-the-top stereotypes, it succeeded. The downside is the way the show outdated itself by being too topical, but on the other hand it stands as a time capsule. "Maude", a spinoff based upon AITF's recurring character, was a novelty at the time and chose to play the feminist card (however loosely), but at the end of the day, the only element that survived the translation between the two programs was the heavy dosage of loud shouting matches. Bea Arthur is a better actress than this show displays, since she is rarely given the opportunity to do much more than posturing and screaming "Walter" repeatedly. Many 70's programs are now waving the banner of 'retro' to gain some sort of badge of hip for the straplings that weren't there; this show should be returned to the vaults and only drudged up for retrospectives iconifying what made this era of entertainment the very worst that the century had to offer.