Maude (TV series)
Maude is an American television sitcom that was originally broadcast on the CBS network from September 12, 1972, until April 22, 1978. The show was the first spin-off of All in the Family, on which Bea Arthur had made two appearances as Maude Findlay, Edith Bunker's favorite cousin. Like All in the Family, Maude was a sitcom with topical storylines created by producers Norman Lear and Bud Yorkin.
Maude
- Hal Cooper
- Various (season 1)
"And Then There's Maude"
Performed by Donny Hathaway
United States
English
6
141 (list of episodes)
Norman Lear
- Rod Parker
- Bob Weiskopf
- Bob Schiller
- Charlie Hauck
- Gene Marcione
- CBS Television City
- Hollywood, California
- (1972–75)
- Metromedia Square
- Hollywood, California
- (1975–78)
30 minutes
September 12, 1972 –
April 22, 1978
Maude stars Bea Arthur as Maude, an outspoken, middle-aged, politically liberal woman living in suburban Tuckahoe, New York with her fourth husband, household appliance store owner Walter Findlay (Bill Macy). Maude embraces the tenets of women's liberation, always votes for Democratic Party candidates, and advocates for civil rights and racial and gender equality. Her overbearing and sometimes domineering personality often gets her into trouble when speaking about these issues.
Unusually for an American sitcom, several episodes (such as "Maude's Night Out" and "The Convention") featured only the characters of Maude and her husband Walter, in what amounted to half-hour "two-hander" teleplays. In the season four episode "The Analyst" (sometimes referred to as "Maude Bares Her Soul"), Arthur as Maude, speaking to an unseen psychiatrist, was the sole actor on screen for the entire episode.[1]
The show's theme song, "And Then There's Maude", was written by Alan and Marilyn Bergman and Dave Grusin, and performed by Donny Hathaway.
Series ending[edit]
In the fifth season, Maude dropped from No. 4 to No. 31 in the Nielsen ratings as its lead-ins Rhoda and Phyllis began to struggle. Public taste had abruptly shifted from "relevant" Norman Lear productions and the MTM company's sophisticated comedies toward escapist fare like ABC's Laverne & Shirley and Three's Company. In the sixth season, ratings dived further, and Lear revamped the format. In the last three episodes of that season, the fictional governor of New York appointed Maude as a congresswoman from Tuckahoe, as a Democrat during the 1978 U.S. midterm elections. She helped campaign for a congresswoman who unexpectedly died in her home. Maude and husband Walter moved to Washington, D.C., and the rest of the regular cast would be written out of the show in a prospective season seven.[21]
In spring 1978, Bea Arthur said she would leave the series. At least one TV columnist reported that CBS had already decided to cancel the show because of low ratings, and Arthur's announcement was an attempt to save face.[22] Lear still liked the concept of a member of a minority group in Congress, and it evolved into the pilot Mr. Dugan, with Cleavon Little replacing Arthur as the lead character. The show was scheduled for a March 1979 premiere, but negative feedback from black members of Congress, granted an advance screening, resulted in CBS deciding not to air the three episodes taped. Lear reworked the project into Hanging In, with Bill Macy playing a former professional football player turned university president. Premiering in the summer of 1979, the show didn't find an audience and was canceled after four episodes.
Syndication and streaming[edit]
Maude aired on TV Land in 1999 for a brief time, including an introductory "Maude-a-thon" marathon. Maude was later seen on Nick at Nite in the United States in 2001. Reruns of Maude are occasionally shown on Canwest's digital specialty channel, DejaView in Canada. In 2010, Maude began reruns in Chicago, on WWME-CA's Me-TV. In 2011, Maude began airing on Antenna TV, a digital broadcast network, which has since run the entire six season cycle of the show.
In 2015, reruns of Maude began airing on Logo TV during late night/early morning. It airs weeknights on FETV, Family Entertainment Television. As of April 2021, Maude is on CHCH TV in the Toronto (Hamilton) Ontario area as part of their afternoon retro sitcom lineup. It is available in a heavily edited format on the CTV app for free with ads as part of its “Throwback” library.
As of July 2021, Maude is available for streaming on Amazon Freevee.
Adaptations[edit]
Maude was adapted in Italy airing on Canale 5 in 1982.
Maude was adapted in France as Maguy. Maguy aired on Sundays at 19.30 from September 1985 to December 1994 on France 2 for 333 episodes.[40]
Maude had previously been adapted in 1980 by ITV in the United Kingdom as Nobody's Perfect.[41] Starring Elaine Stritch and Richard Griffiths, the show ran for two series with a total of 14 episodes. Of the 14 episodes, Stritch herself adapted 13 original Maude scripts and Griffiths adapted one.[42] The original series was screened by certain ITV companies.[43]