Post by Rob W. Case on Apr 19, 2007 2:00:23 GMT -6
A couple of weeks ago, I bought the complete first season of "Maude," which was the first spinoff of "All in The Family."
For those of you who may be unfamiliar with Maude, let me give you a rundown of the series. The series originally ran from 1972-1978, and featured Beatrice Arthur (known by most as Dorothy on TV's "Golden Girls") as an unbalanced, fiesty, outspoken, over-emotional, liberal whose neighbor is a Conservative Doctor (played by Diffrent' Strokes star Conrad Bain), and whose husband is a moderate, middle of the road kind of guy (played by Bill Macy).
Although many Maude episodes were controversial (like where she is deciding on whether or not to have an abortion at age 47), some may have been booring, but a lot of them are hilarious.
Take for example, the episode where Walter turns 50. It's his birthday and Maude flies in an old friend of Walters that he hasn't seen in over 30 yearswho is the same age as Walter. Depressed with turning 50, Walter finally becomes excited when he sees his friend. As joy finally washes away Walter's blue funk, his friend drops dead of a heart attack, right at his feet.
Another classic episode is where Arthur moves in, and Maude is hysterical over him living with them.
One thing I like about Maude is that it has a lot of good fights. By fights I mean, fights in the tradition of "All in the Family" or its other spinoff the "Jeffersons." The insults hurled by Maude are priceless and are somewhat reminiscant of the insults and are suggestive and engaging, getting their joke across by wording them in such a clever way that got around the strict rules of the FCC.
But the thing I like about this DVD set the most is that it features newly restored... and uncut episodes. Each episode runs approximately 26 minutes in length (shows used to run a lot longer back in the day). I hate it when some studios pass off edited syndication versions (like ALF or IN LIVING COLOR) and still charge an arm and a leg. This boxed set was uncut and resonably priced ($21.95).
Now, you may be wondering what sparked my interest in Maude. It's simple. It wasn't on the air.
As a fan of Norman Lear's sitcoms, I was reading about some of them in numerous television history books I own in 1997. I grew up with The Jeffersons, One Day at a Time, and Good Times. I started watching All in The Family in reruns in my teen years, and thought it was hilarious, as well as Sanford and Son. But there was a problem. There were two Lear shows that I never saw. One was Maude and the other one was Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. I thought, "gee if these shows are as funny as the others I like, why aren't they on the air?" I wrote a letter to WCIU-Channel 26 the U in Chicago to add it to their line-up, and in the summer of 1998, they granted my request. It was funnier than I expected. I taped all I could, and by the fall of 98, they cancelled it. In 1999, TVLAND ran the series until 2001, and it was then I taped the entire series (all 141 episodes).
The Problem with Maude:
I don't think that Maude does very well in reruns today because of its combative, controversial nature. You have to have a satirical sense of cynicism to really appreciate its humor. Although I do not necessarily agree with all of the messages that the show communicates, I do consider it as a source for some laugh out loud humor. But if you like a funny, sort of clash of the forces type of sitcom, then Maude may very well be for you. I like Maude because of its combative, if you don't like it too bad, type of style. But if you don't like that type of humor, you may want to stick to more lighthearted sitcoms like Full House, The Facts of Life, or Punky Brewster. Maude is for the types who like "the hard stuff."
For those of you who may be unfamiliar with Maude, let me give you a rundown of the series. The series originally ran from 1972-1978, and featured Beatrice Arthur (known by most as Dorothy on TV's "Golden Girls") as an unbalanced, fiesty, outspoken, over-emotional, liberal whose neighbor is a Conservative Doctor (played by Diffrent' Strokes star Conrad Bain), and whose husband is a moderate, middle of the road kind of guy (played by Bill Macy).
Although many Maude episodes were controversial (like where she is deciding on whether or not to have an abortion at age 47), some may have been booring, but a lot of them are hilarious.
Take for example, the episode where Walter turns 50. It's his birthday and Maude flies in an old friend of Walters that he hasn't seen in over 30 yearswho is the same age as Walter. Depressed with turning 50, Walter finally becomes excited when he sees his friend. As joy finally washes away Walter's blue funk, his friend drops dead of a heart attack, right at his feet.
Another classic episode is where Arthur moves in, and Maude is hysterical over him living with them.
One thing I like about Maude is that it has a lot of good fights. By fights I mean, fights in the tradition of "All in the Family" or its other spinoff the "Jeffersons." The insults hurled by Maude are priceless and are somewhat reminiscant of the insults and are suggestive and engaging, getting their joke across by wording them in such a clever way that got around the strict rules of the FCC.
But the thing I like about this DVD set the most is that it features newly restored... and uncut episodes. Each episode runs approximately 26 minutes in length (shows used to run a lot longer back in the day). I hate it when some studios pass off edited syndication versions (like ALF or IN LIVING COLOR) and still charge an arm and a leg. This boxed set was uncut and resonably priced ($21.95).
Now, you may be wondering what sparked my interest in Maude. It's simple. It wasn't on the air.
As a fan of Norman Lear's sitcoms, I was reading about some of them in numerous television history books I own in 1997. I grew up with The Jeffersons, One Day at a Time, and Good Times. I started watching All in The Family in reruns in my teen years, and thought it was hilarious, as well as Sanford and Son. But there was a problem. There were two Lear shows that I never saw. One was Maude and the other one was Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. I thought, "gee if these shows are as funny as the others I like, why aren't they on the air?" I wrote a letter to WCIU-Channel 26 the U in Chicago to add it to their line-up, and in the summer of 1998, they granted my request. It was funnier than I expected. I taped all I could, and by the fall of 98, they cancelled it. In 1999, TVLAND ran the series until 2001, and it was then I taped the entire series (all 141 episodes).
The Problem with Maude:
I don't think that Maude does very well in reruns today because of its combative, controversial nature. You have to have a satirical sense of cynicism to really appreciate its humor. Although I do not necessarily agree with all of the messages that the show communicates, I do consider it as a source for some laugh out loud humor. But if you like a funny, sort of clash of the forces type of sitcom, then Maude may very well be for you. I like Maude because of its combative, if you don't like it too bad, type of style. But if you don't like that type of humor, you may want to stick to more lighthearted sitcoms like Full House, The Facts of Life, or Punky Brewster. Maude is for the types who like "the hard stuff."