Maude (pilot)

"Maude"
	All in the Family episode
Episode no.	Season 2; Episode 24 (37th overall)
Directed by	John Rich
Written by	Rod Parker
Produced by	Norman Lear
Editing by	Marco Zappia
Production code	224
Original air date	March 11, 1972
Running time	24 minutes
Guest appearance(s)
	Beatrice Arthur as Maude Findlay ; Bill Macy as Walter Findlay ; Marcia Rodd as Carol ; Robert Dishy as David Green ; Bernie West as The RepairmanContents Plot ; Production notes ; References ; External links ;
Episode chronology
← Previous; "Archie is Jealous"	Next →; "Archie and the Editorial"
	List of All in the Family episodes

Last updated April 23, 2019

"Maude" is the twenty-fourth and final episode of the second season of the American television sitcom All in the Family which also served as the eponymous pilot episode of its first spin-off series Maude . The episode, directed by John Rich and written by Rod Parker, was videotaped on February 18, 1972 in front of a live audience at CBS Television City in Hollywood, California and originally aired on March 11, 1972 at 8:00 p.m. EST on CBS.^[1]

A sitcom, clipping for situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use new characters in each sketch, and stand-up comedy, where a comedian tells jokes and stories to an audience. Sitcoms originated in radio, but today are found mostly on television as one of its dominant narrative forms. This form can also include mockumentaries.

<i>All in the Family</i> American television series

All in the Family is an American sitcom TV-series that was originally broadcast on the CBS television network for nine seasons, from January 12, 1971 to April 8, 1979. The following September, it was continued with the spin-off series Archie Bunker's Place, which picked up where All in the Family had ended and ran for four more seasons.

A television pilot is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell the show to a television network. At the time of its creation, the pilot is meant to be the testing ground to gauge whether a series will be successful; it is therefore a test episode for the intended television series, an early step in the series development, much like pilot studies serve as precursors to the start of larger activity. In the case of a successful television series, the pilot is commonly the very first episode that is aired of the particular series under its own name; the episode that gets the series "off the ground". A "back door pilot" is an episode of an existing successful series, featuring future tie-in characters of an up-and-coming television series or film. Its purpose is to introduce the characters to an audience before the creators decide on whether or not they intend to pursue a spin-off series with those characters.

Plot

Archie Bunker (Carroll O'Connor) and his wife Edith (Jean Stapleton) prepare to visit Edith's cousin Maude Findlay (Beatrice Arthur) in Westchester County, New York to celebrate the wedding of her daughter, though Archie is less than thrilled about the trip. Maude's daughter Carol (Marcia Rodd) is equally annoyed to learn of Archie's invitation, predicting that he will make offensive comments about her Jewish fiancé, David Green (Robert Dishy). Maude assures her that David will handle Archie with grace, as it is "a trait of theirs," and Carol points out her mother's own shortsighted views. She grumbles about the "archaic ritual" of marriage, but Maude points out that weddings come with gifts.

Archibald "Archie" Bunker is a fictional character from the 1970s American television sitcom All in the Family and its spin-off Archie Bunker's Place, played by Carroll O'Connor. Bunker, a main character of the series, is a World War II veteran, blue-collar worker, and family man. Described as a "lovable bigot", he was first seen by the American public when All in the Family premiered on January 12, 1971, where he was depicted as the head of the Bunker family. In 1979, the show was retooled and renamed Archie Bunker's Place; it finally went off the air in 1983. Bunker lived at the fictional address of 704 Hauser Street in the borough of Queens, in New York City.

John Carroll O'Connor was an American actor, producer, and director whose television career spanned four decades. A lifelong member of the Actors Studio, O'Connor first attracted attention as Major General Colt in the 1970 film Kelly's Heroes. The following year, he found fame as bigoted working man Archie Bunker, the main character in the 1970s CBS television sitcoms All in the Family (1971-79) and its spinoff, Archie Bunker's Place (1979-83). O'Connor later starred in the NBC/CBS television crime drama In the Heat of the Night (1988-95), where he played the role of Sparta, Mississippi police chief William (Bill) Gillespie. At the end of his career in the late 1990s, he played the father of Jamie Buchman on Mad About You.

Edith Bunker is a fictional 1970s sitcom character on All in the Family, played by Jean Stapleton. She was the wife of Archie Bunker, mother of Gloria Stivic, mother-in-law of Michael "Meathead" Stivic and after 1975, grandmother of Joey Stivic. Her cousin was Maude Findlay who was one of Archie's nemeses.

After Maude gets rid of an unhelpful plumber (Bernie West) and refuses his high fee, David stops by with information about the bachelor party. Walter (Bill Macy), Carol's stepfather, questions her traditional "white" wedding, as she was married once before and already has a "dumb kid," Phillip. Archie and Edith arrive and Maude bluntly tells Archie about David's faith, to which he reacts as predicted. When he learns that he must chip in for the bachelor party, Archie refuses to attend and declares his intentions to stay with Edith at the bridal shower, but the arrival of the other female guests drives him back to his motel.

Bernie West was an American television writer best known for his work in situation comedies such as All in the Family, its spinoff The Jeffersons, and Three's Company.

Bill Macy is an American actor.

After the party, Maude and Carol discuss their previous marriages, while Edith goes upstairs and gets Carol's son, Phillip, a drink and tell him a story; and debate who gave whom a shower for which event. David and Walter return in bad tempers, the bachelor party having been broken up by the cops. Carol is upset to learn that there was female entertainment at the party, and further alarmed when David reveals that he bought a house without Carol's knowledge and expects her to quit her job and be a stay-at-home mother and housewife. She inadvertently makes an anti-Semitic remark in response, and though Maude attempts to smooth things over, the couple argues and calls off the wedding. Maude comforts her daughter and breaks the news to Edith and Archie, and Archie reveals that he was the one who unknowingly called the cops on the party, leading Maude to blame him for the entire debacle. For what he did, Maude stomps on his foot and then berates him. Carol assures him that it was not his fault, however, and he agrees with this and departs with Edith, leaving behind their wedding gift as "a deposit for the next one."

Production notes

In 1971, Bea Arthur received a telephone call from Norman Lear about guest-starring on a few episodes of All in the Family as Edith's cousin Maude, an outspoken liberal feminist who was the antithesis to the bigoted, conservative Republican Archie, who described her as a "New Deal fanatic". Lear strongly insisted her on doing it, despite Arthur, who hated flying. She agreed at the very last minute to take the role for a few episodes.
The character of Maude Findlay was first introduced on All in the Family on December 11, 1971 in the episode "Cousin Maude's Visit" in which she helped take care of the Bunkers when they were all sick with a nasty flu virus. Maude disliked Archie intensely, mainly because she thought Edith could have married better, but also because Archie was a conservative while Maude was very liberal in her politics, especially when Archie denounced Maude's support of Franklin D. Roosevelt.^[2]
Following her first appearance as Maude, Arthur appealed to viewers and to CBS executives, who, she would later recall, asked: "Who is that girl? Let's give her her own series."^[3]
The pilot episode was essentially designed to set up the premise for the spin-off series that would premiere later in the year. In the episode, Bill Macy played Maude's fourth husband, Walter; it was a role he reprised for the weekly series that fall. Marcia Rodd, the actress who played Carol in the pilot episode, was replaced by Adrienne Barbeau in Maude.
Frances Lear, then-wife of Norman Lear, was believed to be the inspiration for the character of Maude Findlay.

Norman Milton Lear is an American television writer and producer who produced such 1970s sitcoms as All in the Family, Sanford and Son, One Day at a Time, The Jeffersons, Good Times, and Maude. As a political activist, he founded the advocacy organization People for the American Way in 1981 and has supported First Amendment rights and progressive causes.

Antithesis is used in writing or speech either as a proposition that contrasts with or reverses some previously mentioned proposition, or when two opposites are introduced together for contrasting effect. The is based on the logical phrase or term.

New Deal Economic programs of U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt

The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1936. It responded to needs for relief, reform, and recovery from the Great Depression. Major federal programs included the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), the Civil Works Administration (CWA), the Farm Security Administration (FSA), the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 (NIRA) and the Social Security Administration (SSA). They provided support for farmers, the unemployed, youth and the elderly. The New Deal included new constraints and safeguards on the banking industry and efforts to re-inflate the economy after prices had fallen sharply. New Deal programs included both laws passed by Congress as well as presidential executive orders during the first term of the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

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Bicentennial Minutes was a series of short educational American television segments commemorating the bicentennial of the American Revolution. The segments were produced by the CBS Television Network and broadcast nightly from July 4, 1974, until December 31, 1976. The segments were sponsored by Shell Oil Company, then later by Raid (insecticide) from July 1976 onward.

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704 Hauser is an American sitcom and a spin-off of All in the Family that aired on CBS from April 11 to May 9, 1994. The series is built around the concept of a black family, the Cumberbatch Family, moving into the former Queens home of Archie Bunker years after Bunker had sold the house located at 704 Hauser Street. The All in the Family character Joey Stivic, Archie's grandson, makes a cameo in the first episode.

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"Cousin Liz" is an episode of the American television sitcom All in the Family. The story concerns Edith Bunker's inheritance of a valuable tea service from her deceased cousin Liz and her decision, upon learning that Liz's "roommate" Veronica is really Liz's surviving longtime romantic companion, to give Veronica the service. The second episode of season 8, "Cousin Liz" originally aired on October 9, 1977.

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"The 200th Episode Celebration of All in the Family" is a 90-minute retrospective of the American television sitcom All in the Family starring Carroll O'Connor, Jean Stapleton, Rob Reiner and Sally Struthers which aired on Sunday, March 4, 1979 at 8:00 p.m. EST on CBS. It was directed by Walter C. Miller, hosted by Norman Lear and videotaped on February 19, 1979 in front of a live audience at Mark Taper Forum of the Los Angeles Music Center in Los Angeles, California.

References

↑ Pilot: "Maude" at TV.com
↑ Brooks, Tim & Marsh, Earle F. The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946–Present
↑ "Golden Girls Star Be Arthur Dies at 86". NPR. April 25, 2009. Archived from the original on April 27, 2009. Retrieved April 27, 2009.

External links

"Maude" on IMDb

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[1] Pilot: "Maude" at TV.com

[2] Brooks, Tim & Marsh, Earle F. The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946–Present

[3] "Golden Girls Star Be Arthur Dies at 86". NPR. April 25, 2009. Archived from the original on April 27, 2009. Retrieved April 27, 2009.

v t e Maude
Characters	Maude Findlay
Episodes	"Maude" (pilot)
Spin-offs	Good Times (1974–1979) Episodes Mr. Dugan (1979; unaired) Hanging In (1979)
Related	All in the Family (1971–1979) Episodes "And Then There's Maude" (theme song)