I only got the chance to catch seldom episodes when it ran recently on Nick's TV Land,but I wanted to see more,but before I could seen them they took it right off the air. When CBS premiered this spin off from "All In The Family" in September of 1972,no one had the slightest idea that it would last until April of 1978 where it ran for an astounding six years.
"Maude" gave people a chance for the people of "All In The Family" to tackle the female side of issues..by creating a powerful,subtle and holds no punches as well as humorous and full of fight woman that had just as stronger views as Archie Bunker--who else couldn't keep her mouth shut! She spoke her mind on things and her her political views were extremely rare to boot! However,Maude's household was full of surprises cause you never know what can you expect especially the occurrences happening at the Findlay's. In other words,in Maude's house she didn't take no crap from any sucker cause she was the total boss of the dome! Tough-spirited yet gullible. Bill Macy was the perfect husband Walter who was an salesmen played it to the hilt! Also rounding out the cast were there next door neighbors--the nutty and slightly unpredictable Harmon's played by Rue McClanahan and Conrad Bain,and the Findley's daughter Carol played by Adrienne Barbeau and their housekeeper played by two different actresses(Seasons 1-2 played by Esther Rolle who played Florida who after this had a spin off from Maude as well called "Good Times")and Carol's son(from a previous marriage) and Maude's nephew Phillip(played by two different actors especially one of them who played the first Phillip went to star opposite Linda Lavin's son onanother CBS series "Alice").
One of the best three favorite episodes from the series was the one where Phillip was acting like a real brat. Carol and Walter were fed up with him,but Maude believed there was no such thing as a bad child. THEY WERE WRONG! She showed Phillip who was the boss around here especially when adults are in charge!
The other episode where Phillip had some friends over to the Findley's for a party complete with a live band. What made Maude so angry in that episode was that Phillip was with some friends in the back yard smoking pot while the rest of his friends really trashed the house! But anyway when Maude asked Phillip about the pot,he really gave his mom a hard time and his room and himself was smelling like pot as well and of course lied to her about it,but it was Maude that gave him a wicked back hand across his face for talking back to his mother and to her! In other words,Carol didn't know how to control Phillip when he got older,since she was a divorce parent who never took time out since Phillip's dad was never around,but it was Maude who really gave the kid a good advice and some common sense,and to Carol as well on how to raise her son!
The other episode was when The Harmon's had a special guest in the neighborhood and no one really knew it at first,but the beans leaked out and out of the blue comes the Duke himself---JOHN WAYNE! and also had a musical interlude by no other but Donny Hathaway in a rare TV appearance who also wrote and compose the show's theme song.
LONG LIVE THE QUEEN....MAUDE RULES!!!
