Greenes
Please don't spend money on this.
Hadrina
The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
Ariella Broughton
It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.
SoSingular
One thing that I disagree with is that Maude was like All in the Family, although perhaps an upsides down All in the Family in that Maude was liberal and Archie was conservative. This show was, truly, one of a kind. It is true that both shows discussed real issues of the times, but both settings are entirely different, Maude and Carol are women and the dominant characters, and the texture of the film is entirely different. It is a sophisticated classic that deserves to be thought of independently for its own guts, comedic genius, and point of view. It had a lot of great stories to tell, and it had the guts to tell it to the whole world
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.
Evedammit
ATTN: Industry people, put this out on DVD. This was one of my favorite sitcoms and is much better than a lot of older shows now available on DVD. BRING BACK MAUDE PLEASE!! I believe this show surprisingly wouldn't appear dated, but still relevant. And Bea Arthur was funny as heck. She and Carol Burnett were the funniest ladies of this TV era. Maude and even "Mary Hartman" should be issued on DVD. Definitely. Bea Arthur as Maude was the most endearingly smart, sarcastic character. Also her boldness offended my Dad, which made me love her even more. Along w/ All in the Family, "Maude" was ahead of its time re: cultural and societal referencing on early 70's television. I don't care what it'd cost, I'd love to own Maude on DVD. Hopefully the powers that be in Hollyweird will someday make it happen.
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.
