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Shout Factory Press Release: Maude: The Complete Series (2 Viewers)

Ronald Epstein

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image003.jpg@01D02B2E.27810040.jpeg

 

And then there’s Maude!

 

MAUDE: THE COMPLETE SERIES

COMING TO DVD FROM SHOUT! FACTORY

ON MARCH 17, 2015

 

Los Angeles, CA - Uncompromising, enterprising, anything but tranquilizing… Television history has given us many memorable, amazing women… and then there’s Maude. Bea Arthur (The Golden Girls) stars as the feisty and funny title character in Maude: The Complete Series, finally available on DVD from Shout! Factory on March 17, 2015. The box set contains all 141 episodes on 19 DVDs, as well as a 40-page collector’s book containing an essay by Pulitzer Prize–winning TV critic Tom Shales, and several bonus features.

 

Customers ordering this title from ShoutFactory.com will receive their copy one month early, with free standard shipping.

 

Created by Norman Lear (All In The Family, The Jeffersons, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman), Maude pushed the boundaries for network television during its six-year network run from 1972 to 1978. Often controversial and always refreshingly honest, the series never shied away from tackling the topical issues of the day, yet its depth of character and humor left audiences laughing all the way.

 

Decades after its initial broadcast, Maude remains a benchmark in television for its sharp, intelligent writing, impressive supporting cast (including Bill Macy, Adrienne Barbeau, Conrad Bain and Rue McClanahan) – and of course, the amazing Ms. Arthur. In a role that earned her a well-deserved Emmy® award, Bea Arthur created an indelible portrait of a fiercely liberated woman, paving the way for other noteworthy, female-driven sitcoms from Roseanne and Murphy Brown to 30 Rock.

 

As Shales writes, the character of Maude Findlay was introduced on an episode of All in the Family in December, 1971. Maude was Edith Bunker’s feisty feminist cousin, someone as far to the left in her political beliefs as Archie was to the right – so devoted a Democrat that in her youth, she once ran 30 blocks up Broadway to get a glimpse of FDR as he began a Manhattan motorcade.  Maude & Archie’s clashes were the stuff of snappy, crackling comedy – Archie called Maude a “big-mouth buttinski” – and it seemed preordained that Maude would get a show of her own. It turned out to be a show which, for most of its run, placed in the Nielsen top ten, or twenty, just as All In The Family had routinely done.

 

Norman Lear released his autobiography “Even This I Get to Experience,” on October 14, 2014, detailing never-before heard stories about the development and creation of Maude. Find Norman Lear on twitter at @TheNormanLear.

 

Shout! Factory has also released Norman Lear’s All In The FamilyMary Hartman, Mary Hartman, and The Jeffersons in lovingly-assembled complete series box sets.

 

Shout! Factory, LLC is a diversified multi-platform entertainment company devoted to producing, uncovering, preserving and revitalizing the very best of pop culture. Founders Richard Foos, Bob Emmer and Garson Foos have spent their entire careers sharing their music, television and film favorites with discerning consumers the world over. Shout! Factory’s DVD and Blu-Ray™ offerings serve up feature films, classic and contemporary TV series, animation, live music and comedy specials in lavish packages crammed with extras.  Shout’s audio division boasts GRAMMY®-nominated box sets, new releases from storied artists, lovingly assembled album reissues and indispensable “best of” compilations.  In addition, Shout! Factory maintains a vast digital distribution network which delivers video and audio content to all the leading digital service providers in North America.  Shout! Factory also owns and operates Timeless Media Group, Biograph Records, Majordomo Records, HighTone Records and Video Time Machine. These riches are the result of a creative acquisition mandate that has established the company as a hotbed of cultural preservation and commercial reinvention.  Shout! Factory is based in Santa Monica, California. For more on Shout! Factory, visit shoutfactory.com

 

Maude: The Complete Series Bonus Features

 

- Original All In The Family episode “Cousin Maude’s Visit”

- Original All In The Family episode "Maude - Pilot"

- Unaired episode 115 "The Double Standard"

 - Unaired episode 316 "Maude's New Friends"  
- Syndication Sales Presentation (Hosted by Norman Lear)

 

Featurettes:
 "And Then There's Maude: Television's First Feminist"
 "Everything but Hemorrhoids: Maude Speaks to America"
 "Memories of Maude" - featuring new interviews with Adrienne Barbeau and Bill Macy

 

 

The link below will take you directly to the product on Amazon.  If you are using an adblocker you will not see link.

 
 
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upperco

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I'm confused. Didn't both of those "unaired" episodes actually air?
 

FanCollector

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Yes, both of those episodes aired. Maybe they have alternate versions? As with the WKRP set? The set sounds great anyway.
 

Kasey

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Perhaps there were early versions that CBS censors would not approve and those are the ones we will be getting. Either way, I am grateful for some decent bonuses. Can't wait til February!
 

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From Shout's website:

Product Note
*The two unaired episodes of Maude share titles and story elements that eventually did air. "The Double Standard" was originally shot for Season One as episode 15 and did not air. However, the same script was reshot for Season Two with cast changes and aired on 10/30/73. "Arthur's Friends" (a.k.a. "Maude's New Friends") was originally shot for Season Three as episode 16. This version also did not air, but the script was reshot in Season Five with cast changes and aired 11/29/76. Tapes for both episodes were recently found in the Sony vault and have never been seen by the public until now.

This is a pretty major find.
 

upperco

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FanCollector said:
From Shout's website:
Product Note
*The two unaired episodes of Maude share titles and story elements that eventually did air. "The Double Standard" was originally shot for Season One as episode 15 and did not air. However, the same script was reshot for Season Two with cast changes and aired on 10/30/73. "Arthur's Friends" (a.k.a. "Maude's New Friends") was originally shot for Season Three as episode 16. This version also did not air, but the script was reshot in Season Five with cast changes and aired 11/29/76. Tapes for both episodes were recently found in the Sony vault and have never been seen by the public until now.
This is a pretty major find.

WOW! Can't wait!!
 

FanCollector

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This may also explain why there were only 22 episodes of season 1 and 23 episodes of season 3. Given the show's ratings, it was always surprising to me that CBS didn't exercise its option for 24 episodes.
 

Vahan_Nisanain

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I'm shocked. Two taped-but-never-shown episodes resurfacing for the first time ever? Why did they not show them in Syndication? Don't unaired episodes of a sitcom usually get reserved for Syndicated reruns?

I would have mentioned the lost episode of Married With Children from 1989. But then again, it DID air in some parts of the world in 1990, before it eventually made its American debut a decade later. So it was never really a 100% lost episode.
 

JohnMor

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Vahan_Nisanain said:
I'm shocked. Two taped-but-never-shown episodes resurfacing for the first time ever? Why did they not show them in Syndication? Don't unaired episodes of a sitcom usually get reserved for Syndicated reruns?

I would have mentioned the lost episode of Married With Children from 1989. But then again, it DID air in some parts of the world in 1990, before it eventually made its American debut a decade later. So it was never really a 100% lost episode.

Since they were reshot for later seasons and hence not intended to air, it makes sense they wouldn't be put into syndication.
 

MatthewA

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I wonder what the episodes were about. It had to have been pretty scandalous by 1973 standards not to have been aired, considering how much did get past standards & practices.
 

Rob_Ray

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MatthewA said:
I wonder what the episodes were about. It had to have been pretty scandalous by 1973 standards not to have been aired, considering how much did get past standards & practices.
I don't think it had anything to do with content meeting standards and practices as much as that, for whatever reason, the shows just didn't work and needed to be re-written or re-cast. It happens.
 

Kasey

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MatthewA said:
I wonder what the episodes were about. It had to have been pretty scandalous by 1973 standards not to have been aired, considering how much did get past standards & practices.
The first script was Maude freaking out when she learned Carol's boyfriend was going to spend the night in Carol's room; the second was Maude meeting a couple of swingers. Both of the aired versions are among my favorite episodes.
 

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I gotta say, Shout has been doing a great job with these complete sets of the Lear shows. While I wasn't that interested in having the complete set for The Jeffersons or double dipping for the complete set for All In The Family, I got a couple of good deals so I went for it. Great extras on each of the sets, good box art and smaller packaging made it all worth it.


I can't wait for Maude to arrive. This is my favorite of the All In The Family spin offs. The Jeffersons is good, but there is just something special about Maude. Perhaps because it was the first spin off? I don't know. I've always had a soft spot for good ole Maudey.
 

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Without debating the relative merits of Maude vs. The Jeffersons (and no need--we all will have our shows now!), I think that part of what you may feel is a much closer stylistic kinship with All in the Family. Maude shares both themes and style with All in the Family, whereas The Jeffersons feels like a much more distant relative. Maude's blend of the serious and the absurd, its core conflicts, and its reflection of the larger world in (mostly) a two-room set all make it an obvious All in the Family spinoff. The Jeffersons has a lot to recommend it, but watching it feels very different from AITF.
 

Neil Brock

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I would have liked for them to really dig deep and follow through with the spinoffs at the end of the series when Maude goes to Congress. After they ended the series that way, Bea Arthur decided she didn't want to do it and Norman Lear kept the concept and the show started morphing. First they did a pilot with John Amos in the role. Then he quit and they shot 3 episodes with Cleavon Little, which were all set to air (I have the promos from a few days before) and that got pulled at the last second. Finally, Bill Macy wound up in it (playing a different character) and it ran as Hanging In for a few episodes. Oh well.
 

FanCollector

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I'd like to have seen these also, just to examine the different ways of playing out the same concept. Qualitywise, I don't have high expectations of them. Speaking even as a tremendous Maude fan, that last episode was pretty dreadful. Without Ms. Arthur, I can only imagine...
 

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