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I don't dislike it as much as you do, probably in large part because John Byner can make me laugh by doing almost anything, but the episode isn't really in the series' comfort zone. The shows are typically grounded very much in reality, and the comedy is based in recognizable truth. This episode...

Right, I think it's underrated in retrospect. It got a lot of approbation at the time, but it wasn't a big hit in syndication and it has been unfairly forgotten or mislabeled in the years since.

I haven't watched every episode, but have watched about half, and I haven't found a single missing moment. Brian is right about the frequency of songs being sung or quoted, and it's all there. Even notoriously difficult stuff like Irving Berlin and Rodgers and Hammerstein songs are included...

Thanks for sharing that. I hadn't seen it before. It's cute, and they've obviously watched the show. The running joke about Philip made me laugh.

It's funny how this same discussion comes up in one thread or another every year or so. Before wading in once more, I admit to loving both Maude and All in the Family. For the people who just don't like either show, I can understand how that might be. The topicality is almost always in service...

I thought Ms. Arthur had great chemistry with Martin Balsam. It's a big risk to do a (mostly) two-character piece with a guest star because if they don't work well together, it just won't be good. I loved seeing the two of them work together though, and it was also an engaging look into Maude's...

Also a very good episode. I wish they had continued to do one or two of those every year. Of course, there was The Analyst in the fourth year, which was outstanding in a whole different way, but I would like to have had some more two-person shows in real time. (Frasier did two marvelous episodes...

I think that "The Convention" is one of the best expressions of the Lear method from any series. It's a beautifully staged two-character piece that is very funny while deeply exploring both a character and a larger issue. It's also courageous in acknowledging that it isn't a problem that can be...

I agree that Arthur's opinion is irrelevant to the decision and wouldn't have been appropriate as part of the discussion beforehand. I just think the series was guilty of the charge leveled against many sitcoms with life-changing episodes: that after the problem is resolved, it never has any...

I believe she submitted "Maude's Desperate Hours."

The Lear argument was always that the funniest moments in life come at the most serious times, so it's not surprising that they went with the main character for the storyline. That being said, the Lear argument is not the only one to be made and I definitely understand Jack's feeling about...

I think it was probably a conscious choice to make the statement as quiet and limited as possible, so that the show would be a character story rather than a political tract. Walter has a line at the end about "you and I, in the privacy of our own lives" and I think that line was really the way...

Yes, I agree, John! That's why I wondered why they remade the episode at all, just as you do. I was only suggesting a possible reason the sponsors might have objected to the Maude episode and not the AITF episode. The network would have seen the script much earlier, but the sponsors wouldn't...

I thought about "The Bunkers and the Swingers" when I considered why the episode might have been pulled. The only content distinction I can see is that in the All in the Family episode, both Archie and Edith are horrified at the idea, though they show it in different ways. In the Maude episode...

Very interesting discovery!! The sponsor theory makes sense, as CBS itself wouldn't have changed its corporate philosophy in a year and a half and the ratings for Maude were lower, not higher, when the story finally aired. But I wonder, if the show was pulled because of someone's problem with...

I don't think CBS censors asked the episodes to be pulled. They would have seen the scripts before they were shot and the scripts aren't very different from the later versions. Nothing in the production would have made the scripts more objectionable either. I think someone at Tandem or at Maude...

Whether it was Saks's choice or the original script, the characterization in the unaired version is positively creepy from the beginning. Coco is charming, and it's easier to understand Maude being flattered by the attention from him.

Perhaps the writers behind "Boob Job" on Everybody Loves Raymond watched this episode and had the same thought you had, as that is how they dealt with the plastic surgery issue.

The first part really is terrific. The second part suffers from serious pacing problems. It's a reveal that takes forever and there isn't any surprise or interest left by the time it happens. Also, I think the joke is hurt by the fact that Ms. Arthur looked exactly the same in both parts of the...

Been watching more of the episodes, and numerous other songs were cleared besides those for the four musical episodes. I really wish Shout had gotten The Odd Couple...

I checked the three earlier musical episodes. They all clock in at around 26 minutes and I didn't note any missing songs. Shout seems to have done a wonderful job on this set. They even cleared difficult songs like "There's No Business Like Show Business." Of course there are snippets of songs...

I just watched the two unaired shows. Interesting to see the variations in both, but the big surprise was that in the original version of "Maude's New Friends," the psychiatrist was played by Gene Saks, who was Beatrice Arthur's husband. It's an entirely different conception of the character...

Yes, all the episodes have something good and in that one, her reactions are still great. But one of my disappointments about the episode is that Walter suddenly turns into Benny Hill after 140 shows.

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...

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...

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.

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...

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