November 21, 1972: CBS takes a big risk – a few weeks before the Supreme Court’s decision was announced in Roe v. Wade – and airs the "abortion episode" of Maude, the 2nd half of a two-part episode.
The character of Maude Findlay, played by Beatrice Arthur, debuted on December 11, 1971, on an episode of All in the Family. Based largely on Frances Lear, then married to the show's creator, Norman Lear, Maude was a cousin of Edith Bunker (Jean Stapleton), and was as hard to the political left as her husband Archie (Carroll O'Connor) was to the right. The episode was well-received, and a pilot was ordered for a spinoff based on Maude. It debuted on September 12, 1972.
She lived in Tuckahoe, Westchester County, 16 miles north of Midtown Manhattan, with her 4th husband, Walter Findlay (Bill Macy -- not to be confused with later actor William H. Macy); and her grown daughter from a previous marriage, Carol Traynor (Adrienne Barbeau) and her son, Phillip (Brian Morrison).
Maude wasn't quite a parody of a liberal feminist, as much as Archie was a parody of a conservative bigot, but her big mouth did occasionally get her in trouble. Their next-door neighbors were Dr. Arthur Harmon (Conrad Bain), a Republican who had been Walter's best friend since they served together in World War II; and his wife Vivian (Rue McClanahan), a nice but not very bright lady who had been Maude's best friend since college. Arthur had introduced Walter and Maude, and, turning the tables, Maude introduced Arthur and Vivian after the former was widowed and the latter divorced.
For the show's 1st 2 years, Maude had a black housekeeper, Florida Evans (Esther Rolle). That character proved so popular that, for the 1st time ever, CBS created a spinoff of a spinoff, based around the character and her family: Good Times.
On November 14, 1972, CBS broadcast the 1st part of a 2-part episode, "Maude's Dilemma." Maude discovers that she is pregnant. Ordinarily, this would not have been a big deal. After all, she and Walter were happily married. But Maude was 47, so this was probably a record for a pregnant woman on American TV at the time. And she was already a grandmother. (For comparison's sake: The most famous pregnancy in sitcom history after this was on Murphy Brown, and the title character was 43 at the time.)
Carol pointed out to Maude that abortion was now legal in the State of New York. The State legislature had passed a bill legalizing in on April 10, 1970, and Governor Nelson Rockefeller signed it into law the next day. In the 2nd part, airing on November 21, Maude discussed it with Walter, who had no children of his own. He said he would support her decision, no matter what.
She decided that, given their ages (Walter was even older, 49), raising a baby at their stage of life was not what they should be doing. The episode ended with the decision being made: She was not shown going to the doctor, or at the doctor's office, or coming back from it. If she ever had any qualms about her decision, they were never shown onscreen.
Two CBS affiliates in Illinois, WCIA-Channel 3 in Champaign and WMBD-Channel 31 in Peoria, refused to air the episode. It was the 1st time any CBS station had ever refused to run an episode of a continuing series. Roe v. Wade was decided on January 22, 1973, 2 months after the episode. The episode was run again that August and, with abortion legalized throughout the country, 25 affiliates refused to air it.
The shown ran for 6 seasons. At the end, Carol and Phillip moved to Colorado, Arthur and Vivian moved to Idaho, and Maude ran for Congress, to fill a seat vacated by the death of her friend, the incumbent, and won, leading to she and Walter moving to Washington, D.C.
Ironically, after having son Cody Carpenter with her 1st husband, film director John Carpenter, in 1984, at age 39, Barbeau would marry actor Billy Van Zandt, brother of Bruce Springsteen's guitarist Little Steven, and gave birth to twin boys at the age of 51, 4 years older than the character of Maude was when she decided to have the abortion, and the same age at which the character lamented, "I'm old!" But, just as fictional Maude made her choice, real-life Adrienne made her choice, saying, "I was the only one on the maternity ward who was also a member of AARP."
In 1985, TV producer Tony Thomas -- son of Danny and brother of Marlo -- created the sitcom The Golden Girls. He got Betty White, formerly the man-hungry Sue Ann Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, to play the lovable but dimwitted Rose Nylund; and got McClanahan to play the man-hungry Blanche Devereaux. Thomas asked McClanahan to talk Arthur into playing the wisecracking feminist Dorothy Zbornack.
When Rue approached Bea with the idea, Bea said she didn't want Rue playing "another Vivian." "Oh, but you don't understand," Rue said. "This time, Betty's playing Vivian, and I'm playing Sue Ann!" Bea immediately got the reference, and said, "Interesting!" And so my generation, not old enough to really remember Maude or The MTM Show, will forever remember Bea as Dorothy, Rue as Blanche, and Betty as Rose -- instead of as Maude, Vivian and Sue Ann, respectively.
In that show's 2nd season premiere, Blanche, then age 48, 1 year older than Maude was at the time, thought that she was pregnant, and didn't know what she would do. As it turned out, instead of being pregnant, she was going through menopause, something that had been touched on in an early episode of All in the Family. That Golden Girls episode was written by one of the show's co-creators, Susan Harris, who, 14 years earlier, had written "Maude's Dilemma."
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November 21, 1972 was a Tuesday. Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. There were 7 games played in the NBA:
* The New York Knicks beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 108-80 at Madison Square Garden.
* The Baltimore Bullets beat the Buffalo Braves, 124-88 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.
* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 98-88 at the Cleveland Arena.
* The Detroit Pistons beat the Atlanta Hawks, 113-110 in overtime at Cobo Hall (now Huntington Place) in Detroit.
* The Chicago Bulls beat the Houston Rockets, 113-105 at the Chicago Stadium.
* The Boston Celtics beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 116-102 at the Milwaukee Exposition and Convention Center Arena. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar scored 33 points for the Bucks. He had recently announced his conversion to Islam and his change of name from Lew Alcindor. He has never publicly stated his feelings about his home court being known by its initials, "The MECCA" -- of those about his hometown's arena, Madison Square Garden, being known as "The Mecca of Basketball."
* And the Kansas City-Omaha Kings beat the Phoenix Suns, 101-96 at the Kansas City Municipal Auditorium. Nate "Tiny" Archibald scored 37 points for the Kings.
There were 3 games in the American Basketball Association:
* The Indiana Pacers beat the Memphis Tams, 121-120 at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis. George McGinnis of the Pacers led all scorers on the night with 42 points.
* The Denver Rockets beat the Utah Stars, 106-100 at the Denver Auditorium Arena.
* And the San Diego Conquistadors beat the Dallas Chaparrals, 105-101 at the San Diego Sports Arena (now the Pechanga Arena).
There were 3 games in the NHL:
* The New York Rangers beat the Atlanta Flames, 3-1 at The Omni in Atlanta.
* The New York Islanders beat the California Golden Seals, 4-2 at the Nassau Coliseum.
* And the St. Louis Blues beat the Vancouver Canucks, 4-2 at the St. Louis Arena.
And there were 3 games in the brand-new World Hockey Association:
* The Minnesota Fighting Saints beat the Alberta Oilers, 4-3 at the St. Paul Civic Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. The Oilers were renamed the Edmonton Oilers the next season.
* The Winnipeg Jets beat the Houston Aeros, 4-2 at the Sam Houston Coliseum in Houston.
* And the Cleveland Crusaders beat the Los Angeles Sharks, 5-2 at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.
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