Bea and me

A lot of bloggers are posting about the death of Bea Arthur, and many work into it somewhere the song lyric, “Thank you for being a friend”, Andrew Gold’s 1978 hit which was used as the theme music (sung by Cynthia Fee) for the hit series The Golden Girls. My history with Bea goes back farther.

I don’t remember ever seeing Bea play the character Maude on All in the Family, since my family didn’t watch the show during the first years it was on. However, when I saw her on Maude (1972-1978) she and the show quickly became favourites.

When I started watching, my politics had more in common with Maude’s conservative foil, Dr. Arthur Harmon (played by Conrad Bain), than with the liberal Maude Findlay. That changed over the years, and by the time the show ended in 1978, I was hooked and largely—and perhaps largely secretly—in agreement with the liberal icon.

During its run, it tackled many “controversial” issues of the day, including abortion (which is what the clip above is from) before Roe v. Wade made abortion legal throughout the US. It’s hard to remember it now, but in that pre-Internet era the main place America debated the burning issues of the day was TV sitcoms. Can anyone imagine current US sitcoms being in any way similarly topical?

I was also a fan of The Golden Girls (1985-1992), and my original attraction to it was the re-teaming of Bea Arthur and Rue McClanahan. I was happy that this show also took on “controversial” issues, but as with Maude, the writing and acting that kept me watching. The creator of The Golden Girls, Susan Harris, was also a writer on the famous (infamous?) Maude abortion episode.

In the early years of Maude, I had no idea that Bea Arthur had had a stage career before television. Mind you, in those days I wasn’t very aware of stage generally, so it’s not really a surprise. The clip below is of Bea and Angela Lansbury performing “Bosom Buddies” from Mame, which they did together on Broadway in 1966. Reportedly, Bea based the character of Maude on her portrayal of Vera Charles.

So, first and foremost, Bea Arthur gave me countless hours of entertainment and more laughs than I could possibly count. That’s tribute enough. But her performance as Maude also made me realise that it was okay to think differently from the majority. The character of Maude certainly didn’t turn me into a liberal, but it helped me feel it was okay to be myself and think for myself, which had so many other important implications. I can’t think of many other TV sitcoms that had that kind of affect on me. Heck, I can’t even remember that many other old sitcoms, and those that I do are mostly from that same general era.

So, Bea, thank you for—well, you know.