“Maude’s Night Out” Explored the Cracks in Maude’s Self-Confidence

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Brian looks at how the season one finale of Maude helped explore the cracks in Maude's self-confidence.



Today, we look at how the season one finale of Maude helped explore the cracks in Maude‘s self-confidence.

This is a delayed Year of Great TV Episodes, where every day from March 2nd on this year (plus January 1st-March 1st of 2024), we’ll take a look at great TV episodes. Note that I’m not talking about “Very Special Episodes” or episodes built around gimmicks, but just “normal” episodes of TV shows that are notable only because of how good they are.

All this month, I’ll be spotlighting great women-centric TV episodes.

All in the Family has some of the most famous spinoffs in TV history, and its first one was spinning off Bea Arthur’s Maude, who showed up in a Season 2 episode, “Cousin Maude’s Visit,” when the whole family gets sick and Edith needs help. Maude was cut from the same personality type as Archie Bunker, only where he was conservative, she was liberal. They were both stubborn and extremely opinionated (and not afraid to share their opinions). Arthur was so good, it was clear that she needed her own show (note, though, that the episode was initially just a guest spot, it wasn’t intended to spin her off into her own show).

Maude starred Arthur and Bill Macy as Maude and Walter Findlay. Walter was Maude’s fourth husband. Maude’s daughter, Carol (Adrienne Barbeau), a divorcee herself, lived with her mother and step-father with her young son. The Findlays’ neighbors were Dr. Arthur Harmon (Conrad Bain) and his second wife Vivian (Rue McClanahan). Arthur and Walter were lifelong friends, as were Maude and Vivian. Arthur was the resident conservative for Maude to clash with (but Maude actually respected Arthur, unlike her cousin Edith’s husband, Archie). Maude’s multiple housekeepers were also fixtures on the show (the most famous, Florida Evans, played by Esther Rolle, received her own spin-off, Good Times).

I’ve noted before that I won’t spotlight “very special episodes” or gimmick episodes for this feature (I might very well do future features spotlighting gimmick episodes and “very special episodes”), but the tricky thing is that there are certain shows where what WOULD be a gimmick for other shows was just a typical episode for it. That’s the case with the Season 1 finale of Maude, “Maude’s Night Out,” which is a bottle episode featuring only Bea Arthur and Bill Macy. Like All in the Family, bottle episodes were common on Maude, basically mini two-people plays.

In this episode, Maude and Walter are getting ready for a dinner party, but Walter is very irritable. We soon learn that it is because he has noticed that the husband of the couple who are hosting the party has been flirting with Maude, and it pisses him off. Maude gives him grief for being so jealous. However, we soon learn that Walter knows that the guy is actively having an affair with another married woman in their friend group.

Maude’s reaction is awesome, because she is both angry about the affair, but, also, shocked that the guy didn’t try to have an affair with HER. She suddenly dislike the guy (early on, she talks about how clever his dirty jokes are, and after she learns about the affair, she complains about all his dirty jokes he always tells). Walter is actually really good about her emotions, because he understands her reaction. As he notes, we ALL want to be desired.

In the end, they decide to go the party anyways, and before they leave, the husband calls, and Maude is once again charmed by his dirty jokes.

Maude was such a larger-then-life character, so it was nice to see her react to some cracks in her self-confidence. Also, it is important to note that Walter is Maude’s FOURTH husband, so it’s not like he has no reason to POSSIBLY doubt her.