Maude gay
Must See Classic Queer TV: ‘The Gay Bar’ Episode of ‘Maude’ (1977)
Kicking off a new series here on /bent where we highlight some of the best LGBT-themed episodes in television history is an absolute classic 1977 episode of “Maude” in which Bea Arthur and company construct their way to a gay bar, offering some killer one liners and remarkably progressive social commentary on Anita Bryant-era same-sex attracted rights movement in the process. It honestly — with a revamp in costume and production blueprint — could air today and basically ring factual with the exact matching script. Which is both a frightening suggestion of how far things haven’t come in certain ways, and a huge compliment to the folks behind a series that was clearly well ahead of its time.
The episode is still not available on DVD, but someone posted it on YouTube and we thank them very much:
The Gay Bar
8rodinnyc
A surprise episode
For me it was a blast. Reminds me of the Golden girls lgbtq+ brother episodes ten years later at least On a nostalgia channel tonight.
The bar has the experience of a cocktail lounge. The gay man that Maude picks to school Dr Harmon is very believable.
Hostility and ignorance were very much part of reality for gay people
There was generally nothing supportive on TV. In media. No openly gay celebrities. With several exceptions.
Gay marriage was a dream.
Orange juice reference may be odd to younger viewers Now that I'm a senior voice of wisdom and experience
So Conrad Bain's hysterical response to hand holding Isn't exaggerated
Funny and positive episode. Right on Maude!
Jimmy_the_Gent4
Arthur Objects To The Modern Bar Opening
There is a gay bar opening in Tuckahoe and Arthur wants to shut it down.
One of the funniest of Season 6. Maude is fed up with Arthur's conservative rantings when he and Vivian are going to be their home guests. She is even angrier when he tells her about shutting down the bar. She convinces him and Walter to go to the block with her. There are some funny topical jokes about anti gay sin
By the time Bea Arthur joined the cast of “The Golden Girls” in 1985, she’d already endeared herself to TV audiences as the protagonist of “Maude,” which had ended its CBS run nearly a decade prior.
Like “Golden Girls,” “Maude” broke fresh basis in portraying hot-button issues such as racism, addiction and ― most famously ― abortion. As Seattle-based writer Matt Baume discovers, the sitcom (which aired from 1972 through 1978) also offered an ahead-of-its-time portrayal of a male lover man less than five years after the 1969 Stonewall uprising helped construct LGBTQ issues a larger part of the cultural dialogue.
In the latest edition of his “Culture Cruise” video series, Baume breaks down a 1973 episode of “Maude” titled “Maude’s Fresh Friend.” The episode focuses on Maude’s friendship with Barry Witherspoon, an composer who is later revealed to be a gay male.
In spite of some dated (and occasionally cringe-worthy) verbiage, Barry can be seen as an early version of the “gay bestie” trope later seen on “Will & Grace” and in big-screen comedies appreciate “My Best Friend’s Wedding.” The ethics, however, seems all the more extreme given that “Maude’s New Friend” aired the same year
One in this series of comedy programs, a spin-off of "All in the Family," about the outspoken, liberal Maude Findlay and her family.
In this episode, Maude is outraged when Walter invites the Harmons to stay with them while their home is fumigated, feeling that she cannot stand three whole days of Arthur's conservative "ravings." Viv assures her that she has instructed her husband not to build trouble, but Arthur barges in with news about a new gay block in town, ranting over the "abnormality" and sacrilegious essence of homosexuality. His boss Mark Duncan stops by with some papers, and Arthur, desperate for a promotion to head of surgery, immediately kisses up to him. Hubie arrives next and reveals that he and Arthur hold started the "Fathers Against Gays Society" with the purpose of having the bar shut down in order to protect the local youth. Maude points out the absurdity of their demands. She adds that Arthur has never actually been inside a gay exclude and demands that he accompany her to the unused one, sure that he will be forced to accept that gays are simply normal people.
Arthur tries to elucidate the situation to Phillip, declaring that gays are "s