Maude Findlay

Maude Chadbourne Findlay
First appearance	Cousin Maude's Visit (All in the Family)
Last appearance	Maude Goes to Washington, Pt's. 1, 2 & 3
Portrayed by	Beatrice Arthur
Information
Nickname(s)	Maudie (referred to as such by Arthur Harmon, and was given nickname by her late aunt Gertrude)
Gender	Female
Occupation	Congresswoman
Family	Carol Traynor (daughter) Edith Bunker (cousin) Archie Bunker (cousin-in-law) Philip Traynor (grandson) Florence Chadbourne (mother) Gertrude (aunt) Henry (uncle) Marta (aunt by marriage)
Spouse(s)	Barney (1945) Chester (November 1950-1956) Albert Hilliard (7 months) Walter Findlay (1968-)

Maude Findlay (née Chadbourne; formerly Hilliard) is a fictional character on the controversial 1970s sitcom Maude. She was portrayed by the Emmy-winning actress Beatrice Arthur.

Background

Maude Findlay first appeared on All in the Family in December 1971, in the episode, "Cousin Maude's Visit", and is the cousin of Edith Bunker. Maude cared for Edith and disliked her husband, Archie Bunker, as shown by Maude telling Edith she could have chosen a much better mate than Archie. Maude also was an ally of Edith's daughter, Gloria (Sally Struthers), and Gloria's husband, Mike Stivic (Rob Reiner). Archie and Maude were both known for getting on each other's nerves, especially since she was a liberal and Archie was a conservative.

In All in the Family, it was said that Maude was widowed twice. Her husband Fred died of brain aneurysm and Bert died of a heart seizure. When Maude premiered, it seemed that Fred was now renamed Barney and Bert became Albert Hilliard, her third husband.

After her appearances on All in the Family, Maude received her own series, which debuted on CBS on September 12 1972. On her own show, Maude lives in Tuckahoe, New York, is quite no-nonsense, and is married to Walter Findlay (Bill Macy), the owner and operator of an appliance store called Findlay's Friendly Appliances. They met during a Democratic convention, where both supported Hubert Humphrey. Before she met Walter, she dated a writer named Russell Asher (Cesare Danova), who was a womanizer.

Walter's marriage to Maude was his second marriage. His previous wife was a gold digging woman named Marta (Carole Cook), to whom Walter was married for eleven years, and was paying alimony to when he married Maude. Marta, who agreed with Maude that Walter was a cheapskate, and greedy as she had ever been, was engaged to Maude's Uncle Henry, which truly unnerved her, having her husband's ex-wife as her aunt. Walter had ended up incurring Maude's unmatched wrath on numerous occasions, including when he had the nerve to call her Sylvia.

Maude's recently divorced daughter, Carol Traynor (who also disliked Archie Bunker) (Marcia Rodd in the pilot episode of All in the Family, which became Maude; Adrienne Barbeau, thereafter), and Carol's son, Philip (Brian Morrison; Kraig Metzinger), also live with the couple. Carol, who was once married to a man named Pete, who was Philip's father, was the product of Maude's second marriage to a man named Chester. Her marriage to Chester lasted six years. Maude had been married four times in all, Walter was her fourth husband. Much like her mother, Carol, too, was liberal, and clearly shared her mother's opinions, although at times, they would clash. At one point, Carol had dated Maude's old boyfriend, Russell Asher, which distressed Maude. However, after a fight in which Russell called Carol by her mother's name, she saw him for what he really was, a conceited bore, and both Carol and Maude threw him out of their lives for good. Later in the series' run, Carol had a serious relationship with a man named Chris (Fred Grandy).

The often loud and opinionated Maude would often tell someone, usually husband Walter, who could and sometimes did perturb her, "God'll get you for that!" (this line served as her catch phrase, her other catch phrase was "I'll rip his/her heart out!!!"); but she would obey very swiftly whenever Walter, who was Maude's polar opposite, meek on the outside, tiger within, would order, "Maude!!! Sit!" (The latter served as Walter's catch phrase.)

One of the running gags of the show is whenever Maude answered the phone, people would often mistake her for Walter, due to her voice being at a low range. Usually she would say to whomever it was on the phone, "No, this is not Mr. Findlay, this is MRS. Findlay." followed by a offhand remark about Walter.

During the course of the show, Maude and Walter's marriage would take more than a few hits; due to Walter's alcoholism; Walter's business going into bankruptcy; Walter having a heart attack, Maude's political aspirations, among other various things.

Walter tended to be rather old-fashioned, despite his being progressive, even going as far as to stoop to emotional blackmail to get Maude to be a more traditional housewife. He wanted to be the breadwinner, and couldn't stand it that Maude was a feminist. He also could be shown to be very chauvinistic as well, something which Maude would not and did not tolerate.

More often as not, however, Walter's blackmail attempts met with disaster, because it only made Maude all the more determined to do what she wanted to do. Sometimes, Walter and Maude would have very violent arguments in the kitchen which would often end up with some of Maude's priceless dishes being broken.

Maude hired the first Housekeeper, Florida Evans, an African-American woman who always had the last laugh at Maude's expense. Florida gave Maude a dose of her own medicine, but Florida always knew Maude was mostly a level-headed woman and had a feminist-like attitude. Florida left in 1974. (Esther Rolle got her own show, Good Times which premiered on February 8, 1974). Maude next hired Nell Naugatuck, a British housekeeper who drank too much and lied constantly, (In the episode called "The Case of the Broken Punch Bowl, both came into play when Maude was trying to find out who broke her Antique Waterford Crystal punch bowl, and, thanks to Carol, it was shown that Mrs. Naugatuck had deliberately broke it) and she left in 1977 with her husband to move to Ireland to care for her mother-in-law. And in the final season (1977—1978), Maude hired Victoria Butterfield, and she remained with the series until it ended.

Maude also had neighbors: The Harmons, Vivian Cavender-Harmon (Rue McClanahan) and Dr. Arthur Harmon (Conrad Bain). Maude got along with Vivian, having known her since they were in college; Vivian was well-meaning and compassionate but scatterbrained. Maude did not, however, get along with Arthur as well as she did with Vivian.

Arthur, who was conservative and Walter's best friend (the two had served together in World War II and it was Arthur who introduced Walter to Maude) was Maude's foil in lieu of Archie Bunker; and he simply called her "Maudie". Maude explained that Maudie had been a hated nickname given by her aunt Gertrude whom she cursed when she was fourteen and thirty three years later passed on.

Maude and Arthur were always clashing about something; usually political or moral issues. Arthur could become very bombastic at times when he was confronting Maude. At various times Carol would also join in the argument, usually on Maude's side, and Walter, although he did agree with Maude, would tend to side with Arthur, because of his long-standing friendship with him.

However, despite their wide ideological differences, Arthur showed that he really did care about Maude, as was evidenced in the episode "Maude's Big Decision" when he calmly explained to a very distraught Maude that she shouldn't feel responsible for Walter beginning to drink again (Walter was an alcoholic). "You've got to detach yourself with love, Maudie," Arthur said, "because he's going to drink no matter what you do."

Walter had, characteristically, stooped to blackmail to get Maude to stop her run for State Senate (the incident which had led to Maude and Walter splitting up). He told her that if she didn't drop the run for State Senate, he would never come back. He, chauvinistically, felt that Maude's only real job was to take care of him and nothing else.

Arthur then confronted his friend on his selfishness. Walter had bragged about his victory in forcing Maude to give up her plans of running for office. "Let's have a drink to celebrate," Walter bragged selfishly, "I WON!" Arthur then lost his temper with Walter, "Won? Won what?!" he snapped, "Happiness through blackmail?! You know, you're like a baby throwing a temper tantrum. Everyone has to give in to Walter Findlay because he's an alcoholic. I don't like you very much right now, Walter!"

Eventually, Walter relented and allowed Maude to run for office. However, she lost the primary, but supported her former challenger and both celebrated when he won.

Widower Arthur (his late wife's name was Agnes) and Vivian met each other (thanks to Maude) after she divorced her husband, Chuck Cavender after 21 years, and the two (Arthur and Vivian) were married in the middle of the second season of Maude (1973—1974).

In the series, Maude mostly dealt with the events happening in her life, but in the most-watched and controversial two-part episode of the first season, entitled Maude's Dilemma, Maude discovered at age 47 that she was pregnant. Maude and the entire family and friends are shocked, and the daughter, Carol, tries to persuade Maude to get an abortion, which is now legal in New York. The episode was seen by an estimated 9.94 million viewers.^{[citation needed]}. The show had also dealt with menopause, boredom, and women's liberation.

A season Four two-part episode called "Maude's Moods" revealed that Maude has bipolar disorder (more specifically, manic depression). She attempted to run actor Henry Fonda for President, and as she did, her moods swung from very high happiness, to the very pits of depression. She eventually went to see a psychiatrist about her condition.

In the final episode, Maude runs for office, to take over the unfinished term of a congresswoman she supported who had died, and she and her husband Walter move to Washington, D.C.. Arthur and Vivian had moved to Idaho, where he accepted a job; and Carol (who had broken up with Chris, by this time) and Philip had moved to Denver, Colorado, after she had acquired a job there.