First time reacting to 'Maude' | Husbands vs. Wives (Reaction and Discussion!)

Florida's (Esther Rolle) husband Henry (John Amos) wants her to stop working, but Maude (Bea Arthur) promptly stands up for her.... even if it means starting an argument with Walter (Bill Macy)!

From Season 1, Episode 18 'Florida's Problem' - Florida arrives at Maude's in a bad mood. She tells Maude that her husband wants her to quit her job, but she does not want to.

⭐Support our channel below!⭐

Follow us on Instagram! 📲

[gary]

Just so you youngsters know, in 1975, I as a wife, had to have my husband's permission to have a tubal ligation. Young women today may not realize how far we have come.

[JD_ATX]

While "Maude" spun off from "All In The Family", Florida was featured in a spin-off titled "Good Times", which was a spin-off for promotional purposes only, as Ester Rolle and John Amos played different versions of their characters on both shows ...

"Maude"
1) John Amos played Henry Evans, a firefighter.

2) The Evans family lived in Harlem.

3) Florida quit being Maude's maid because Henry received a promotion and began earning enough money that she could now stay home and raise their children full time.


"Good Times"
1) John Amos played James Evans, a chronically unemployed blue color worker (although he retained Henry's temper)

2) The Evans family lived in the Cabrini Green low-income housing projects in Chicago. No mention was ever made of them having ever lived in NYC (and the impression was, they'd always lived in Chicago)

- - - - -

"Good Times" was co-created by Mike Evans (the actor who played Lionel on both "All In The Family" and "The Jeffersons"). It wasn't originally created as a spin-off - - as it was a semi-autobiographical show about Evans's real-life childhood - - and was only re-written as a project for Ester Rolle since they'd been toying with the idea of a "Maude" spin-off anyway.

- - - - -

By the way, "All In The Family" had a ton of direct (and indirect) spin-offs ...


"Maude" (1972-1978) spun off "Good Times" (1974-1979) [not a true spin-off]

"The Jeffersons" (1975-1985) spun off "Checkin' In" (1981) [pilot episode added to syndication package for "The Jeffersons"]

"All In The Family" itself morphed into "Archie Bunker's Place" (1979-1983) and spun off "Gloria" (1982) [pilot episode added to syndication package for "Archie Bunker's Place"]

"704 Hauser Street" (1994) was about a black family that purchased Archie's house after his passing. The character of Joey Stivik, Archie's grandson, was featured in the pilot. Ironically, it starred John Amos as a republican whose son married a white Jewish woman.

I was born in 71 so these are some of the first shows I remember. I grew up watching All in the Family, Maude, Good Times, Jeffersons, and One Day at a Time. Norman Lear helped shape my sense of comedy.

[mojo]

Are anyone of you familiar with The Golden Girls? Maude is Bea Arthur (Dorothy) from that show.

[foggylegg]

This episode also touched on domestic violence with john amos coming in like a hurricane to see Esther rolle. He even threatened to "put one aside her head." There were no domestic violence laws to even give an illusion of safety against an abusive spouse or male family member. Worse for women and children if you had no male at all protecting you. Therefore, they couldn't explore that topic further as there would be no resolution or toleration at all for the sitcom episodes. Shelters only opened in 1983 and it took years for the rest of the country to even consider reporting. Something that women were forced to hide to survive.

Btw The actor Carroll O 'Connor who played archie bunker was a fascinating and good man in real life. His interviews for why he took the role are thought compelling. No one else could have done the character. This is where a young child got chances to see types of people who they wouldn't ordinarily see in their communities. Human beings questioning different sides/ views about each other. I think it made me fascinated and curious about all people despite some racists in my then environment. Consider that up until these sitcoms there were very limited channels and only certain types of white characters. The exposure was crucial.

[kanealoha]

That was a powerful clip. What surprised me the most was that Florida was their housekeeper. I though it was simply a friendship.

[JonS]

I remember my sister having a different set of rules in the early 70s. It was not considered proper for her to initiate a phone call to a boy. And girls had classes in typing and home economics with the idea that they would graduate to work as secretary but when she married she would be a full time "house wife". But when I joined the military in the mid 70s, working in military law, they had regulations requiring that any financial matter affecting a married man be with the approval or acknowledgment of the spouse.

[markduncan]

Good Times was a spin off of Maude. Two things that no one mentions. Florida works for Maude in Brooklyn yet Good Times is set in Chicago. Florida s husbands name changed from Henry to James.

[chnalvr]

The feminists of the 60s, 70s and 80s in the U.S. were a throughline from feminists who marched for equal and voting rights mere decades before. They still had a lot of groundbreaking to do in order to get closer to equality with men. Many wedding vows still had women promising to "obey" their husband and this is likely why this scene in "Maude" was so poignant at the time. These two women were banding together to disobey their husbands. Maude's shows that dealt with abortion rights and gay rights were even more cutting edge for their time. Check those out too.

[darrinlindsey]

Mr. Lear still has most of his faculties about him, too. There are several interviews of him available here on YouTube. In some of them, he opines on the comparison of Archie and Donald Trump.

[Carib]

Norman Lear is a freaking genius!
One day at a time, the Jeffersons, Maude, Sanford and son, the Colgate comedy hour (1950), the Martha Raye show 1954… the list is almost endless. Thanks, guys. You’re one of my favorites on YouTube. Have you guys ever reacted to the Jefferson’s maid, Florence?

[LuvTadnDixie]

Alice Kramden of "The Honeymooners" was sort of the first woman's libber in television in a way (and this is going back to the 1950s). She would stand up to her husband Ralph all the time on that show. He would order her around and say he was THE KING OF THE CASTLE and she would pretty much tell him off. Back in the 1950s, most women stayed home while the men worked. In an episode of "The Honeymooners", Ralph gets laid off and Alice says she's going to go out and get a job . . . Ralph says, "While you are my wife, you will never work . . . I have my pride." It was a threat to his masculinity . . . afraid of what others would say, as if others would think, "wow, Ralph can't even support his wife." That's what it's about. Even today, it would also bother some men if the wife makes more money than he does.

[CoopyKat]

Mad Magazine did a parody of Norman Lear's spin-offs starting with All in the Family. In the parody, all the shows merged at a big party or event, it was hilarious!

[tbascoebuzz]

I married in ‘71. Hub didn’t want me to work outside the home because he was a latchkey kid raised w/out a dad and didn’t want a similar situation for future kids. I, on the other hand, was planning on going into the medical field. Aced schooling & had a wealthy g’ma paying for college. I bailed on school & married. We’ve been married 52 years now, and to this day hub regrets his decision and throughout the years whenever he suggested me getting a job (lol), I tell him, ’sorry. I’m exactly where and what you always wanted me to be…a homemaker/housewife/mom. Deal with it.

[AmyAyresWrites]

Balzac was a humor writer 200+ years ago in case anyone was wondering.😂 Random literary reference from Maude

[thomassiegmund]

You have to remember, prior to women’s rights movements, the roles were defined as this is what the wife’s role is and this the man’s.
That was accepted standard by both in those days.
The women’s rights movement was about redefining those roles.

[pman]

Yes, these characters prove successful on Maude and came up with Good Times. But Maude was set in upper New York and they moved the Good Time characters to Chicago changing the husband's name from Henry to James. The actor who played Lionel (Mike Evans) in All in the Family and The Jefferson's is credited as creator of the show. Maybe he co wrote this episode but not sure. Have to look it up.

[bryanCJC]

Back in the 60s when I was 3 my parents divorced because my father refused to allow my Mom to work. Both my parents come from very traditional Mexican Catholic families and In their eyes, she was abandoning us the kids by leaving the home, but it was also demeaning to him by implying that his job was not enough for our family (he had a good job) in the eyes of everyone else. It was seen as the man's main job to financially make his family secure. The implication that he couldn't was emasculating. At that time, no woman in our family had ever worked. None of my aunts worked. None of the moms in my neighborhood worked. My grandmothers never worked. Only single moms worked on TV shows. So, I could see his perspective, but I could also see my Moms perspective in not wanting to live just as a housewife and not having her own money. Unfortunately, the divorce shattered our families throughout and never recovered. It also shattered my relationship with my parents. In my eyes at the time, everything that happened to my family was their fault. I went to Catholic schools and was the ONLY one with divorced parents all the way into high school. I had to invent stories to explain why my Grandpa was the one dropping me off and picking me up and why my parents never showed up to school events with me. I often wonder why I wasn't kicked out of school. It was easier to say they were dead and in a way they were to me. I ended up living with my grandparents for about half of my childhood.

[TheTerryGene]

All in the Family was itself based on the British sitcom “Til Death Us Do Part.”

[GinaSalzillo-McKeen]

It's true women could not have bank accounts without their husband's signature.
All in the family has an episode where Edith tries to open up a small account on her own and isn't able to do so