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And seriously: Can you imagine a sitcom lead in this day and age being allowed by the network bosses to have an abortion? As Arthur's character did during Maude?

There went one of the first women I'd always think about whenever somebody got a wild hair up their butt and started spouting off that women can't be funny. She really deserved one more great final act after Golden Girls was finished in 1992. Here are some clips:

Some of Bea's highlights on Golden Girls -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usM-LWe_iJY

As Sonny and Cher (with ma) on Golden Girls -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7rMquzJg8I

Singing "Sniff Swig Puff" with Rock Hudson on an old variety show (that apparently had more balls than the dumpster behind a eunuch factory) -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3VbSfQ3nAM

Rest In Bliss, Bea...

Bea Arthur was a great actress, an awesome individual, an inspiration for females, especially older females who feel like they are being ignored and shunned by society.

RIP

oh, what sad news. i loved 'maude' as a youngster and like joe said, such a ground-breaking, never-to-be-seen-again original made legend by the incomparable arthur. one of the great funny people, rest in peace, queen bea.

(thanks for clips, hallick)

WHo says girls aren't funny?! Lucille Ball, Bea & Gilda.

Unfortunately I didn;t know who 'Maude' was until after the fact but my Pop told me he used to laugh his head off at that show. He said the funniest thing ever saw in sit-com land was when there was a "ham in the manger". I guess it was in a Christmas show. Poor baby Jesus.

Anyway--I got to see some reruns, and between Maude and her free-spirited daughter esp., it must have been a daring show for its day.

A tough broad, proud to let her hair go gray and smart and funny on top of it. RIP

BTW: I know this will make me sound like Grumpy Old Man while writing about this, but tonight is Saturday. In years gone by, this was the night when a lot of great shows – including MASH, Mary Tyler Moore, Mission: Impossible and, yes, Bea Arthur’s Golden Girls used to air. Tonight? Nothing but reruns and Fox reality shows. Damn.

I wish I had been born 10 yrs earlier so i could have seen all those great 70s shows and actually remember the content...but there's always DVD.

HBO resurrected the "great" TV show, but I don't know if anything will beat the great 70s sitcoms and even the spin-offs seemed to be quite good. ALl in the family was the best...but the Jeffersons was great too.

And a great show for eye-candy for women:

SWAT
http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1433966592/tt0072560

hubba hubba

Maude and AITF were great politically incorrect shows. Maude rocked the 70s and the bible thumpers.

Leydon, Golden Girls (and its follow-up Empty Nest) were the last top-10 Saturday shows. That was nearly 20 years ago. Audience share fell throughout the 90s, with only CBS's Dr. Quinn and Walker Texas Ranger holding any strong numbers. There hasn't been a successful show launched on Saturday this decade.

I have no idea why audiences left the night. It's not like fewer people are home on Saturday.

But many, many fewer folks in the demographic advertisers desire....

Three cheers for a very classy broad.

HUZZAH!

HUZZAH!

HUZZAH!

'Maude and AITF were great politically incorrect shows. Maude rocked the 70s and the bible thumpers'

agreed about rocking the '70s and that, lota, but i'm not sure 'politically incorrect' is the right term to describe 'maude' - perhaps in hindsight re-runs could be considered 'politically incorrect' in today's current sanitised climate, but i'd argue that in its day 'maude' was simply cutting-edge ground-breaking feminism/liberal social commentary rather than 'politically incorrect' humour, because 'politically incorrect' implies a diss to some socially disadvantaged or traditionally discriminated against group, which is more 'all in the family' territory than 'maude'

I'm sorry but Bea Arthur has not passed away. She will live on forever with the Golden Girls. Like any other gay boy growing up obsessing over this show, Bea and the other ladies are practically my grandmothers. I love them. Love you Grandma Bea.

Wrecktum: Speaking of Empty Nest, here's something I wrote last summer that may be appropriate to the discussion:

http://movingpictureblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/continuing-demassification-of-mass.html

I will forever remember her as Dorothy Zbornak on The Golden Girls. It was only last week that I listed Dorothy as my favourite ever TV character on one of those annoying yet addictive LivingSocial features on Facebook. Bless her.

She was always my favourite. Spot on sense of humour.

"I don't think Stan and I would ever have gotten together had I known his entire family smell their fingers all day after they eat chicken."

"Why would [the ambassador of Russia] want to meet the same woman who once said 'If the city of Atlantis is lost, how can Bobby Vinton appear there twice a year?'"

"No Rose, I'm nervous because if Sonny Bono is elected Major of Palm Springs he's gonna make all the postmen wear leather bell-bottoms and fur vests."

"Well, at least some good came out of it. It's about time somebody threw up on Gene Shalit."

"You'll have to forgive my mother, she's very upset. She just found out she has the same hairdresser as Whoopi Goldberg."

And so on. The IMDb as a great quote from her about her stereotyping: "Look - I'm 5-feet-9, I have a deep voice and I have a way with a line. What can I do about it? I can't stay home waiting for something different. I think it's a total waste of energy worrying about typecasting."

my personal fave:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzXKySxPFCI

Damn, scooterzz. She committed herself to a Star Wars Christmas Special like it was Dostoyevsky. That woman was a PRO-fessional.

Making the same point on a slightly different branch of the entertainment tree, here's Bea's 2005 appearance on Comedy Central's Pamela Anderson Roast (NSFW, and likely to be taken down soon):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHd3MrMbnzY

As with the Star Wars holiday special clip, her commitment to the material is impressive. Age and weight loss certainly didn't dim her impeccable timing and delivery. I can't imagine anyone else quite making this over-extended bit work so well. RIP

um...jftr---i never would have posted that link if the clip had been in poland's original entry....of course, you wouldn't know that because poland has always been light on manners....

Sorry, Scoot... just adding up clips in tribute to this woman... didn't think that would chafe...

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