Maude
Consenting Adults
TV Flash files “Consenting Adults” as a desk essential hour — Maude (1972–1978) on CBS, season 4, episode 2, aired 1975-09-15, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S04E02: listed hour 71 of 141 in the Maude guide, hour 2 of 24 in season 4. It aired 1975-09-15 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “The Split” (S04E01). Next is “Rumpus in the Rumpus Room” (S04E03).
Essential hour: “Consenting Adults”. Consenting Adults is the title doing the sponsor-scare work. Lear relevant comedy past Archie: a middle-aged woman who will not demur, and a household that stays sharp.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Maude is terribly upset that Walter has moved out and decides to go to his new apartment to see if they have a chance of getting back together. However, Maude gets an eyeful of Walter's swinging singles apartment which leads to another argument leading the two of them to decide to get a divorce.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Consenting Adults sit in the Maude guide?
S04E02 is listed hour 71 of 141 — hour 2 of 24 in season 4, season 4 episode 2.
When did Maude S04E02 air?
Consenting Adults aired 1975-09-15 and is listed at 30 minutes.
Do I start with All in the Family or jump to Maude?
Jump. Maude was introduced on the parent series, but Arthur's Tuckahoe household is a self-contained political sitcom. Archie is context, not a gate.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Bea Arthur detonates a Tuckahoe living room as Lear's most unapologetic heroine: abortion episodes, political dinner combat, and a middle-aged woman who will not demur. Bill Macy and Rue McClanahan keep the household sharp. Essential relevant comedy beyond Archie Bunker, sponsors included.
Flash: Tuckahoe, a dinner party already on fire, and Bea Arthur's voice clearing the room before the salad. Maude Findlay does not demur — she detonates. CBS's Maude (1972–1978), spun from All in the Family, ran six seasons, 141 episodes, with Norman Lear's relevant-comedy shop treating hot-button politics as plot, not a very-special footnote. Bill Macy's Walter, Rue McClanahan's Vivian, Adrienne Barbeau's Carol, and Conrad Bain's Arthur complete the combat circle. The afterglow is a laugh track trying to keep…
Filed against
- Bea Arthur as Maude Findlay
Bea Arthur delivered Dorothy Zbornak’s withering one-liners on The Golden Girls like velvet artillery — tall, dry, and never wrong for long. A Broadway powerhouse who also headlined Maude, she made older women the sharpest people in the…
- Bill Macy as Walter Findlay
Bill Macy’s Walter Findlay kept Maude’s Tuckahoe living room sharp — Bea Arthur as Lear’s most unapologetic heroine, abortion episodes, political dinner combat, a middle-aged woman who will not demur, Rue McClanahan in the orbit. Relevant…
- Adrienne Barbeau as Carol Traynor
Adrienne Barbeau’s Carol Traynor needled Bea Arthur’s unapologetic heroine on Maude — Tuckahoe living room, abortion episodes, political dinner combat, a middle-aged woman who will not demur. Bill Macy and Rue McClanahan keeping the…
- Conrad Bain as Arthur Harmon
Conrad Bain’s Arthur Harmon needled Maude’s Tuckahoe living room as the next-door conservative — 1970s catalog Lear combat, then Diff’rent Strokes recasting the posture as Phillip Drummond’s Park Avenue experiment. TV Flash files him as…
- Rue McClanahan as Vivian Cavender Harmon
Rue McClanahan’s Blanche Devereaux was The Golden Girls’ carpet in human form — Miami satin, a neckline the censors negotiated, dating after divorce as a weekly after-party. Four women, one kitchen, chemistry biographies that still…