MAUDE: The Gay Bar (1977)

Bea Arthur and Conrad Bain in "The Gay Bar" episode from MAUDE (original air date: December 3rd, 1977).

Today’s post was written by author/critic/historian Lee Gambin (@leegambin79 on Instagram) and is about one of the television episodes featured in his book TONIGHT, ON A VERY SPECIAL EPISODE: WHEN TV SITCOMS SOMETIMES GOT SERIOUS.

The legendary Bea Arthur stars as liberal crusader Maude who continually butts heads with stuffy Arthur (Conrad Bain), and in this case here the point of conversation is whether or not a gay bar should be allowed to stay open for business in Tuckahoe. Spearheaded by showrunner Norman Lear, MAUDE and many of his other sitcoms often dealt with serious subject matter within the landscape of comedy, and dealt head-on with LGBT issues from time to time.

Gambin has a two volume book entitled TONIGHT, ON A VERY SPECIAL EPISODE: WHEN TV SITCOMS SOMETIMES GOT SERIOUS which looks at the role of the pop-cultural phenomenon known as the "Very Special Episode", where topics such as drug use and addiction, racism, women's liberation, AIDS and so much more were brought to the fore in the world of situation comedy.  

A lot of queer content features in the book, from coming out episodes to tackling homophobia to gay themed episodes that helped promote social change.

Grab your copies from all book suppliers, or grab it from Lee Gambin's film collective “Cinemaniacs” - Linked below: