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Maude - Complete Series coming to DVD March 17th!!


Mister Hepburn

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This set is worth every penny. I finished the first disk of Season Three last night and these episodes are totally brilliant uncut. In particular, the episode "Lovers in Common" had me howling. Bea and Rue were completely hilarious from the first moment of the episode. Maude and Viv are so underrated as a TV duo, who shouldn't get overshadowed by Dorothy and Blanche.

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So..the two unaired/reshot/whatever episodes: what's that all about???? Splain please! Thanks! :HALKING:

The first episode, "The Double Standard", features no openings or closings, and uses a script much thinner than the rewrite for Season Two, which introduces Chris and includes Vivian. The aired version is unquestionably funnier, but why the initial offering was shelved remains a mystery.

 

The second episode, "Arthur's Friends", has credits and, according to my research, was supposed to air on 01/13/75 but was pulled at the very last minute when sponsors dropped out. Interestingly, the script is surprisingly close to the remake that eventually aired two years later, "Maude's New Friends". But the casting is very different. Bea Arthur's real life husband, Gene Saks, plays the husband in the unaired version and he comes across as very lecherous and almost frightening. The aired version, with James Coco, goes broader and puts more emphasis on the comedy, and thus, works better.

 

Both are fascinating, but probably less polished than their aired counterparts.

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The unaired version "The Double Standard", to me, almost felt like dress rehearsal footage stitched together: very odd camera angles, minor flubs, and very muted audience reaction.

It was probably not "doctored" in post with laugh track sweetening since it wasn't going to air after all....and it could very well have been just the taped dress since that's how Lear did his shows, taping the show night's dress rehearsal and subsequently the "air" show with the best parts edited together to form the actual "finished product" -- which is why you can sometimes see different hairstyles, etc. in some scenes that don't match up perfectly.  :lucythrill:

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