"Maude's Dilemma" is a two-part episode in season one of the television show '' Maude'', airing in 1972. It is considered a groundbreaking show due to bringing the controversial issue of abortion into people's living rooms and forcing families to confront this open secret.

Plot

Maude discovers that she is pregnant at the age of 47, and struggles to decide whether to have the baby or have an abortion. Her daughter, Carol, encourages an end to the pregnancy; her husband, Walter, insists he will support any choice Maude makes, promising he will have a

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, which he is actually reluctant to do.

Development

Producer Rod Parker explained: "The funny thing is that initially we weren`t even thinking abortion ... The group

Zero Population Growth Zero population growth, sometimes abbreviated ZPG, is a condition of demographic balance where the number of people in a specified population neither grows nor declines; that is, the number of births plus in-migrants equals the number of death ...

announced they were giving a $10,000 prize for comedies that had something to do with controlling population, so everyone came in with ideas for vasectomies". Producer Norman Lear decided against a false pregnancy due to it being a cop out; he also decided against having Maude suffer a miscarriage, because that situation had already been done on his other show, ''All in the Family,'' to character Gloria Bunker. He decided that given her age, Maude would have realistically had an abortion despite her moral turmoil regarding the subject. The network was okay with the subject matter due to the success of the show, though asked for the show to present an opposing view; the writers obliged by adding a character who had many children and who was content with their choice.

Critical reception

The ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...

'' described this episode as a watershed moment that "brought the battle over choice into the prime-time arena".

Controversy

According to a 1992 ''Chicago Tribune'' article A 1972 ''New York Times'' article noted that two Illinois CBS affiliates,

WCIA WCIA (channel 3) is a television station licensed to Champaign, Illinois, United States, serving as the CBS affiliate for the Central Illinois region. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Springfield-licensed MyNetworkTV affiliate W ...

in Champaign and WMBD-TV in Peoria, refused to air the two-part episode marking the first time any CBS station had refused to run an episode of a continuing series. However, an August 14, 1973, ''New York Times'' article published the same day the episode's first summer rerun premiered stated that only 25 CBS affiliates had refused to air the repeat showing.

References

External links

* * 1972 American television episodes Television episodes about abortion {{US-tv-episode-stub