Maude, TV, abortion... 40 years later

[MadrasT]

So I am watching an episode of the 70s sitcom "Maude". She is 47 and learns she is pregnant and they spend 2 episodes exploring the idea of abortion (since it's newly legal in NY state, this was originally broadcast in November 1972).

Her 27 year old daughter is telling her how it's legal and safe and as simple as going to the dentist and how wonderful it is that women are finally free to control their bodies without being ashamed.

I can't imagine them even showing this on teevee now, people would freak the fuck out.

Depressing.

[Cleita]

1. I remember when that aired. It was very progressive but then so was

the show. When it came to feminism and women's issues Maude was up front with them. It's too bad we are going backwards.

[Ilsa]

2. The show was realistic in many ways, including

that storyline about her getting pregnant so late in her reproductive life.

We don't have anything this honest on TV now, that I can think of.

[TheDebbieDee]

3. I remember that episode - I was 11 or 12 at the time............

Most of my basic knowlege of social issues comes from what I learned by watching this show and All in the Family.

A few years later I remember watching the Roots miniseries and seeing the impact that it made on the public by bringing the issue of racism and discrimination into the open. Here it is, 35 years later and it's like very little has changed in some people's minds.

[MadrasT]

7. I grew up in a very liberal family

In a super conservative rural area. My parents (Philadelphians originally) referred to it as to living "out in the sticks".

So I grew up watching these shows (All In The Family, etc) where they were talking openly about these social issues and somehow I got the impression that reasonable folks in actual civilization (not in "the sticks&quot had all this racism and sexism and classism and ecology and stuff all figured out and it was all going to be A-OK when I grew up because these backwards "in the sticks" folks were just a little behind the times (or something).

I am lately in somewhat of a state of shock, at the age of 47, feeling like not only is it NOT "all better", it's gone backwards.

[Little Star]

4. Makes me wonder why sitcoms like Maude, Alice and

One Day at a time aren't updated and produced. I think those type shows were educational and entertaining.

Others, like All in the Family mocking racism & bigotry were equally educational and entertaining.

Personally, if I had my way, three quarters of reality shows would no longer be on tv. They may be cheap to make but a bunch of them just dumb down americans. And we, as a country, are already dumbed down enough.

[Control-Z]

6. My teen age daughter

has been talking to me about how many of her friends are either pregnant or have already given birth. Somewhere around 20 of them. And it is her opinion that the reality show, Teen Mom, has somehow played a role in encouraging these pregnancies.

While the show, I believe, actually documents the hard times these girls (and in some cases the boys/fathers) are having as teen parents, at the same time they are exploiting these girls and making them into "reality stars" for little more than their poor choices.

I detest reality shows. The influence they have on the young, ignorant and/or troubled is horrifying. Think Octomom.

[Little Star]

8. You make some very good points!

[sufrommich]

9. I detest those shows. I was a teen mom,I had my son at 16.

I don't ever regret the fact that I had my son,I love him dearly and can't imagine life without him,but we basically grew up with each other.I tell my niece,who is now 15 that babies aren't dolls,you don't get to put them away when you're done playing with them and the best thing you can do for a child is to make sure they're born to an adult. I was lucky,I had a loving,stable family who supported me,by 18 I had a good paying union job and a son who excelled at school and went on to graduate from the University of Michigan,but I realize the odds were stacked against us and we were very,very lucky.

[hlthe2b]

5. Yes... we have definitely gone backwards

Same with many of the race and gender-equity-related issues discussed on Maude and All in the Family (and similar)