Bea Arthur died today at the age of 86. She had been fighting cancer and passed away at her home.
She’s best-known these days for her Emmy-winning role as Dorothy Zbornak, the younger half of television’s most stomach-churning parent-child relationship. But I actually prefer watching her on Maude, the Norman Lear sitcom that ran from 1972 to 1978. Maude, played by Arthur, was a no-nonsense liberal that supported abortion, racial equality, and tolerance, even though she usually came across as noisy and over-opinionated. (Maude was a spin-off of All In The Family, but was a lot less annoying to watch.) My favorite episode is the one where she hosts a children’s birthday party, but there’s many, many good episodes. It used to be on TV Land and according to Wikipedia isn’t anymore; also, though it ran for six seasons, only the first is around on DVD.
The boyfriend and I went back and forth all night, mainly working off our laptops which was new for both of us. The kids had a good time, although there were so many of them and they all wanted so many different styles of music that I think we got kind of overwhelmed. But overall it seemed good and they all thanked us afterwards, even though we did “forget” about all of their Flo Rida and Katy Perry requests.
Jazmine Sullivan, Bust Your Windows [immediate faux ballroom dancing ensued]
La Roux, In For The Kill
Anita Ward, Ring My Bell
Annie, Chewing Gum [Complaint at this point that everything sounded the same]
Ian Carey Project, Get Shaky
The Knife, Pass This On [And the dancefloor clears.] (more…)
