WATCH: Bea Arthur And Madame Read Each Other Like Ball Queens
Back in the days before they gave shows to talentless nobodies and called it “reality TV,” networks would allow legendary artists from stage and screen to have variety shows, where they would sing, act, crack wise and deliver vaudeville-style banter.
The above clip, from a Bea Arthur special, sees the late Maude star mixing it up with Madame, Wayland Flowers’ bitchy diva marionette. It’s juicy on it’s own, but when they start riffing on Rock Hudson (who also appeared on the special) the post-modern irony is almost too much.
Back in the day is right. No wonder, except for “Mad Man”, and the Fox animated comedies I’m always on the computer.
Once upon a time, on a Saturday night, you could watch back-to-back, brand new episodes of All In The Family, MASH, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show & The Carol Burnette Show all for FREE. Today, not in any seven consecutive nights are there five shows that good anymore.
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Amen and thumbs up to the prior comments and to the words Mr Avery wrote above.
@tazz602 : thanks for yr link to Bea quoting PamAn. Lol, for real. Coffee is sprayed all over the place now. And some pad thai!
@dvlaries : They +don’t+ make shows like that anymore; wtf happened?
God, I feel old or out of synch with most of our current TV shows!
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Priceless. Thank you. As for Joan Rivers playing Madame, the only connection I see is that Rivers has made herself even more grotesquely frightening looking than Madame ever was. But, then, Rivers has had a stick up her ass far longer. A “friend to gays” my old Aunt Pitty Pat!
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So great…This finally cheered me up since hearing the twenty something twinky boy at the coffee shop describe himself as a “little Cruella, with a side of spotted dog”. At least there’s the past campaigns, these new “increasingly accepted” queers wouldn’t know quality if it was dictated and sent to the authorities as a general alert.
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@wolfgang731: That makes more sense. I’d only thought her a marionette because the article calls her one.
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omg!!! that was funny