Right on, Bea!

Maude TV Opening Theme - More amazing video clips are a click away

It was a sad weekend for classic sitcom lovers. Bea Arthur, star of two classic sitcoms - Maude and the Golden Girls - and one helluva dame, died on Saturday at age 86.

She was supposed to come to Winnipeg with her one-woman show back in 2001, but never made it: the official reason was that she didn't want to travel after Sept. 11.

Maude was one of the classic 70s sitcoms, up there with Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart, Rhoda, All in the Family, and the Jeffersons - and she had a classic sitcom theme to prove it (see above).

Today's Globe and Mail couldn't help but quote the theme song over and over and over in its (two) tributes to Arthur:

"Norman Lear's Maude, a 1972 spin-off of All in the Family and a tribute to his feminist wife, Frances Lear, was, as the theme song ran, "compromisin', enterprisin', anything but tranquilizin'." The song ended with the shout, "Right on, Maude!" — a cry that captures both Arthur's infectious, badass character and the actual excitement of the feminist era at this time."

They don't make shows, theme songs, or dames like this anymore. RIP Bea!