As a spinoff of All in the Family, Maude rocketed into uncharted sitcom territory by taking sharp aim at topics previously untouched on television series, like alcoholism, menopause, suicide, and domestic violence. Bea Arthur deserves unmeasurable credit for portraying a character whose attitudes were considered so outrageous that many television stations refused to air Maude at various points during the show's run. The series ushered in an era of "topical sitcoms" that broke down barriers for what was deemed "acceptable content" on American television.

But some of the walls annihilated by Maude seem to have been built back up by later TV shows. Back in 1972, in the very first season of the series, Maude became pregnant at 47 and after two episodes of struggling, decided to get an abortion. On current television, characters on Everwood, Six Feet Under, and Third Watch have gone through with it, but the vast majority of female characters with unwanted pregnancies end up changing their minds and keeping the baby (as with Miranda on Sex and the City) or suffering a miscarriage that takes the decision out of their hands (as with Cristina on Grey's Anatomy). Some characters who opt for an abortion are even punished, as on 2004's Jack and Bobby when the character Missy was killed in a car crash just one episode after undergoing an abortion. How have attitudes towards the depiction of a woman's right to choose on television regressed so much in the 37 years since Maude's dilemma?

And though it might not seem as obvious, lessons learned from The Golden Girls have also fallen by the wayside in the years since the show went off the air. Dorthy Zbornak was just as sharp-tongued as Arthur's previous incarnation Maude, and the show dealt with issues like gay marriage, transsexualism, and even HIV in the same comic but thought-provoking way. But The Golden Girls also brought to the small screen a topic that in recent years has devolved to little more than a punchline: the elderly. Dorothy, Sophia, Blanche, and Rose had active lives and loved sex just as much as any twenty-something Real World recruit of recent years. But when older characters have appeared on recent sitcoms -- which they do less and less frequently -- their actions are played strictly for laughs, as with Frank and Marie on Everybody Loves Raymond, Cotton on King of the Hill, or Grampa on The Simpsons. How is it that the non-elderly-friendly activities of older people have become a running joke since The Golden Girls ended?

Things haven't changed as much as one might have hoped since Maude was a top-ten series. Were some controversial episodes from Maude and The Golden Girls to air in primetime today, they would probably receive as much or more protest as they did decades ago -- assuming that a show about an outspoken middle-aged feminist or four older women was even allowed to go on the air. Bea Arthur used her untouchable comic prowess to help pioneer television that allowed characters to deal with touchy issues in a natural way, without preaching, making fun, or labeling one side "wrong." Let's not allow that door, which she worked so hard to open, to swing shut.