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Abortion - In the early days
of television, program characters reveled in the idea of having a baby and
raising it season-to-season (remember little Ricky's birth in the 1950s?).
But the winds of change blew over TV Land courtesy of producer Norman Lear
who introduced the viewing audience to "Maude's Dilemma" a two-part episodes
(11/14-21/72) on the sitcom MAUDE/CBS/1972-78.
The program depicted a 45-year-old woman named Maude Findlay
(Beatrice Arthur) finding herself pregnant and opting for an abortion. Two
CBS affiliates canceled the episodes and 32 CBS affiliates were pressured
not to rerun the segments in the summer of 1973 by anti-abortion factions.
The second airing of the program gave the show a 41 percent
share with 65 million people tuning in. The first time the show aired CBS
received 7,000 letters; the second time around 17,000 letters of protest
poured in.
This program appeared at a time when the Supreme Court had
not yet protected legalized abortion (The Roe vs. Wade decision was still
one year away). Reportedly, Pro-Life groups mailed Norman Lear photographs
of aborted fetuses in protest.
TV's first (then illegal) abortion operation aired in 1964 on
the NBC serial ANOTHER WORLD when Pat Matthew's boyfriend, Tom Baxter talked
Pat into having an abortion-and was later killed by her. This soap opera was
also one of the first to depict themes of homosexuality, and teenage
prostitution (TV Guide 4/4/92 p. 13)
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