"Thank You For Being A Friend…”: Award-Winning Actress Bea Arthur Dead at 86

Emmy-winning and Tony-winning actress Bea Arthur died Saturday April 25, 2009 at her Los Angeles home after a battle with cancer. Bea Arthur will probably be most remembered for her role as Dorothy on the hit 80’s sitcom “Golden Girls” about retired friends living together. It was a wonderfully funny show and Arthur was the razor sharp wit always trying to hold her friends and mother together. I watched the show often with my mother while growing up. I remember it being one of her favorite shows and she loved singing the infectious theme song: “Thank you for being a friend…”

Bea Arthur had a major impact on TV sitcoms long before “Golden Girls.” She starred in the hit, controversial sitcom “Maude” in the 1970’s. It was a spin-off of “All in the Family” another brilliant, controversial hit show. Sitcoms and comedies today are a dying breed. With the overwhelming interest in the vapid world of reality television, sitcoms are becoming virtually non-existent. And unfortunately much of what does exist, is poorly written, empty, and droll (with few exceptions.) When I think of Bea Arthur on a show like “Maude,” it makes me remember a time when television not only entertained audiences but also challenged them. Maude was an upper-middle class liberal feminist married to her fourth husband when the show debuted in 1972. The show often conveyed dark humor and even drama, which was groundbreaking for the time period. In November 1972, audiences watched as Maude, age 47, had an abortion two months before the Roe vs. Wade decision was legalized nation-wide. The show will probably be most remembered for this episode. I remember seeing the show in reruns and this is the only episode that I remember clearly. To see a TV show, a sitcom, deal with such a timely, controversial issue was brilliant, moving, and brave. The show also dealt with alcoholism, mental illness and domestic violence. Much of the show’s brilliance is credited to the magnificent Bea Arthur who played Maude so fearlessly.

Unfortunately, these kinds of shows no longer exist. But we must remember a time when actors like Bea Arthur used art courageously to shed a truthful light on our funny and sometimes painful world.

R.I.P. Bea Arthur and many warm thoughts and prayers to your family and friends.