Bea Arthur in the unsuccessful 1974 film version opposite Lucille Ball. In 1981, she appeared in Woody Allen's "The Floating Light Bulb". She made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 1994 portraying the Duchess of Krakenthorp, a speaking role, in Gaetano Donizetti's "La fille du régiment". In 1971, Arthur was invited by Norman Lear to guest-star on his sitcom "All in the Family", as Maude Findlay, the cousin of Edith Bunker. An outspoken liberal feminist, Maude was the antithesis role to the conservative Republican character Archie Bunker, who described her as a "New Deal fanatic". Nearly 50, Arthur's tart turn on
Educating Archie played Archie's tutor, with the catchphrases "I've arrived, and to prove it, I'm here" and "That's a good idea ... son!". The duo recorded two songs from the show on the HMV label: "The Dummy Song" and "Lovely Dollar Lolly". In 1958, "Educating Archie" was adapted as a television sitcom produced by the ITV company Associated-Rediffusion and broadcast under the same name. This version, which was broadcast in 1958–9, featured the ventriloquist's dummy Archie Andrews taking on a life of its own, talking and walking all over its creator Peter Brough, aided and abetted by a housekeeper played by Irene