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
The Sitcom Trials Canal Cafe Theatre, Finborough Theatre, Soho Theatre, Ealing Studios, The Green Room Club, and the Hen and Chickens Theatre. "The Sitcom Trials" debuted at the Gilded Balloon venue at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2001, with a show starring Miranda Hart, returning in 2002 & 2004. The first TV series was a Carlton production for ITV/HTV, broadcast live from Bristol over eight weeks in 2003. The first Hollywood "Sitcom Trials" took place in 2005. In 2008 the Sitcom Trials won the Fringe Report Award for Best Encourager of New Talent. In 2013 and 2016 The Sitcom Trials returned to the Gilded