Saying Goodbye to Bea Arthur

As my friend Jim used to say (quite often),

If Bea Arthur married Arthur Murray,
she would Bea Arthur Murray.

When prominent celebrities from from childhood die, I often look up with biographies. Maude is one of those shows I sort of remember, though I think it mostly dealt with topics that were of no interest to me. And Golden Girls is a TV show everyone has heard of. So I was kinda surprised to find out that Bea Arthur was actually involved in a Star Wars project.

In Bea Arthur’s wikipedia entry, I found that she was in the Star Wars Holiday Special. What is a Star Wars Holiday Special? Apparently, a made for TV variety special that was incredibly bad. It aired only once and has been sort of buried ever since.

Any mention of Maude brings up Adrienne Barbeau, who I think of in terms of shows like Fantasy Island and The Love Boat — and apparently she was in a Deep Space Nine episode (in so much makeup you’d never guess it was her).

So there’s two actresses involved in science fiction work that I never would have suspected.

Fascinating.

(To me anyway.)

Though there’s a good chance I’ll never watch that Star Wars Holiday Special, I do remember the “And then there’s Maude” opening and I’ve watched plenty of Golden Girls episodes because they’re almost always on TV and they’re generally always funny. I think that’s a good way to remember someone — entertaining.

Update: In the days of my youth, this article would just end with the above. Old video would disappear forever. But now with everyone having the power of the internet — old video never dies.

Bea Arthur and Harvey Korman in the Star Wars Holiday Special — this is 10 minutes you’ll never get back.

Or, if you’re a glutton for punishment, you can watch the entire show/movie/disaster right here. It’s everything of a 1970’s Christmas variety show and more.