According to Norman Lear, the creation of Maude stemmed from the idea to bring on someone who could hold their own with Archie Bunker verbally.

[1] The debut episode, and character's name, were loosely based upon a 1968 episode of Till Death Us Do Part, the British sitcom on which All in the Family was based, in which Maud, the sister of Else Garnett (the analog to the American Edith Bunker), visits Alf Garnett (Archie's progenitor) while Alf is ill.[2] The character was also loosely based on Lear's then-wife Frances.

Because she was a liberal, Maude was also an ally of Edith's daughter Gloria (Sally Struthers) and her husband Mike (Rob Reiner).

When Maude premiered, Fred was now renamed Barney and Bert became Albert Hilliard, her third husband.

On her own show, Maude lives in Tuckahoe, New York, and is married, for the fourth time, to Walter Findlay (Bill Macy), the owner and operator of an appliance store called Findlay's Friendly Appliances.