# '. . . and then there's Maude. . . .'

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-theres-maude/65908>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [May 19, 2001, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-theres-maude/65908 "2001-05-19T15:17:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\
**Post date:** [May 19, 2001, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-theres-maude/65908/1 "2001-05-19T15:17:34Z")

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In the opening theme to the “Maude” TV series, ably vocalized by singer and gravitational acceleration experimenter Donny Hathaway, there is a line that I misunderstood when I was a kid:

_Joan of Arc, with the Lo-ord to guide her–  
she was a sister who really cooked_

When I watched this program as a kid, I thought he was saying “she was a sister who really could.” Could what, I didn’t know, but never gave it much thought. Now that I know better, the actual word does make a little more sense.

In other words, “Yu-uck!”

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**Author:** ![Skelji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b38774/32.png) [@Skelji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skelji)\
**Post date:** [May 19, 2001, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-theres-maude/65908/2 "2001-05-19T15:49:44Z")

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I always heard it as “cooked” when I was a kid, but only because the part before was something about Lady Godiva, yadda yadda something “looked”.

I would always picture Joan Of Arc with a meat thermometer stuck in her ribs.

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**Author:** ![Philosophocles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b38774/32.png) [@Philosophocles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philosophocles)\
**Post date:** [May 19, 2001, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-theres-maude/65908/3 "2001-05-19T23:03:25Z")

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That show had CONRAD BAIN!!! So you know it’s gonna kick butt, ooooooooh yeah!!!

Another famous cryptic line from a sitcom theme song is where Archie and Edith on All of the Family sing “Gee, our old Lasalle ran great” but it sounded like it could be “GRO and Sal ran great” or “Giarola Sour Grapes”. I believe that they even redid that part of the intro in the show’s later years, with Archie and Edith enunciating that line more clearly.

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**Author:** ![drpepper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8baadc/32.png) [@drpepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drpepper)\
**Post date:** [May 20, 2001, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-theres-maude/65908/4 "2001-05-20T03:33:17Z")

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Now these are the sort of burning questions that [http://www.kissthisguy.com](http://www.kissthisguy.com) just simply fails to address…

I also thought it was “GRO LaSalle red great…” and could make no sense of it. But of course, those WERE the days.

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**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\
**Post date:** [May 20, 2001, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-theres-maude/65908/5 "2001-05-20T03:38:55Z")

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[quote]  
I also thought it was “GRO LaSalle red great…” and could make no sense of it. But of course, those WERE the days.

[quote]

hehe When I was I kid I always though it was "Gee those were the salad days.

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**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\
**Post date:** [May 20, 2001, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-theres-maude/65908/6 "2001-05-20T14:03:46Z")

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The first line also threw me:

“Boida waiklin millaplade.”

When TV Guide magazine did an article a couple of years into the show’s run, they printed the first couple of lines from the intro, to which I said, “Aha!”

Apparently, I was not the only one, because in a subsequent issue, a reader sent in a letter that said, basically, “I’ve always wondered what they were saying.”

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**Author:** ![Gazoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ce73a5/32.png) [@Gazoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gazoo)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2001, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-theres-maude/65908/7 "2001-05-21T01:07:30Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Mjollnir \*  
> **"Boida waiklin millaplade."**

Just sang the enire thing. Thanks. I’m still waiting for a group like **Me First and the Gimee Gimee’s** to do an album of old TV theme songs in punk. (and yeah, I have the one of the cartoon themes.)

::Walks off singing “One Banana, Two Banana, Three Banana, Four…”::
