According to Rue McClanahan's autobiography "My First Five Husbands and the Ones That Got Away" as well as various other people's interviews Bill Macy dropped his trousers at the 1974 Emmy Awards and shouted a raunchy joke out to the audience. Reportedly this was a prank he used to pull from time to time. The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences responded by telling Norman Lear and the producers of "Maude" that they would no longer be eligible for any Emmy awards for the duration of the run of the show. "Maude" did not get any Emmy awards after that, except Bea Arthur in 1977 for Outstanding Lead Actress in a comedy series.
Bea Arthur gave this reaction to a Playbill interviewer who asked her about reactions to the hate mail after the abortion episode of Maude:"Well, I tell you, the mail was enormous. But I was never shown what we call hate mail. What I had seen was very intelligent, caring people who voiced their displeasure and explained why. And I think it was the first time I had ever even thought about it, because I came from a very small town on the eastern shore of Maryland, and when anybody got pregnant, the thing was to have an abortion. Of course it was not legal, but that's what everybody did. I mean I'd never had an abortion, but I certainly thought of why it's very painful."
In early episodes, when the character of Vivian made infrequent appearances, Rue McClanahan was aged with a gray wig and heavy make-up so she would look closer to Beatrice Arthur's age (McClanahan was actually twelve years younger than Arthur.) When Vivian became a regular, McClanahan balked at wearing the unflattering make up, and her much-improved appearance was explained by creating an episode in which the character underwent a facelift.
Producers made an agreement with Conrad Bain to star him in his own series after "Maude" ended. This resulted in Bain being cast as the adult lead in Diff'rent Strokes (1978).
Maude was Norman Lear's favorite show from his own production company.