Thank You Bea Arthur; managing your time; must have luxury items; a career transition workshop series
"It's very nice to have women realize that women our age can be attractive and well groomed and wear fabulous clothes and earrings, and have a sex life." Bea Arthur on her role in the Golden Girls
When
The Three Tomatoes heard about
Bea Arthur's recent passing, we felt like you do when you hear about someone you liked and knew in your past but hadn't thought about in eons, until you heard they were gone. And then you realized how much you'd actually appreciated them and that strangely you would miss them. And as we realized we'd miss Bea Arthur, it dawned us that we owe her a debt of gratitude. We think you'll agree. But first, here's a look at what's new at our web site this week. And we want to let you know about a series of career transition worshops that our friends at
The Transitions Network are sponsoring.
Never have enough time?
Little Miss Efficiency, aka Wendy Miller, is here with some great time management tips. "When you define "
time management," you probably think about getting it all done, crossing items off of a list, and being productive. However, the best time management tips do not involve cramming more into your day. Rather, we should focus our time on activities that are meaningful."
Read more.
Luxury is not a bad word
We've all become such recessionistas, but it's important to remember that quality helps make us look great. The
Glam Gals have
five "luxuries" you should not give up. "Beautifully made, luxurious clothing and accessories fit and look better on over 40 bodies. They're timeless and will make you look timeless too." And luxury is so on sale these days.
Read more.
Learn How to Market Your Unique Value
The Transition Network invites tomatoes to attend
Career Transitions Now For Women Over 50. A Six-Part Workshop Series - June 3rd - July 15th, 2009.
Read more.
Why we're grateful to Bea Arthur 
While
Bea Arthur had been an acclaimed working actress for years, it wasn't until she turned 50 and was cast as
Maude in 1972 that she became known. This is remarkable on several levels. First, that she became a sitcom star at the age of 50, and more importantly it was the first TV series where a woman was the dominant character. Lucy was zany, and Ricky ruled the roost. June Cleaver, Harriet, and Donna Reed's roles were to look good and play second fiddle. Edith on
All in the Family was afraid of her own shadow, and then along came Maude whose character first appeared in that show. She was strong, opinionated, and not shy about standing up for herself.
And kudos to Norman Lear who created a show that covered everything from the Vietnam War, to Nixon, to abortion. We had actually forgotten about the groundbreaking episode where Maude finds out she's pregnant at the age of 47 and decides to have an abortion. Now keep in mind, this was 1972, two months before Roe v Wade was decided. It makes you think how far we
haven't come. Would any mainstream TV show today, make a 50 plus woman the star of its sitcom and deal with any of the very controversial issues this show took on? Not that we've seen.
In fact we watched a recent episode of the new
Bob Saget sitcom, which is so unfunny we cringed. The episode focused on Bob Saget's wife who found out the 16 year old girl next door was on birth control pills and had to decide if she should tell the girl's father. And that was supposed to be breakthrough? And in terms of the major networks (cable excluded) the over 50 women on TV this days are few and far between.
Brothers and Sisters has two:
Sally Field,who plays Nora, an overbearing mother who is way too involved in the lives of her grown kids and closed her eyes to her husband's affairs over the years. And
Patricia Weiting (same show),who was one of Nora's late husband's mistresses, and is of course, the show's "bitch." Nothing in between. If anyone out there can name a strong and admirable female character over 50 on network TV, let us know.
And then way before those
Sex and the City girls and
The Three Tomatoes, there were those fabulous
Golden Girls. Here were four terrific women, all well over 50 who gave us all a whole new appreciation for how terrific, sexy, and smart "women who aren't kids" are. The show was funny and smart and also broke through taboos. One of the all time funniest episodes was "
Condoms, Condoms, Condoms". We have posted the clip at
3T.TV. We're still laughing out loud and honestly we can't say that of a single sitcom that's on the air today. Network TV has turned into the land of reality shows (okay, we do watch
Idol and
Dancing with the Stars) and the occasionally humorous sitcom. But banality reigns and women who aren't kids are supporting characters if they exist at all. Oh, and in the strange but true category we also posted a clip of Bea Arthur singing with
Rock Hudson at
3T.TV.
So here's to you Bea Arthur. You will always be a Golden Girl and we lift our martini glasses high in thanks to you!
