--- title: Norman Lear: Olivia Pope's Abortion on Scandal was 'Bold' description: The public attitudes towards abortion haven't changed much in the 40 years since Maude, but the content has, says creator canonical: https://time.com/4125345/norman-lear-why-olivia-popes-abortion-on-scandal-was-frank-and-bold/ author: Charlotte Alter article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-11-24T20:18:02.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T12:52:05.453Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: 'Maude' Creator: Why Olivia Pope's Abortion Was So 'Bold' og:description: The content has changed since the 1970s, but attitudes haven't og:url: https://time.com/4125345/norman-lear-why-olivia-popes-abortion-on-scandal-was-frank-and-bold/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt81326ff51a71fead/6988728e5f570f07f3b1e818/gettyimages-489589512.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: ABC's "Scandal" - Season Five og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Maude' Creator: Why Olivia Pope's Abortion Was So 'Bold' twitter:description: The content has changed since the 1970s, but attitudes haven't twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt81326ff51a71fead/6988728e5f570f07f3b1e818/gettyimages-489589512.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Norman Lear: Why Olivia Pope's Abortion on _Scandal_ was 'Frank and Bold' > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Nov 24, 2015 8:18 PM UTC  Kerry Washington as Olivia Pope on Scandal. ( Nicole Wilder/ABC --Getty Images) Kerry Washington as Olivia Pope on Scandal. ( Nicole Wilder/ABC --Getty Images)Nicole Wilder—ABC via Getty Images  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Nov 24, 2015 8:18 PM UTC You could call Norman Lear the Shonda Rhimes of the 1970s. Like Rhimes, Lear created a universe of network TV shows with similar themes and values, linked by tone and, sometimes, by plot: _All in the Family, The Jeffersons,_ and _Maude_ were television staples of the 70’s and ’80s. And last Thursday night’s winter finale of _Scandal_ gave Rhimes and Lear another thing in common: both presented controversial episodes about a character who gets an abortion. In the episode, Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) gets an abortion without mentioning it to anyone. More than 40 years ago, in November 1972, the title character in Norman Lear’s _Maude_ also got an abortion, but only after much deliberation. “I love the way it was handled,” Lear said of the abortion on _Scandal._ “But it surprised me that it was so matter of fact.” “In Maude’s case, she really contemplated not having an abortion,” he said. “We kind of presented both points of view in that fashion.” By contrast, Olivia Pope goes through the procedure with no discussion or deliberation, at least as far as we know now. As with anything on _Scandal_, it’s possible we’ll discover something completely unexpected when the show comes back on the air. Lear says he thinks the public discussion of abortion rights is very similar to the environment when the _Maude_ episode aired in November 1972, shortly before _Roe v. Wade_ legalized abortion across the country–though it was . He said he was surprised that there was so little outrage when the episode first aired. “There might have been some phone calls, there might have been some letters or whatever, but the fact is that nothing really happened,” he says. There was only a backlash, he says, when the show went into reruns a year later– that’s when anti-abortion activists started laying down in front of his car and disgruntled fans wrote [thousands of letters.](http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1992-11-13/features/9204130017%5F1%5Fmothers-as-donna-reed-messy-family-life-maude-findlay) But, he adds, the very fact that I’m interviewing him now suggests that abortion is still just as controversial as it was in 1972\. “The reason were having this conversation is because it was so unusual to see such an event on television,” he says. “It doesn’t seem to me that that much has changed.” Still, the handling of the procedure– as just a matter of fact choice, not an agonizing decision– does reflect a departure from the attitudes in the 1970s. I don’t think this content, as frank and bold as it is, is something that we would not have seen 40 years ago,” Lear says. “There hasn’t been that much change in the culture, in the nature of the American viewer, as there has been in the nature of the content.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4125345/norman-lear-why-olivia-popes-abortion-on-scandal-was-frank-and-bold/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4125345/norman-lear-why-olivia-popes-abortion-on-scandal-was-frank-and-bold/"},"headline":"Norman Lear: Why Olivia Pope's Abortion on Scandal was 'Frank and Bold'","datePublished":"2015-11-24T20:18:02.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T12:52:05.453Z","description":"The public attitudes towards abortion haven't changed much in the 40 years since Maude, but the content has, says creator","url":"https://time.com/4125345/norman-lear-why-olivia-popes-abortion-on-scandal-was-frank-and-bold/","keywords":["abortion","Television","Scandal","shonda rhimes"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt81326ff51a71fead/6988728e5f570f07f3b1e818/gettyimages-489589512.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Charlotte Alter","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt81326ff51a71fead/6988728e5f570f07f3b1e818/gettyimages-489589512.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"ABC's \"Scandal\" - Season Five","caption":"ABC's \"Scandal\" - Season Five","creditText":"Nicole Wilder—ABC via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4125345/norman-lear-why-olivia-popes-abortion-on-scandal-was-frank-and-bold/","name":"Norman Lear: Why Olivia Pope's Abortion on Scandal was 'Frank and Bold'"}}]}] ```