At least here, Walter and Maude don't go under house arrest and have to live in their roach filled Harlem home where dozens of people allegedly are crowded together in one room. Walter has made an investment in a tenement in Harlem, not realizing that it is basically a dump that needs to be torn down and re-built with proper living conditions. One of the tenants (Nolan Bell) finds out who the investors are and chooses Maude and Walter's house to protest outside of. Bell is actually a very sweet older man, and makes repeat visits to the house to use the facilities as Walter and Maude figure a way to get out of this mess. Bell is delightfully deadpan and steals the episode with his constantly cheery personality with the ability to be a Greek chorus to the action going on around him. Writer Susan Harris took ideas from this episode obviously and expanded it later on to have Dorothy an unwilling party to Stan's purchase of a Miami tenement that is just seen, while the apartment building conditions here are just implied.
Review of The Slumlord
One of many "Maude" episodes later re-done as a "Golden Girls" episode.
21 October 2019
Warning: Spoilers