Yoo-Hoo Mrs. Goldberg

Image: Gertrude Berg

Image credit: Courtesy of the Ciesla Foundation

After a popular 17-year run on radio, The Goldbergs became television's very first character-driven domestic sitcom in 1949. The TV series ran until 1956, starring Berg in the central role as Molly, played by creator and principal writer Gertrude Berg, the big-hearted, stay-at-home mother of a Jewish family. Each episode captured their ordinary, daily life with all the ups and downs present in most families. Yoo-Hoo Mrs. Goldberg, airing Sunday, July 21, 2013 at 10:30 p.m. on WXXI-TV, features archival footage from Berg’s childhood, wonderful clips from The Goldbergs, and revealing interviews with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, actor Ed Asner, producers Norman Lear (All in the Family) and Gary David (Family Ties), and NPR correspondent Susan Stamberg. 

America loved The Goldbergs, especially Molly. Berg received the first Best Actress Emmy in history, and helped pave the way for women in the entertainment industry. She became the second most admired woman in the U.S. after Eleanor Roosevelt, and was the highest wage-earning American woman. Berg was as talented at business and at building a media empire as she was at writing, directing and acting. During her career she wrote 12,000 scripts, even writing the commercials for some of her shows — all while maintaining her own marriage and raising her own children. Gertrude Berg was truly a woman ahead of her time.