''The Goldbergs'' is a comedy-drama broadcast from 1929 to 1946 on

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

, and from 1949 to 1956 on American television. It was adapted into a 1948 play, ''

Me and Molly ''Me and Molly'' is a play by Gertrude Berg based on Berg's long-running radio drama '' The Goldbergs''. It premiered on Broadway at the Belasco Theatre on February 26, 1948, running for 156 performances through July 10, 1948. The show starred Ber ...

''; a 1950 film '' The Goldbergs'', and a 1973 Broadway musical, '' Molly''. It also briefly spun off a comic strip from June 8, 1944, to December 21, 1945, with art by

Irwin Hasen Irwin Hasen (July 8, 1918 – March 13, 2015) was an American cartoonist best known as the creator (with Gus Edson) of the ''Dondi'' comic strip. He also had a significant run on DC Comics' original Green Lantern, Alan Scott, in the 1940s as well ...

, a comic book artist who worked on various DC comics titles and would later do the ''Dondi'' comic strip.

Radio

The program was devised by writer-actress

Gertrude Berg Gertrude Berg (Born Tillie Edelstein; October 3, 1899 – September 14, 1966) was an American actress, screenwriter, and producer. A pioneer of classic radio, she was one of the first women to create, write, produce, and star in a long-running hi ...

in 1928 and sold to the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

radio network the following year. It was a domestic

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

featuring the home life of a

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...

ish family, supposedly located at 1038 East Tremont Avenue in

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

. In addition to writing the scripts and directing each episode, Berg starred as bighearted, lovingly meddlesome, and somewhat stereotypical Jewish matriarch Molly Goldberg. The show began as a portrait of Jewish tenement life before later evoking such growing pains as moving into a more suburban setting and struggling with assimilation while sustaining their roots. ''The Goldbergs'' began as a weekly 15-minute program called ''The Rise of the Goldbergs'' on November 20, 1929, going daily in 1931. The series moved to

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

in 1936 with the title shortened to ''The Goldbergs''. Like other 15-minute comedies of the day, such as ''

Amos 'n' Andy ''Amos 'n' Andy'' is an American radio sitcom about black characters, initially set in Chicago and later in the Harlem section of New York City. While the show had a brief life on 1950s television with black actors, the 1928 to 1960 radio show ...

'', ''

Lum and Abner ''Lum and Abner'' was an American network radio comedy program created by Chester Lauck and Norris Goff that was aired from 1931 to 1954. Modeled on life in the small town of Waters, Arkansas, near where Lauck and Goff grew up, the show proved i ...

'', ''

Easy Aces ''Easy Aces'' is an American serial radio comedy (1930–1945). It was trademarked by the low-keyed drollery of creator and writer Goodman Ace and his wife, Jane, as an urbane, put-upon realtor and his malaprop-prone wife. A 15-minute program, ...

'', ''

Vic and Sade ''Vic and Sade'' was an American radio program created and written by Paul Rhymer. It was regularly broadcast on radio from 1932 to 1944, then intermittently until 1946, and was briefly adapted to television in 1949 and again in 1957. During it ...

'' and ''Myrt and Marge'', ''The Goldbergs'' was a serial with running storylines. Berg's usual introduction (in character as Molly, hollering); "''yoo''-hoo! Is ''anybody''...?" became a

catchphrase A catchphrase (alternatively spelled catch phrase) is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such phrases often originate in popular culture and in the arts, and typically spread through word of mouth and a variety of mass ...

. In the 1940s, this was followed by

Bud Collyer Bud Collyer (born Clayton Johnson Heermance Jr., June 18, 1908 – September 8, 1969) was an American radio actor and announcer and game show host who became one of the nation's first major television game show stars. He is best remembered for ...

announcing; "here she is, folks: that's Molly Goldberg, a woman with a place in every heart and a finger in every pie". When Gertrude Berg missed a couple of weeks due to illness, stations carrying the popular show were flooded with get-well mail. At the height of the show's popularity, ''

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...

'' wrote: "for millions of Americans, listening to ''The Goldbergs''... has been a happy ritual akin to slipping on a pair of comfortable old shoes that never seem to wear out". Radio historians Frank Buxton and Bill Owen, in ''The Big Broadcast 1920–1950'', noted the series (which they considered a soap opera as much as a comedy) "differed from most of the other 'soaps' in that its leading characters lived through relatively normal situations. Even though it was the story of a poor Jewish family in the Bronx, New York, it had identification for a wide segment of listeners". Of the 15-minute serial comedies, only ''Amos 'n' Andy'' enjoyed a longer radio life than ''The Goldbergs''. The role of husband Jake Goldberg was originally played by

Himan Brown Himan Brown (July 21, 1910 – June 4, 2010Himan Brown obituary.< ...

and later, James R. Waters. When Waters died suddenly in 1945, Berg resisted recasting the role. Instead, she simply had Molly refer to Jake, occasionally setting up dialogue in which his reply was not heard when she spoke to him.

Behind the scenes

Berg was not averse to incorporating serious real-world issues which affected Jewish families. One 1939 episode addressed

Kristallnacht () or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom(s) (german: Novemberpogrome, ), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's (SA) paramilitary and (SS) paramilitary forces along with some participation from ...

and

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

(including a rock through the family window as the Goldbergs had their

Passover Passover, also called Pesach (; ), is a major Jewish holidays, Jewish holiday that celebrates the The Exodus, Biblical story of the Israelites escape from slavery in Ancient Egypt, Egypt, which occurs on the 15th day of the Hebrew calendar, He ...

Seder); other

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

-era episodes alluded to friends or family members trying to escape the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

. But these were sporadic deviations from the show's main theme of family, neighborhood and the balance between old world values and new world assimilation. Molly shows viewers the strong matriarch she is by constantly helping others with their dilemmas and proving to be the hero time and time again. ''The Goldbergs'' was so popular that performing stars in other arts sought to appear on it. Berg cast

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is operat ...

star

Jan Peerce Jan Peerce (born Yehoshua Pinkhes Perelmuth; June 3, 1904 December 15, 1984) was an American operatic tenor. Peerce was an accomplished performer on the operatic and Broadway theatre, Broadway concert stages, in solo recitals, and as a recordi ...

almost annually to sing on

Yom Kippur Yom Kippur (; he, יוֹם כִּפּוּר, , , ) is the holiest day in Judaism and Samaritanism. It occurs annually on the 10th of Tishrei, the first month of the Hebrew calendar. Primarily centered on atonement and repentance, the day's ...

and

. Another famous singer of the day,

Ernestine Schumann-Heink Ernestine Schumann-Heink (15 June 186117 November 1936) was a Bohemian-born Austrian-American operatic dramatic contralto of German Bohemian descent. She was noted for the flexibility and wide range of her voice. Early life She was born Ernest ...

, asked Berg personally to appear, and Berg wrote her into three episodes. Regina Resnik (an international soprano, later mezzo who had an international career, including the Met Opera) starred in a TV episode. The radio cast included Roslyn Silber and

Alfred Ryder Alfred Ryder (born Alfred Jacob Corn; January 5, 1916 – April 16, 1995) was an American television, stage, radio, and film actor and director, who appeared in over one hundred television shows. Career Ryder began to act at age eight and later ...

as children Rosalie and Sammy,

Menasha Skulnik Menasha Skulnik ( yi, מנשה סקולניק; May 15, 1890 – June 4, 1970) was an American actor, primarily known for his roles in Yiddish theater in New York City. Skulnik was also popular on radio, playing Uncle David on '' The Goldbergs'' for ...

as Uncle David,

Arnold Stang Arnold Sidney Stang (September 28, 1918 – December 20, 2009)
''The New York Times'', 22 December 2 ...

as Seymour Fingerhood,

Garson Kanin Garson Kanin (November 24, 1912 – March 13, 1999) was an American writer and director of plays and films. Early life Garson Kanin was born in Rochester, New York; his family later relocated to Detroit then to New York City. He attended ...

as Eli Edwards, and Zina Provendie as Sylvia Allison, among others.

Moves into stage and television

In 1948, Berg wrote and staged ''Me and Molly'', a

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

version of the show. A year later, she brought ''The Goldbergs'' to a national audience on television.

Television

Gertrude Berg Philip Loeb Molly and Jake Goldberg 1949

The television version ran on

CBS Television CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...

from 1949 to 1951 and co-starred

Philip Loeb Philip Loeb (March 28, 1891 – September 1, 1955), was an American stage, film, and television actor, director and author. He was blacklisted under McCarthyism and committed suicide in response. Early life Philip Loeb was born March 28, 1891, ...

as Jake Goldberg. He and Gertrude Berg reprised their roles in a 1950 film of the same name. The show almost didn't get to the small screen at all: CBS executives were uncertain that the show would work on television as well as it did on radio. Berg prevailed, however, and picked up

General Foods General Foods Corporation was a company whose direct predecessor was established in the United States by Charles William Post as the Postum Cereal Company in 1895. The company changed its name to "General Foods" in 1929, after several corporate ...

(

Sanka Sanka is a brand of instant decaffeinated coffee, sold around the world, and was one of the earliest decaffeinated varieties. Sanka is distributed in the United States by Kraft Heinz. History Decaffeinated coffee was developed in 1903 by a team ...

coffee) as its sponsor. Berg, who continued to write every episode, insisted that no

studio audience A studio audience is an audience present for the recording of all or part of a television program or radio program. The primary purpose of the studio audience is to provide applause and/or laughter to the program's soundtrack (as opposed to canned ...

be used and made sure everyday events formed the base for the stories;David Bianculli. "McCarthyism killed laughter of 'The Goldbergs', ''The Augusta Chronicle'' (reprinted from ''New York Daily News''), January 14, 1999, page B3. she was once quoted as saying she avoided "anything that will bother people ... unions, fund raising, Zionism, socialism, intergroup relations. ... I keep things average. I don't want to lose friends."A. James Rudin. "Ugly stereotypes of Jews on television threaten pluralism" (opinion column), ''The Dallas Morning News'', December 30, 2000, page 5G. Berg's hard work and determination paid off. In 1950, she won the first Best Actress

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

for her role as Molly on ''The Goldbergs''. ''The Goldbergs'' was destined to spend almost a decade on television—but not without disruptions. In 1950, Philip Loeb was

blacklisted Blacklisting is the action of a group or authority compiling a blacklist (or black list) of people, countries or other entities to be avoided or distrusted as being deemed unacceptable to those making the list. If someone is on a blacklist, t ...

and pressure was placed on Berg (who owned the television version as she had the radio original) to fire him. When she refused,

cancelled their sponsorship, and CBS dropped it from their schedule by June 1951. Eight months later, however,

—the show's original broadcasting home—picked up the series for the 1952–53 season, but informed Gertrude Berg that if she persisted in allowing Philip Loeb to remain with the series, it would never be seen on television again. She finally gave in, and the series reappeared in a twice-weekly, early-evening 15-minute format (with another change in title, to ''Molly'', in due course), with Harold Stone and then

Robert H. Harris Robert H. Harris (born Robert H. Hurwitz; July 15, 1911 – November 30, 1981) was an American character actor. Stage A veteran of the Yiddish Art Theater from his teens, Harris made his first Broadway appearance in 1937 in ''Schoolhouse on the ...

replacing Loeb as Jake, though Berg quietly continued to pay a salary to Loeb.Paul Lomartire. "Have I got news for you about Molly," ''The Palm Beach Post'', June 18, 1994, page 1D. After ''The Goldbergs'' ended its CBS run, Tom Taylor replaced Larry Robinson in the role of Molly's son, Sammy. The rest of the television cast included

Eli Mintz Eli Mintz (born Edward Satz, 1 August 1904 – 8 June 1988) was an American actor of Polish-Austrian Jewish descent. Biography Born in Lemberg, Austrian-Hungary (now Lviv, Ukraine), the son of a tailor, Mintz began acting professionally as a ch ...

as Uncle David,

Arlene McQuade Arlene McQuade (May 29, 1936 – April 21, 2014) was an American television, radio and theater actress best known for her portrayal of Rosalie on the CBS series, '' The Goldbergs''. McQuade died at a nursing home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on Apr ...

as Rosalie and Betty Bendyke as Dora Barnett. On radio, Sammy and Rosalie had grown up and gotten married; on television, the characters were revived as teenagers. During this time, Gertrude Berg and Arlene McQuade appeared as their characters of Molly and Rosalie, respectively, when they guested on NBC-TV's Buick-Berle Show starring

Milton Berle Milton Berle (born Mendel Berlinger; ; July 12, 1908 – March 27, 2002) was an American actor and comedian. His career as an entertainer spanned over 80 years, first in silent films and on stage as a child actor, then in radio, movies and tel ...

. In 1954, the show reverted to a weekly half-hour, moving to the DuMont network for a run from April to October. The series was originally intended to run for six months on DuMont, but, due to financial difficulties, the network was unable to fulfill the $5 million contract, despite

Nielsen ratings Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...

estimated at ten million viewers. The DuMont shows were aired live. A final version, aired in

syndication Syndication may refer to: * Broadcast syndication, where individual stations buy programs outside the network system * Print syndication, where individual newspapers or magazines license news articles, columns, or comic strips * Web syndication, ...

, was filmed in 1955 and aired on local stations until 1956. This version moved the Goldbergs from the Bronx to the New York suburb of Haverville. In a way this mirrored the real life journey of many Jewish families from the Bronx to the suburbs and other parts of New York during this period. However, this was considered the death knell of the show, as it was felt that the Goldbergs were only the Goldbergs in the Bronx. Also in 1955, Philip Loeb, beset by depression and unable to find other work, committed suicide. In 1957, Gertrude Berg made her last two appearances as Molly Goldberg: first on an episode of the NBC-TV variety series '' Washington Square'' with

Ray Bolger Raymond Wallace Bolger (January 10, 1904 – January 15, 1987) was an American actor, dancer, singer, vaudevillian and stage performer (particularly musical theatre) who started in the silent-film era. Bolger was a major Broadway performer in ...

, and then on a

Kate Smith Kathryn Elizabeth Smith (May 1, 1907 – June 17, 1986) was an American contralto. Referred to as The First Lady of Radio, Smith is well known for her renditions of Irving Berlin's "God Bless America" & "When The Moon Comes Over The Mountain". ...

special that aired on ABC-TV. File:The goldbergs gertrude berg cbs.JPG, Gertrude Berg as Molly Goldberg on the show's set File:The Goldberg family 1.jpg, Rosalie, Jake and Molly File:The Goldberg family 2.jpg, Sammy and Dora Barnett File:The Goldbergs 1954.JPG, Uncle David and Molly with Rosalie at the piano

Aftermath

Gertrude Berg returned to television six years later in a situation comedy, ''

Mrs. G. Goes to College ''Mrs. G. Goes to College'' (retitled ''The Gertrude Berg Show'' starting with episode 14) is a 26-episode American sitcom which aired on CBS from October 4, 1961, to April 5, 1962. The series starred Emmy Award-winning actress Gertrude Berg. Syn ...

'', playing Sarah Green, a Molly Goldberg-like character. Despite being retitled ''The Gertrude Berg Show'' in mid-year, the program was cancelled after one season. ''The Goldbergs'' is available to collectors and fans in a large number of surviving radio episodes and some surviving television episodes, many of which have lapsed into the public domain. Aviva Kempner's documentary '' Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg'' (2009) deals with the show, and to an extent, Gertrude Berg's personal life. Most of the DuMont episodes survive at the

UCLA Film and Television Archive The UCLA Film & Television Archive is a visual arts organization focused on the preservation, study, and appreciation of film and television, based at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Also a nonprofit exhibition venue, the archiv ...

, while the 39 filmed episodes survive intact. Since 2009, the series can be seen on the

JLTV The Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) is a United States military (specifically U.S. Army, U.S. Marine Corps) and United States Special Operations Command program to partially replace the Humvee fleet with a family of more survivable vehicles ...

cable network.

Home media

In March 2010,

Shout! Factory Shout! Factory is an American home video and music company founded in 2002 as Retropolis Entertainment. Its video releases include previously released feature films, classic and contemporary television series, animation, live music, and comedy ...

released ''The Goldbergs: The Ultimate Goldbergs'' on DVD via their retail website. The release includes all 71 extant episodes of the television series. Episodes are also available to stream on their ShoutFactoryTV service. The

digitally restored all of the episodes, as well as provided 12 radio episodes for the DVD release and the pilot for the short lived series ''Mrs. G Goes To College'' (1961). The box set is available from UCLA.UCLA
/ref> The UCLA archive also holds 130

transcription disc Electrical transcriptions are special phonograph recordings made exclusively for radio broadcasting,Browne, Ray B. and Browne, Pat, Eds. (2001). ''The Guide to United States Popular Culture''. The University of Wisconsin Press. . P. 263. which wer ...

s of the radio series, which it has released on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

References

Listen to

Internet Archive: ''The Goldbergs''Webcast on Gertrude Berg

The Paley Center for Media The Paley Center for Media, formerly the Museum of Television & Radio (MT&R) and the Museum of Broadcasting, founded in 1975 by William S. Paley, is an American cultural institution in New York with a branch office in Los Angeles, dedicated to ...

, "From The Goldbergs to 2005: The Evolution of the Family Sitcom" (November 16, 2005)
Free OTR: ''The Goldbergs'' (59 episodes)
*

External links

''Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg''
documentary film on Gertrude Berg and ''The Goldbergs''
UCLA Film & Television Archive Goldberg page''The Goldbergs'' (television program) at IMDB''The Goldbergs'' (1950 feature film) at IMDBPresenting the Goldbergs In Living Portraits (page 19)-Radio Television Mirror-August 1941
{{DEFAULTSORT:Goldbergs, The American comedy radio programs American radio soap operas Radio programs about families CBS original programming NBC original programming DuMont Television Network original programming Television series about families Television series about Jews and Judaism 1920s American radio programs 1930s American radio programs 1930s in comedy 1940s American radio programs Works about human migration CBS Radio programs NBC Blue Network radio programs NBC radio programs American live television series Television articles with incorrect naming style United States National Recording Registry recordings Radio programs adapted into comics Radio programs adapted into plays Radio programs adapted into television shows 1949 American television series debuts 1940s American sitcoms 1950s American sitcoms 1956 American television series endings Black-and-white American television shows English-language television shows Television series based on radio series Television shows set in the Bronx

Radio

Behind the scenes

Moves into stage and television

Television

Aftermath

Home media

See also

References

Listen to

External links