The Goldbergs

i don't watch television entertainments (other than SNL occasionally). but, one night at about 2am, while channel-surfing the UHF band i stumbled onto an episode of "The Goldbergs".

the contrast between this show and today's dreck literally brought tears to my eyes. in this particular episode, a couple who were friends of the Goldbergs had just separated. it seems that they did not 'communicate' openly and honestly with each other during their marriage.

in discussing this, the Goldbergs started to become increasingly candid with each other about mutual disappointments from the past. as they did so, the emotional air became more and more acrid.

the point was that there is no easy answer to the question of how much to 'confront' and how much to sweep under the carpet. but, there was no hitting below the belt, no potty humor, no double (or mono) entendres. just two decent people discussing a universal domestic problem with a leavening of humor.

i haven't been able to find it again, but i wish it would go into syndication locally.

As a young child living in a brownstone walk-up apartment in a predominantly Jewish section of Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood watching this show with my Mom & Dad I didn't realize how cool it was that there was a show about people like us. The Goldbergs were a proud Jewish family. Since that time we've had ambiguously Jewish characters such as the Kravitz couple on Bewitched and Felix & Oscar on The Odd Couple BUT the Goldbergs were indeed the real deal.

In the early days of television there was a lot of free program timing and what to do to fill it. Simply take the best from medium you are supplanting, radio. The first years of television simply had radio shows be it Jack Benny, Burns&Allen, the Lone Ranger, etc. simply come over from radio and before when you only could imagine what the characters looked like, now they had to fulfill expectations of what you came to expect.

The Goldbergs were filmed live originally, no canned laugh soundtrack, the laughs Gertrude Berg and her cast got were real. But Gertrude Berg was no stranger to live audiences, she honed her acting talent and the material that she and her husband Lewis wrote at the Borscht Belt Jewish club in the Catskills. From the skits of Jewish life she wrote for her club act, Ms. Berg created the adventures of the lovable and philosophical Molly Goldberg and her family which consisted of husband Jake, Philip Loeb, children Arlene McQuade and Larry Robinson and Uncle David played by Eli Mintz. They and others who replaced them among the older generation were all veterans of the Yiddish Theater and the Borscht Belt nightclubs of the Catskills.

Though many folks succeeded the other cast members, particularly Philip Loeb who was blacklisted, only Gertrude Berg was with it all the way. As the creative force of the show, it could not have worked with anyone else. It'a also the only television show I can think of besides Car 54 Where Are You that was centered in the Bronx.

The Jewish Champs Elysees of the time, better known as the Grand Concourse has changed considerably over half a century. Molly Goldberg wouldn't recognize the place now. From where she dispensed her wisdom from out her apartment window or in the living room, she'd more than likely have to do it in Spanish today.

Yet take out the Jewish character and humor, what you've got with The Goldbergs are the bare bones of a gazillion family comedies that have come through television since then. Family situations are universal and is George Lopez's Show speaking of Molly dispensing wisdom in Spanish all that different from The Goldbergs.

Gertrude Berg was a real pioneer in nightclub, on radio, and finally on television. Molly, you were a Yiddishe sage.

I am 59 and was searching my ancient memory for the first few TV shows I saw as a boy. We got our first TV in 1948. "Molly Goldberg," not among my favorites, was incomprehensible to me. The Jewish humor escaped me as a little boy. Still, that show stuck in my memory. For better or worse, I would really like to see some of those old TV shows from the first half of the last century.

I've had the privilege of seeing only two episodes of this pioneering family show, many years ago (in reruns), and I was quite impressed with its unique brand of humor and human warmth. Let's hope that many episodes survive and will be shown again, but sorry to say, the likelihood is small. With the advent of digital TV, "grainy" black and white vintage TV is even less likely to be appreciated. People seem to think that they are not getting their money's worth if they are not utilizing the full potential of their expensive TV sets. Well, there's another kind of potential that ought to be cherished: the human potential, as embodied in THE GOLDBERGS and other priceless, unforgettable family shows like MAMA. If you want to see them, your best chance is the Museum of Television and Radio in Los Angeles and New York. Alas, they don't sell copies of the shows. One doesn't even know who implemented such tight-hearted policies or why.