The Goldbergs

The Goldbergs, a brilliant show written and directed by and starring Gertrude Berg, premiered on radio in 1929 and on TV in 1949, when it became television’s first character-driven domestic sitcom. Berg (subject of this year’s Freedom of Expression Award–winner Aviva Kempner’s new documentary Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg) received the first Best Actress Emmy for her portrayal of the lovable, buxom baleboste from the Bronx Molly Goldberg, who dispenses advice, gossip and a whole lot of common sense. She talks from her window to her neighbors and via the airwaves to millions of immigrant and first-generation families who were struggling to become American. By the end of each show, as she leans out and says goodnight “from our family to your family,” you feel like Molly has become your tante and that, regardless of your ethnicity, you are part of a larger American family. We will be showing four archival episodes: “Matchmaker,” in which Molly’s cousin Hannah Leah copes with gallstones and a single daughter; “ Mother-in-Law,” starring a young Anne Bancroft, who can’t quite bring herself to call her mother-in-law “Mom”; “Molly’s Fish,” how not every recipe can be mass produced; and “Rent Strike,” a vehicle for Jake Goldberg’s (played by actor Philip Loeb) sense of justice when confronted with a new landlord.