Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg

From Aviva Kempner, award-winning maker of THE LIFE AND TIMES OF HANK GREENBERG, comes this humorous and eye-opening story of television pioneer Gertrude Berg. She was the creator, principal writer, and star of The Goldbergs, a popular radio show about a Jewish family living in New York City which became television’s very first character-driven domestic sitcom in 1949. She combined social commentary, family values and lots of humor to win the hearts of America.

Norman Lear, producer of All in the Family:
“It’s overwhelming that this woman could have done all of that, and so successfully, and for so many years.”

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg:
“She was no shrinking violet. We all listened to Molly Goldberg on the radio.”

NPR special correspondent Susan Stamberg:
“She had that delightful little accent. She wore smart hats from time to time. Yes, she still had that apron, and that old world touch, but she was a modern woman that Molly!”

“’The Oprah of her day’ is one talking head’s description of the broadcasting pioneer Gertrude Berg in “Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg,” Aviva Kempner’s engrossing documentary portrait of a once-beloved radio and television star who died in 1966 and today is barely remembered. The film could be described as Exhibit A in a study of media celebrity and collective forgetfulness in the age of information overload.” Stephen Holden, New York Times