Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg Watch Free Movie Online,New Hollywood Film 2009 Full Movie Review,Free Download Wallpaper

YOO-HOO, MRS. GOLDBERG is Aviva Kempner's story of the radio and

television program "The Goldbergs". It is also the story of the

powerhouse woman behind that program, Gertrude Berg. This is a

very well produced documentary easily of the quality of PBS

documentary programs like "American Masters" and "The American

Experience". The story is told using original photographs and

films of the period, excerpts from the program, and interview

comments by people like Susan Stamberg (of NPR), Ruth Bader

Ginsburg (associate justice of the United States Supreme Court),

and Norman Lear. Also included are excerpts from a 1950s interview

of Gertrude Berg by Edward R. Morrow.

CAPSULE: Aviva Kempner directs a 90-minute

documentary about what was once one of America's

most beloved radio and television programs,

which was written by and starring one of America's

then most beloved women, Gertrude Berg. Though

her character Molly Goldberg is mostly forgotten

today she and her fictional family have an

important place in the history of American culture.

Rating: +2 (-4 to +4) or 7/10

The first popular situation comedy on the radio was also the first

popular situation comedy on television. The program was originally

titled "The Rise of the Goldbergs", and later shortened to just

"The Goldbergs". The program was a sort of "Mother Knows Best"

with the mother being the smart, wise, and big-hearted Molly

Goldberg. It was written by and starred Gertrude Berg--born Tilly

Edelstein--and became a sort of comedy/drama soap opera, at first

15 minutes a day and later expanded to a half hour. The stories

were about the family of Molly Goldberg, a woman who was very much

like Gertrude Berg herself. It had a real feel for everyday life

and was spiced with aside comments on the action from Berg to the

listener who was treated much like a member of the family.

The radio program premiered November 20, 1929, on the CBS Blue

Network. It ran on the radio, including a network change, until

1950. But starting in 1949 the show also ran on television until

1956. While the program was about a Jewish immigrant family it had

an appeal across all ethnic backgrounds. Its story of characters

trying to get along on what little they had during the Great

Depression. Its portrayal of an immigrant family resonated with

the public. One interviewee says that she was Greek, but she saw

much of her own family in the fictional Goldbergs. The Goldberg

family could get along in hard times and come out OK, even with

very little to live on. This is a message that is as relevant

today as it was in Depression days.

Polls at the time said that the Gertrude Berg was second only to

Eleanor Roosevelt as the most respected women in America. Central

to the story throughout the radio days and well into the television

days were the tenement setting which allow the character Molly

Goldberg to talk with her neighbors by just putting her head out

the window and calling "Yoo-hoo." Later in the fifties the setting

was moved to suburbia but retained much of the same feel. In the

late 1930s the film confronted the problems of ethnic bigotry.

Many viewers learned about Kristallnacht and what was happening in

Nazi Germany but also what was happening in the United States. One

program had the family's Passover Seder ceremony interrupted by a

rock thrown through the window. The character Molly Goldberg

always remained calm and brought her own wisdom to the incident and

any situation she found herself in. Gertrude Berg (who wrote every

episode) let her own personality shine through.

Eventually, however, politics did intrude, not in front of the

camera but behind. The part of Molly's husband Jake was played in

the late 1940s and early 1950s by Philip Loeb. Loeb was accused of

being a Communist and his name appeared in Red Channels. Sponsor

General Foods demanded that he be dropped from the show for being

too controversial. Goldberg absolutely refused, but lost when Loeb

resigned. Soon after CBS dropped the television show. In the

schedule hole it left open CBS put a new situation comedy, "I Love

Lucy". Eight months later the Goldbergs were back on television.

NBC picked up the show with Berg, though not with Loeb.

Gertrude Berg herself probably could not have made a better

documentary of her life and her creations than YOO-HOO, MRS.

GOLDBERG. Through decades on the radio, multiple TV series, and

two plays Berg's Molly Goldberg gave America comfort and wisdom.

Yet for most of this film's audience most of what it tells will be

a complete revelation. I rate YOO-HOO, MRS. GOLDBERG a +2 on the

-4 to +4 scale or 7/10.