Before Oprah, and before Lucy, there was the beloved Gertrude Berg, the entertainment genius who wrote, starred in, and produced the first successful domestic sitcom and charmed a beleaguered nation.
Animated through a dazzling collage of vintage clips and interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, and intimate conversations with friends, colleagues, and family members, the box-office smash-hit Yoo-hoo, Mrs. Goldberg traces Berg's rise to stardom from her childhood in New York to her early radio days in The Rise of the Goldbergs (1929-1946) to her enormously influential sitcom, The Goldbergs (1949-1956), which brought Berg the first Best Actress Emmy® in history. Berg's passion and incredible productivity paved the way for a wide variety of causes— women in entertainment, Jewish-American identity, and actors' rights, to name a few&mdash but she is most celebrated for singlehandedly proving that American family transcends social, religious, and economic divisions.
Aviva Kempner's critically acclaimed Yoo-hoo, Mrs. Goldberg offers a humorous, captivating tribute to one of the most successful and innovative women in American broadcasting history.
Includes interviews with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, actor Ed Asner, producers Norman Lear (All in the Family) and Gary David Goldberg (Family Ties), and NPR correspondent Susan Stamberg, as well as early career appearances of Anne Bancroft and Steve McQueen.