1929–1946 on radio · NBC, CBS

The Goldbergs

Gertrude Berg's Bronx family — and television's first situation comedy.

Gertrude Berg wrote every script, produced the programme and played Molly, which made her one of the most powerful women in American broadcasting and gave the medium a Jewish immigrant family speaking in its own accent for two decades. When she moved it to television in 1949 she carried the whole thing with her — the writing, the sponsor relationship, the cast — and in doing so established that a radio property could simply be lifted, intact, into pictures. Everything on this shelf follows from that.

On radio

Radio from 20 November 1929

On television

Television from 10 January 1949

The overlap

Gertrude Berg wrote, produced and starred in both

60 recordings · New York

Surviving network broadcasts, 1938–1945, held by the Internet Archive. The radio series ended before the television version began; what is here is the programme in the medium it was born in. Public domain (US network broadcast, copyright not renewed); no Creative Commons or non-commercial terms apply.