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Critics Consensus: Equal parts edification and entertainment, Kempner's tender tribute to a forgotten pioneer of American entertainment is both richly deserved and long overdue.
Critic Consensus: Equal parts edification and entertainment, Kempner's tender tribute to a forgotten pioneer of American entertainment is both richly deserved and long overdue.
All Critics (69) | Top Critics (25) | Fresh (64) | Rotten (5) | DVD (1)
It is only in the sequence about Berg's popular costar Philip Loeb that Aviva Kempner's documentary resonates.
Yoo-Hoo suggests that, yes, Berg broke new ground and, no, she shouldn't be forgotten. But it doesn't explain why she endured, or why she is so forgotten today.
Charming.
History has been unfair to Berg, a fact that filmmaker Aviva Kempner hopes to correct with this illuminating documentary.
Aviva Kempner's documentary Yoo Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg is a delightful introduction to Berg, who began writing and performing skits at her father's resort hotel in the Catskill Mountains, then studied drama at Columbia University.
We're left with an impression of a vivacious pioneer; but warm shouldn't have to mean fuzzy.
Aviva Kempner's documentary is a real eye-opener on an influential woman whose once central place in American popular has been mostly forgotten.
Gertrude Berg was the Queen of All Media long before Howard Stern ever dreamed about being King.
Berg's professional story is worthy enough to be retold, although one wishes for something a little more emotionally compelling.
Kempner has made The Goldbergs informative, entertaining, poignant, and ... nostalgic. A piece of history has been saved.
A remarkable story, all the more remarkable for the era in which it happened, an era when most women had almost no opportunities to become famous, rich and powerful. Gertrude Berg not only triumphed during this time, she was the Oprah Winfrey of her time.
It's puzzling that a paean to Gertrude Berg's Jewish New York housewife, Mrs. Goldberg -- a character so beloved and enduring that she could serve as a travel guide through early-to-mid-20th-century history -- could fall so flat.
"Yoo-Hoo, Mrs, Goldberg" is a charming and informative documentary about Getrude Berg, nee Tilly Edelstein, who was not only the star of "The Goldbergs," an immensely popular sitcom that originated on the radio, but also wrote the scripts in the days before word processors and computers with bad handwriting that puts my atrocious handwriting to shame.(One interviewee refers to her as the Oprah of her time.) What's especially noteworthy about "The Goldbergs" is that it is the prototypical family sitcom, influencing many sitcoms in the years to come.(Norman Lear is on hand to testify to this.) Although, to be honest, any television series that lasts for any period of time will have rising stars passing through at some point. "The Goldbergs" not only has an important place in television history but also in the current events of the times by presenting a Jewish family in New York City without stereotypes in a time of growing anti-semitism in the 1930's. And the television program would be adversely affected by the Blacklist of the 1950's, despite its huge popularity. Sadly enough, "The Goldbergs" has faded somewhat from memory as it has not found a new audience with younger generations which hopefully this fine documentary helps to rectify.
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