Home Is a Place Over the Bridge
Brooklyn informs most of writer and television producer Gary David Goldberg’s work. Goldberg, probably best known for the television series Family Ties, grew up in Bensonhurst in the 1940s and 1950s with his grandparents, parents, and older brother. They were three generations living under one roof. (Goldberg’s grandparents, immigrants from Russia and Poland, lived downstairs in the apartment building.) In 1991, he created and produced the television series Brooklyn Bridge, a semi-autobiographical sitcom about a multi-generational, lower-middle-class Jewish family living in Bensonhurst in 1956. The show portrayed “an urban Jewish family in a world of fading ethnicity and growing assimilation,” which mirrored the American Jewish experience during the time—a period in which the community was grappling with the survival of its Jewish identity in the face of suburban assimilation. [1] While the series only aired for two seasons, it earned a Golden Globe for Best Television Series in a Comedy or Musical, in addition to numerous award nominations. Over the decades, only a handful of television series have portrayed distinctly Jewish families. Brooklyn Bridge is one of the few to stay true to its Jewish character and Brooklyn roots.
Click here to read more about the television series.
Read stories from other Brooklynites who grew up in Bensonhurst.
Check out the teleplay for the Brooklyn Bridge episode “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling” in Brooklyn Historical Society’s collection.
[1] http://www.momentmag.com/Exclusive/2011/02/topten_tv.html