Paying tribute to the mother of TV sitcoms

[musicradio77]

Molly Goldberg was the Jewish mother you didn't have to be Jewish to want for your own mother.

From Apartment 3B at 1030 Tremont Ave., Molly and her husband, Jake, dispatched gentle wisdom - and a few criticisms - to the world around them.

But Molly also did something else. As played by veteran actress Gertrude Berg, who created her on radio in the early 1930s, Molly Goldberg helped shape the television sitcom, perhaps the most beloved entertainment package in TV history.

It's that kind of pioneering, said Geri Laybourne, CEO of the Oxygen Network, that sometimes doesn't get noticed when people talk about the contributions of women to radio and TV.

"The more you look at television and radio history, the more you appreciate the role women played," said Laybourne. "But we often overlook it."

So a group of women set out to correct some oversights with an ambitious three-year program called "She Made It: Women Creating Radio and Television," which will launch Dec. 1 at the Museum of Television and Radio here and in Los Angeles.

It will include seminars, exhibitions and programs to honor women in media and spotlight their work.

"She Made It" will officially open with the announcement of the program's first 50 honorees. They will include writers, directors, producers, journalists, sportscasters and executives.

At the end of the show's three-year run, some 2,000 hours of programming that highlight the work of women will be identified as a resource for scholars, students and the public.

Meanwhile, "She Made It" will offer an early taste tonight with a seminar on Berg at the museum's New York branch, at 25 W. 52nd St.

Panelists will include Aviva Kempner, a filmmaker who made a documentary on Berg; David Zurawik, author of a Berg bio, and playwright Wendy Wasserstein.

Laybourne said a Berg seminar is a perfect place to begin.

"The public doesn't realize how important she was," Laybourne said. "She set in motion the family sitcom - everything that followed."

In general, Laybourne takes an optimistic view of women's current position in TV and radio. The old notion that viewers want to get their news from a male voice, for instance, is "long gone," she said. "Who wouldn't want to get their news from Christine Amanpour?"

"On the producer, writer, talent side, it's always a challenge," she conceded. "But we're seeing progress. At Oxygen, we seek out young talent.

"And on the executive level, 28 women have run cable TV networks," she added. "That means there are a lot of powerful women out there - and there will be more."