Bridget Loves Bernie

I remember watching Bridget Loves Bernie when we moved from New Jersey to Minnesota in 1972. It was an outstanding comedy that CBS put in its Saturday night lineup between two classics All in the Family and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. It had the potential to be a hit.

Unfortunately, viewer protests.over interfaith marriage and complaints from religious groups contributed to the network axing the show after one season.

The show had an outstanding cast anchored by David Birney as Bernie and Meredith Baxter as Bridget. Portraying Bernie's parents were Harold J. Stone and Bibi Osterwald. Bridget's parents were played by David Doyle and Audra Lindley. There was Robert Sampson as Bridget's brother Michael, a priest and William Elliott as Bernie's friend Otis.

Even the show lasted only one season, Birney and Baxter fell in love in real life and got married. Unfortunately, they got divorced. Baxter Birney would go on to play Elyse Keaton in Family Ties.

If you have never seen Bridget Loves Bernie, you can find it on Crackle. Though interfaith marriage was controversial in the 1970s, it's much more accepted today and you'll enjoy seeing a sitcom that got cancelled too soon.

This show died not because the subject matter was too controversial, but because the show sucked.

Plot lines included the happy couple buying a waterbed, then trying it out while the parents are hanging out in the room below -- it bursts of course, and oh what comedy ensues! You can imagine.

As for making David Birney a star -- well, that depends on your definition of star. I guess for Ozzie Nelson this was daring material, and maybe if you were in Kansas, but as a New Yorker, the idea of a kindly hip Reform Jewish family watching their son marrying the daughter of a somewhat uptight but ultimately kindly well-to-do Irish Catholic family didn't exactly set fire to the aerial.

As an impressionable 10 year old, I liked the "love conquers all" philosophy of the 70s sitcom "Bridget Loves Bernie." I did understand the controversy, which was about the romantic complications between a Jewish cab driver (David Birney) and an Irish Catholic school teacher (Meredith Baxter) and both sets of parents (Harold J. Stone and Bibi Osterwald as Bernie's parents; Audra Lindley and David Doyle as Bridget's parents) who have issues with the young couple's interfaith marriage.

Looking at the show now with years of personal life experiences, I am amazed that the show was even a success for one, albeit, highly-rated season. Created by veteran TV writer Bernard Slade, who a few years after the show's cancellation would write the successful play "Same Time, Next Year", "Bridget Loves Bernie" was a very light, superficial comedy that collapsed under its own airy weight.

There was no denying the real-life chemistry between Birney and Baxter. But, in later years, both actors have shown that they are better actors in other projects (Birney in his short-lived role in "St. Elsewhere" and Baxter in "Family" and "Family Ties"). Here, they were trying to breathe life in a show that needed a much gritter comic edge, which might have given the complications more depth to a very controversial subject.

The show aired Saturday nights between two CBS powerhouses: "All in the Family" and "Mary Tyler Moore". Both of those shows were smart, funny and had enough of an edge (more so on the former that the latter) that kept my interest in the situation and the characters. "Bridget Loves Bernie" was not very smart and only had some occasional chuckles.

This was another example of a show that really was not as good as I remembered.

I saw this show forty years ago. Sandwiched between two of the most successful series of the 70s, All In The Family and The Mary Tyler Moore Show, this couldn't help but get good ratings. A lot of people on another board have expressed interest in seeing this series go to DVD, so I watched the pilot on YouTube to see if I could change my negative opinion of it after all these years. Nope. The comedy is forced and unfunny, the Jewish jokes groan-inducing and offensive, and there is a line cribbed from the far-superior Love on a Rooftop:"You're rich". "You make it sound like some sort of disease". As to chemistry, that between Pete Duel and Judy Carne in the similarly plotted Love on a Rooftop is much better than that of David Birney and Meredith Baxter. The worst moment comes when Audra Lindley (never one of my favorites) has this shocked reaction to her daughter's new boyfriend possibly being black. This was created by Bernard Slade, who also created Love on a Rooftop. After seeing this again, the only positive thing I can say about it is that the theme music, by Jerry Fielding is nice. As far as reviving this on DVD or a nostalgia TV channel, to quote Leonard Maltin describing an old, recently rediscovered film he did not like: "This is one 'treasure' that should have stayed buried."

"Bridget Loves Bernie" was a short-lived CBS sitcom that ran during the 1972-73 season between mega hit shows "All in the Family" and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show". Based loosely upon the play/radio hit "Abie's Irish Rose", the series centers on the romance, and subsequent comical tribulations between a wealthy Catholic schoolteacher and a Jewish cabbie. The show came under fire from Jewish religious leaders who considered the arrangement as insulting. The studio suffered bomb threats and death threats at their hands. Blessed by the time slot, it is notable for being the highest-rated TV series ever canceled, coming in at #5 and the highest-rated new show that season. The chemistry between series stars Meredith Baxter and David Birney was real and they married after the series ended and had three children.

Reflecting upon the series, "Bridget and Bernie" had likable characters in a show that struggled at times to maintain plot. After a fine entry to lay the groundwork, some episodes seem to take one concept that could have been handled as a minor detail and stretched it as the entire episode. A number of episodes floundered, in my opinion, with a lean, linear, unsharpened plot. Things seem to pick up near the end, however, with the highlight being three consecutive hilarious offerings: "Into Every Life a Little Snow Must Fall", "To Teach or Not to Teach", and "Painting, Painting - Who's Got the Painting?".

The chemistry between the series stars was genuine, as mentioned, but not especially warm and they rarely offered more than light comedy. The same level of comedy came from the Steinbergs' Jewish characters. The real laughs came from the hilarious interactions between Walt and the dimwitted Amy Fitzgerald. Audrey Lindley was a key ingredient here much like she was to the successful "Three's Company".

"Bridget Loves Bernie" attempted to bring up a taboo subject in really the best you can, to me. It wasn't preachy like today's mainstream news that willingly sacrifices credibility to push bought and paid for views. It just offered a light setting with laughs where you can follow their lives with a theme of love conquers all. But, does it gloss over the fact that religion doesn't seem very important to the couple, compared to their parents? The series in no way had the makings of a hit and with intense pressure that included death threats by Jewish leaders, the decision was made to pull the plug.

The complete series can be found today on DVD.