# Bridget Loves Bernie

Bridget Loves Bernie is an American sitcom that aired on CBS from September 16, 1972, to March 3, 1973. The series, created by Bernard Slade, depicted an interfaith marriage between a Catholic woman and a Jewish man. It stars Meredith Baxter and David Birney as the title characters. CBS canceled the show after only one season despite very high ratings.
Baxter and Birney later married in real life in 1974 after the program had left the air and Baxter was known in her professional career for several years as Meredith Baxter Birney.

## Overview

The series depicts an interfaith marriage between an Irish Catholic teacher (Bridget Fitzgerald) from a wealthy family and a Jewish cab driver who aspires to be a playwright (Bernie Steinberg), whom she had met at a bus stop. With a primetime slot between All in the Family and The Mary Tyler Moore Show on Saturday nights, the situation comedy was No. 5 in the ratings among all shows for the 1972-73 television season and obtained a 24.2 rating, tying The NBC Sunday Mystery Movie. However, CBS executives canceled the show in response to negative reactions to the characters' marriage, the show thus being the highest-rated television program to be canceled after only one season.
Supporting cast members included Audra Lindley, David Doyle, Harold J. Stone, Ned Glass and Bibi Osterwald. Lindley and Doyle played Bridget's wealthy parents, Walter and Amy Fitzgerald, and Stone and Osterwald played Bernie's lower-class parents, Sam and Sophie Steinberg. The Steinbergs owned a delicatessen above which Bridget and Bernie lived. Glass played Bernie's uncle, Moe Plotnik. Robert Sampson played Bridget's brother, Catholic priest Father Michael Fitzgerald; he was more sympathetic than others to his sister's marriage. Bill Elliott played Otis, Bernie's best friend and fellow cab driver. Nancy Walker was cast as Bernie's religious Jewish Aunt Ruthie and Nora Marlowe was cast as Bridget's nun Aunt Agnes in the 1972 episode "The Little White Lie That Grew and Grew".

## Cast

* David Birney as Bernie Steinberg
* Meredith Baxter as Bridget Fitzgerald Steinberg
* Bibi Osterwald as Sophie Steinberg
* Harold J. Stone as Sam Steinberg
* Audra Lindley as Amy Fitzgerald
* David Doyle as Walter Fitzgerald
* Ned Glass as Moe Plotnik
* Robert Sampson as Father Michael Fitzgerald
* Bill Elliott as Otis Foster

## Controversy

The series was controversial because of the differing faiths of the married characters. Some Jewish groups charged that the series "mocked the teachings of Judaism". Rabbi Wolfe Kelman, executive vice-president of the Rabbinical Assembly of America, called the show "an insult to some of the most sacred values of both the Jewish and Catholic religions". Rabbi Meir Kahane wrote an essay on the series. Orthodox rabbis met with CBS officials several times. A Conservative rabbi organized a boycott by advertisers, and Reform rabbis met with CBS staff in secret to have the show canceled. Rabbi Abraham Gross, president of the Rabbinical Alliance of Orthodox Rabbis and Educators, described the show as a "flagrant insult" to Jews, protesting that intermarriage was strictly forbidden under Jewish law. Threats followed; Meredith Baxter said, "We had bomb threats on the show. Some guys from the Jewish Defense League came to my house to say they wanted to talk with me about changing the show." Threatening phone calls made to the home of producer Ralph Riskin resulted in the arrest of Robert S. Manning, described as a member of the Jewish Defense League. Manning was later indicted on unrelated murder charges and fought extradition to the United States from Israel, where he fled.

## Episodes

| No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original release date |
| 1 | "Bridget Loves Bernie" | Richard Kinon | Bernard Slade | September 16, 1972 (1972-09-16) |
| Series pilot: It's love at first sight when cab driver (and struggling writer) Bernie Steinberg picks up his fare, Bridget Fitzgerald, on a rainy New York day. |||||
| 2 | "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Vatican" | Lee Philips | John McGreevey | September 23, 1972 (1972-09-23) |
| Bernie's parents, Sam and Sophie, win a raffle ticket for a private audience with Pope Paul VI that was sold by Bridget's mother, Amy. Her father, Walt, fears that the Steinbergs may end up causing him major embarrassment. |||||
| 3 | "Wake Up, We're Getting Married Today" | Richard Kinon | Don Nelson and Arthur Alsberg | September 30, 1972 (1972-09-30) |
| After being married in a civil ceremony, Bridget and Bernie agree to their parents' wishes to have a religious ceremony, but the conflict of religions causes havoc. |||||
| 4 | "The Last of the Red Hot Playwrights" | Richard Kinon | Bernard Slade | October 7, 1972 (1972-10-07) |
| Despite several rejections, a reluctant Bernie decides to write a play drawn from his own experiences and personal acquaintances. |||||
| 5 | "Who's Watching the Store?" | Lee Philips | Jerry Mayer | October 14, 1972 (1972-10-14) |
| Confusion and chaos reign when Catholic Bridget runs a Jewish delicatessen, aided by her socialite mother and brother who's a priest. |||||
| 6 | "The Newlybeds" | Richard Kinon | Warren S. Murray | October 21, 1972 (1972-10-21) |
| Trying to replace a perennially-breaking bed results not only in sleeping trouble for Bridget and Bernie, but also causes an inter-family squabble. |||||
| 7 | "Happiness Is Just a Thing Called Moe" | Hal Cooper | Lloyd Turner and Gordon Mitchell | October 28, 1972 (1972-10-28) |
| Bernie's Uncle Moe falls in love with Bridget's aunt, which leads to all sorts of trouble. |||||
| 8 | "Bernie's Last Stand" | Richard Kinon | Burt and Adele Styler | November 4, 1972 (1972-11-04) |
| Despite a generous (and belated) wedding gift of one year's free rent on a plush apartment from Walt and Amy, Bridget and Bernie are reluctant to accept the offer. |||||
| 9 | "How to Be a Jewish Mother" | Richard Kinon | George Burditt and Paul Wayne | November 11, 1972 (1972-11-11) |
| After Bernie rejects Bridget's breakfast of ham and eggs, she decides to take a crash course in Jewish cooking, which leads to disaster. |||||
| 10 | "The Little White Lie That Grew and Grew" | Don Nelson and Arthur Alsberg | Lee Philips | November 18, 1972 (1972-11-18) |
| Bridget and her parents become Jewish for the weekend when Bernie's devout aunt stops in New York on her way back from Israel. |||||
| 11 | "The In-Laws Who Came to Dinner" | Richard Kinon | Jerry Mayer | November 25, 1972 (1972-11-25) |
| Walt and Amy fear that their ability to influence an important art collector will be compromised when the in-laws move in after smoke damage currently has their apartment under repair. |||||
| 12 | "The Homecoming" | Ezra Stone | Bernard Slade | December 2, 1972 (1972-12-02) |
| Bridget and Bernie spend the weekend at the Fitzgerald country estate and after Bernie meets some of Bridget's friends, he becomes aware of the style to which she was previously accustomed. |||||
| 13 | "You Are Cordially Not Invited" | Hal Cooper | Ron Friedman | December 9, 1972 (1972-12-09) |
| Sam and Sophie aren't invited to a party that Walt and Amy are holding for United Nations delegates. However, Sophie is determined to attend after discovering Moshe Dayan will be the guest of honor. |||||
| 14 | "'Tis the Season" | Alan Rafkin | Joanna Lee | December 16, 1972 (1972-12-16) |
| Bridget and Bernie reach the holiday season unsure of whether to celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah. |||||
| 15 | "Belated Honeymoon" | Coby Ruskin | Joanna Lee | December 23, 1972 (1972-12-23) |
| Increasing tensions between Bridget and Bernie lead both sets of parents to send them on the honeymoon they never had. |||||
| 16 | "Honesty Is the Worst Policy" | Richard Kinon | Howard Merrill | January 6, 1973 (1973-01-06) |
| Bernie is distressed when he discovers that Bridget was engaged when they met and never once mentioned there being another man in her life. |||||
| 17 | "Life Begins at 65" | James Sheldon | Jack Hanrahan and Don Sherman | January 13, 1973 (1973-01-13) |
| After Uncle Moe turns 65, he runs away from home after Sam and Sophie decide he should retire from the deli. |||||
| 18 | "With This Ring" | Ozzie Nelson | Gordon Farr and Arnold Kane | January 20, 1973 (1973-01-20) |
| Bernie is finally able to buy Bridget an engagement ring, but she quickly loses it. |||||
| 19 | "Into Every Life, a Little Snow Must Fall" | James Sheldon | Elias Davis | January 27, 1973 (1973-01-27) |
| Bridget and Bernie talk their fathers into spending a weekend at Walt's hunting lodge. |||||
| 20 | "To Teach or Not to Teach" | James Sheldon | Don Nelson and Arthur Alsberg | February 3, 1973 (1973-02-03) |
| Bridget announces that she's going to teach a sex education class to her fourth graders. |||||
| 21 | "Painting, Painting – Who's Got the Painting?" | Ozzie Nelson | Bill Dana | February 10, 1973 (1973-02-10) |
| Bridget has a hard time finding a home for a painting that once hung in her nursery until she discovers a potentially rare painting is found hidden under the surface of the canvas. |||||
| 22 | "Steinberg and Son" | Richard Kinon | Jerry Mayer | February 17, 1973 (1973-02-17) |
| Sam and Walt each get the chance to realize their dream of having Bernie work for them. |||||
| 23 | "The Information Gap" | Ozzie Nelson | Marty Roth | February 24, 1973 (1973-02-24) |
| In an effort to get some measure of privacy, Bridget and Bernie decide to ignore all questions and phone calls from their parents. |||||
| 24 | "Greener Pastures" | Bill Bixby | Rick Mittleman | March 3, 1973 (1973-03-03) |
| Bernie is offered the opportunity to work for a newspaper in Providence. |||||

## Home media

On December 4, 2012, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released the complete series as a manufacture-on-demand DVD set in Region 1, available in the U.S. exclusively through Amazon.com and WBShop.com.

## In popular culture

Bridget Loves Bernie was referenced to in the MAD Magazine article "M*A*S*Huga" (its first satire of the M*A*S*H TV series) which appeared in Issue # 166 (April 1974). The Surgeon General stated to "Cockeye Piercer" and "Crapper John" that they were put in-between The Mary Tyler Moore Show and All in the Family only because religious groups objected to Bridget Loves Bernie, which was a reference to the fact that M*A*S*H was put in the time slot in between those two shows in the 1973-74 TV season after the cancellation of Bridget Loves Bernie.