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Bridget Loves Bernie
File:Meredith Baxter David Birney Bridget Loves Bernie 1972.JPG
The wedding photo.
Format Comedy
Created by Bernard Slade
Starring Meredith Baxter
David Birney
Audra Lindley
David Doyle
Harold J. Stone
Ned Glass
William Elliott
Bibi Osterwald
Robert Sampson
Theme music composer Jerry Fielding
Opening theme "Love Is Crazy"
Country of origin USA
No. of seasons 1
No. of episodes 24
Production
Executive producer(s) Douglas S. Cramer
Producer(s) Don Nelson
Arthur Alsberg
Running time 30 min.
Production company(s) The Douglas S. Cramer Company
Thornhill Productions
Screen Gems
Broadcast
Original channel CBS
Original run September 16, 1972 – March 3, 1973

Bridget Loves Bernie is an American television comedy program created by Bernard Slade, the creator of the 1970–74 ABC sitcom, The Partridge Family, based loosely on the premise of the 1920s’ Broadway play and 1940s’ radio show Abie's Irish Rose. It stars Meredith Baxter and David Birney as the title characters, and ran for one season, from 1972 to 1973 on CBS.

Baxter and Birney married in real life after the program went off the air.

Overview[]

The series was regarded, at the time, as somewhat controversial since the premise featured the marriage between a wealthy Irish Catholic teacher (Bridget) and a Jewish cab driver (Bernie) whom she 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 #5 in the ratings among all shows for that television season and obtained a 24.2 rating, tying with The NBC Sunday Mystery Movie CBS executives decided to cancel the show in response to hate mail from viewers who objected to the inter-religious marriage depicted on the series. It was the highest-rated television program ever to be canceled after only one season.[1]

File:Robert Sampson Bridget Loves Bernie 1972.JPG

Father Mike picking up the Archbishop's weekly bagel supply.

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; while Stone and Osterwald played Bernie's more down-to-earth parents, Sam and Sophie Steinberg, who owned a delicatessen above which Bridget and Bernie lived. Glass played Bernie's uncle Moe Plotnik. Actor Robert Sampson played Father Michael Fitzgerald, a Catholic priest, who was Bridget's brother, and was more sympathetic to his sister's marriage. Bill Elliott played Otis, Bernie's best friend and fellow cab driver.

Episode list[]

Episode # Episode title Original airdate
1-1 "Bridget Loves Bernie" (pilot) September 16, 1972
1-2 "A Funny Thing Happened On the Way To the Vatican" September 23, 1972
1-3 "Wake Up, We're Getting Married Today" September 30, 1972
1-4 "The Last Of the Red Hot Playwrights" October 7, 1972
1-5 "Who's Watching the Store?" October 14, 1972
1-6 "The Newlyweds" October 21, 1972
1-7 "Happiness Is Just A Thing Called Moe" October 28, 1972
1-8 "Bernie's Last Stand" November 4, 1972
1-9 "How To Be A Jewish Mother" November 11, 1972
1-10 "The Little White Lie That Grew and Grew" November 18, 1972
1-11 "The In-Laws Who Came To Dinner" November 25, 1972
1-12 "The Homecoming" December 2, 1972
1-13 "You Are Cordinally Not Invited" December 9, 1972
1-14 "'Tis the Season" December 16, 1972
1-15 "Belated Honeymoon" December 23, 1972
1-16 "Honesty Is the Worst Policy" January 6, 1973
1-17 "Life Begins At 65" January 13, 1973
1-18 "With This Ring" January 20, 1973
1-19 "Into Every Life, A Little Snow Must Fall" January 27, 1973
1-20 "To Teach Or Not To Teach" February 3, 1973
1-21 "Painting, Painting- Who's Got the Painting?" February 10, 1973
1-22 "Steinberg and Son" February 17, 1973
1-23 "The Information Gap" February 24, 1973
1-24 "Greener Pastures" March 3, 1973

References[]

  1. "'Live From Baghdad': The Cameras of War", by Tom Shales, Washington Post, December 7, 2002, citing Brilliant But Canceled documentary on Trio (TV network) cable network. Retrieved 2007-11-12.

External links[]

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