It was a domestic comedy featuring the home life of a Jewish family, supposedly located at 1038 East Tremont Avenue in the Bronx.

In addition to writing the scripts and directing each episode, Berg starred as bighearted, lovingly meddlesome, and somewhat stereotypical Jewish matriarch Molly Goldberg.

The show began as a portrait of Jewish tenement life before later evoking such growing pains as moving into a more suburban setting and struggling with assimilation while sustaining their roots.

Like other 15-minute comedies of the day, such as Amos 'n' Andy, Lum and Abner, Easy Aces, Vic and Sade and Myrt and Marge, The Goldbergs was a serial with running storylines.

When Gertrude Berg missed a couple of weeks due to illness, stations carrying the popular show were flooded with get-well mail.

[2] At the height of the show's popularity, Life wrote: "for millions of Americans, listening to The Goldbergs... has been a happy ritual akin to slipping on a pair of comfortable old shoes that never seem to wear out".

[3] Radio historians Frank Buxton and Bill Owen, in The Big Broadcast 1920–1950, noted the series (which they considered a soap opera as much as a comedy) "differed from most of the other 'soaps' in that its leading characters lived through relatively normal situations.

The radio cast included Roslyn Silber and Alfred Ryder as children Rosalie and Sammy, Menasha Skulnik as Uncle David, Arnold Stang as Seymour Fingerhood, Garson Kanin as Eli Edwards, and Zina Provendie as Sylvia Allison, among others.

Berg, who continued to write every episode, insisted that no studio audience be used and made sure everyday events formed the base for the stories;[6] she was once quoted as saying she avoided "anything that will bother people ... unions, fund raising, Zionism, socialism, intergroup relations.

[9] After The Goldbergs ended its CBS run, Tom Taylor replaced Larry Robinson in the role of Molly's son, Sammy.

The rest of the television cast included Eli Mintz as Uncle David, Arlene McQuade as Rosalie and Betty Bendyke as Dora Barnett.

During this time, Gertrude Berg and Arlene McQuade appeared as their characters of Molly and Rosalie, respectively, when they guested on NBC-TV's Buick-Berle Show starring Milton Berle.

[11] In 1957, Gertrude Berg made her last two appearances as Molly Goldberg: first on an episode of the NBC-TV variety series Washington Square with Ray Bolger, and then on a Kate Smith special that aired on ABC-TV.

Gertrude Berg returned to television six years later in a situation comedy, Mrs. G. Goes to College, playing Sarah Green, a Molly Goldberg-like character.