Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli

“Yoo-hoo! Is anybody …?” So Molly Goldberg would begin her popular radio show, hollering out from her tenement window to her neighbors. Her words became a buzz word on the lips of Jews and Italians and Irish for over 20 years. First broadcast on American radio from 1929 to 1946, The Goldbergs moved to TV. By 1950, half of all TV sets in the New York area on Monday nights were tuned on to The Goldbergs.

A big-hearted, lovable, kind and, at times, meddlesome mother figure, Molly Goldberg epitomized basic moral insights that cut across ethnic distinctions. She represented the healthy situation of American TV in its beginnings. Even though she was the matriarch of a poor Jewish family in the Bronx, her down-to-earth wisdom and her efforts to help others struck a chord in the heart of America.

Like Ozzie and Harriet, Father Knows Best, and the zany, refreshingly amusing routines of Burns and Allen, The Goldbergs portrayed family life as a support for spouses, a place of love and formation for children. Good family life was upheld as a needed component of a healthy society.

The American family enjoyed watching these TV families work out ordinary situations. Each week one of the main characters of the sitcom would face a moral dilemma. The audience would watch with delight as the entire cast would work through the dilemma in less than a half-hour. With humor and insight, each episode taught a valuable lesson. In those early days of black and white TV, there was a moral standard where right was right and wrong was wrong. And, The Goldbergs embraced the difference.

Donald Weber once characterized Molly Goldberg’s character as “an immigrant keeper of the American dream.” This apt description could well capture the role of TV in the 1950s. People saw on the TV screens relatively happy families, living good moral lives. Americans, at that time, wanted the ideal.

The reality of America family life, however, was certainly far from perfect in the 1950s. There were divorces, infidelities, domestic violence, drugs and promiscuity. But, TV had not yet made the mistake of portraying morally unacceptable behavior as something to be glamorized.

Sadly, today’s TV shows portray sex outside of marriage, cohabitation, divorce, same-sex marriage, rebellion and disrespect of the law. Children are regularly exposed to graphic language, simulated sex scenes and violence. The casual manner in which these forms of behavior are routinely presented undermines a moral climate that values fidelity, honesty and truth. Through the use of humor, these shows are gradually succeeding in moving our society away from the ideal. They have lowered the bar for moral excellence.

Do we really want the next generation of young people to be totally neutral to the difference between right and wrong? Do we expect that our future leaders will take our country in the right direction once we managed to rob them of their moral compass?

Is a nation that tolerates everything truly laying the foundation for its own security? What future lies ahead for a people afraid to promote sound moral principles? By the morality we embrace today, we are choosing the future of our nation.