@tvrewind: As people say, 'Whatever'; now whenever the show reruns, it'll have the Sony Pictures Television/Sony Pictures Television International logo on it at the end, and on any future DVD's.
@Neville6000 Until Sony is sold to someone, then a different logo will appear. However, we're saying the original production was Screen Gems and that logo appeared when the show first aired.
Thanks for uploading this! Bridget Loves Birney was my favorite show when it aired in the 70's. I was nine year old back then and this is the first time I've seen a clip of the show since. Meredith and David were so adorable together.
@CenturianRule Best comeback I've read in weeks! Thanks. I wonder if these idiots posting homophobic comments know how many marriages of convenience Hollywood has financed (and still does) to cover up people's homosexuality...
@nauort23 YOu got that right!! You say your gay in Hollywood and you lose millions in roles. Things a little different now. Chamberlain, Baxter, etc, had their livelihoods to protect. They didn't want to be a taxi driver or cook, etc.
It wasn't a matter of being "banned", 'spyroxxm', it was a matter of not enough episodes filmed to make it profitable to be syndicated {24}. It wasn't until the '80s that Columbia Pictures Television FINALLY released the show to local stations [and USA Cable Network], as part of a package with several of their other "one-season wonders" {"LOVE ON A ROOFTOP", "THE SECOND HUNDRED YEARS", "OCCASIONAL WIFE", etc.}.
This series lasted one season- even though it was as popular as the shows surrounding it on Saturday nights, "ALL IN THE FAMILY" and "THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW"- because several Jewish and Catholic groups objected to the idea of a mixed marriage portayed on a weekly TV series (the same objections were leveled against an "ancestor" of the same idea, the Broadway/movie/radio show, "Abie's Irish Rose"). Enough letters from "outraged" viewers were enough for CBS to cancel the show in 1973.
@fromthesidelines I have NEVER seen this show before AT ALL,.. not even in syndication ( which is how I see many tv shows from this same era, being too young, in most cases, to remember their prime time network runs ). So then, was this show also BANNED after being canceld ?
@CenturianRule Are you a drug addict? You ask questions that only someone totally stoned would ask. Try AAA , and realize the question I asked was 2 yrs. ago. The response came later, I am sure you do not get it.... Maybe before you try to throw such harsh criticism, you need to go to college and earn a couple of Philosophy of Doctorates (Ph.D's) in trying to be smart. I, along with others may understand your version of ignorance, only you could own it.
markedwardindc, actually you're wrong. This was back when she was a lesbian in denial as many are who come out later in life. If she were a heterosexual here she would still be a heterosexual now.
angeliquecollins70, I remember my sister had one of those umbrellas. They were hysterical. They kept your hairdo and face dry but the rest of you got soaked.
angeliquecollins70, I remember my sister had one of those umbrellas. They were hysterical. They kept your hairdo and face dry but the rest of you got soaked.
divorced around 1997 he they both live in Santa Monica a few mile apart--she in the bigger home--he in a lovely smaller condo near Ocean Park, Still Jogs and looks absolutely fantastic. Great man great guy love him to death and love seeing him still running around. God Bless them both
This show takes me back to a simpler time, when all the world really asked of me was to try hard in school and stay out of trouble. This was a good show; although it is now mostly long forgotten. It was right in the middle of the great, great CBS lineup on Saturday night with All in the Family, Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart and Mash. There will never be another night of TV like there was on CBS on Saturday nights in the early 1970's.
remember this show when i was a kid. alng with the tv movie, cat creature from around the same period. odd as cat creature had david hedison, whose daughter is lesbian and directed by curtis harrington, gay.
as far as being born a way or societal factors. i'm bisexual, but i dont really care WHY i am. i just go with it, cause its how i am, and dont really debate or care why.
I LOVED this show as a kid. I had a BIG crush on Bridget (Meredith Baxter)... and so glad she finally found her true self. We are born that way, folks. It is the way god made us.
And, the irony on why it was cancelled, her coming out, the racial/religious issues of today - awesome!
I don't question that SOME are born that way, but a woman who has lived as a hetrosexual for nearly 60 years (she's 62 and said she's been a lesbian for 7) found 3 men to fall in love with and marry and given birth to 5 children... wasn't born that way. Obviously there are some very grey areas in our sexuality.
If you listen to what she was saying when being interviewed about this, it sounds like she never experienced real passion with men. But she didn't know any differently so just accepted it.
I liked this show as a kid, I had a BIG crush on Bernie..... and she picks a woman over him??? And a couple of other husbands... yikes. I think men-0-pause is worse than we know.. LOL
Wow. What a different world we live in today. A Catholic or Jewish person would not hesitate to date because of what religion they are. If they wanted to get married, they could have a priest AND rabbi marry them.
@swami1: No, the basic setup/idea was introduced in the play 'Abie's Irish Rose', in which a wealthy Jewish man meets and fall in love with a Irish woman. And that play was in the 1920's/1930's.
Don't know if anyone knows this or not, but Meredith Baxter is the daughter of Whitney Blake, the beautiful blonde actress from the 60's T.V. series, "Hazel". Also, Meredith Baxter later married David Birney and became Meredith Baxter Birney. They obviously divorced later on since she went back to her maiden name of Baxter.
I can't believe the violence starting at 1:06 -forcing her into his cab at gunpoint then violently smacking her in the head with a white hunk of metal at 1:12....Forcing her to walk across that bridge at 1:16 while he had a gun jammed in her gut....It was shocking at 1:23 to see the way he violently ran her down and what he did to that poor girl in the back of his "rape cab" is unmentionable.
MightySaturn5, I love how you just made your own show., LMAO! I think David Birney would have been awesome in the part you describe. Maybe there's still hope to find such a gem? :-)
my sister just saw David Birney in Egypt - accidentally. TWICE. She said she could overhear him talking to a tour guide two different times (incidents were miles apart from each other). She and he were not on the same tours together. That both times he acted like an a-hole. And looks horrible.
when i worked at paramount pictures, i told ms. baxter that i watched this show as a child in chicago. she told me i should have been studying. i reminded her the show aired in primetime on saturday nights. she's extremely nice.
Actually untrue. Maybe you meant highest at that time? The Crow ranked even higher and was also canceled after 1 season due to selling Polygram to Universal.
Really too bad that David Birney never attained the fame he deserved. Great actor!
Where did you find this? I remember when it premiered ('72?) it was considered very controversial, I think it got cancelled after one season. The show was on Saturday nights, after All In the Family & before MTM & that spot became very hard to fill for a long time, Paul Sand tried with "Friends & Lovers," also cancelled. Saturday night & CBS reigned in the early 1970s, then ABC took over with Happy Days plus Laverne & Shirley. NBC was alwys at the bottom.
I remember this program. The problem with it was that there simply wasn't more than one season's worth of material that could be squeezed out of the whole "Jewish guy marries Catholic Girl" premise. That would be a fairly humdrum plotline for only one episode of any other sitcom, let alone an entire series that revolves around it.
Meredith was married to Robert Bush from 1966 until 1971, then to David 1974-1990, and then to Michael Blodgett 1995-2000. All marriages ended in divorce.
Good example of a nice leisurely opening that allowed time for the family to gather around the TV and become part of the atmosphere of the program. Most sitcoms have replaced these types of openings with credits over the opening gag and no one has time to adjust. This opening was a little mushy for me (as a kid) but ROOM 222 is another (less mushy) opening worth checking out.
Meredith Baxter was sooo cute! I remember her in those days.
kurtb8474 4 months ago
oh! those bubble-style umbrellas!
agent9752 4 months ago
He took the money.
backwardk 6 months ago
The actual copyright is Sony Pictures Television, not Screen Gems.
Neville6000 7 months ago
@Neville6000 The original production of this series was Screen Gems. That company was sold and now the copyright is Sony Pictures Television.
tvrewind 7 months ago
@tvrewind: As people say, 'Whatever'; now whenever the show reruns, it'll have the Sony Pictures Television/Sony Pictures Television International logo on it at the end, and on any future DVD's.
Neville6000 7 months ago
@Neville6000 Until Sony is sold to someone, then a different logo will appear. However, we're saying the original production was Screen Gems and that logo appeared when the show first aired.
tvrewind 7 months ago
I think the show was finished off by two young paramedics from Los Angeles County ("Emergency!")
wkat950 10 months ago
Anyone know where the school was located @ 1:01 ?
coolitababy 11 months ago
This is sort of like an early "Mad About You". Anyone else get that vibe??
2degucitas 11 months ago
Thanks for uploading this! Bridget Loves Birney was my favorite show when it aired in the 70's. I was nine year old back then and this is the first time I've seen a clip of the show since. Meredith and David were so adorable together.
Southerner4 11 months ago
LOL... Bosley and Mrs. Roper as Bridget's parents!! ;-)
screenwitch 11 months ago
@CenturianRule Best comeback I've read in weeks! Thanks. I wonder if these idiots posting homophobic comments know how many marriages of convenience Hollywood has financed (and still does) to cover up people's homosexuality...
nauort23 1 year ago
@nauort23 YOu got that right!! You say your gay in Hollywood and you lose millions in roles. Things a little different now. Chamberlain, Baxter, etc, had their livelihoods to protect. They didn't want to be a taxi driver or cook, etc.
windstorm1000 11 months ago
Bill Elliott was Dionne Warwick's husband, TWICE!
eveville1 1 year ago
It wasn't a matter of being "banned", 'spyroxxm', it was a matter of not enough episodes filmed to make it profitable to be syndicated {24}. It wasn't until the '80s that Columbia Pictures Television FINALLY released the show to local stations [and USA Cable Network], as part of a package with several of their other "one-season wonders" {"LOVE ON A ROOFTOP", "THE SECOND HUNDRED YEARS", "OCCASIONAL WIFE", etc.}.
fromthesidelines 1 year ago
This series lasted one season- even though it was as popular as the shows surrounding it on Saturday nights, "ALL IN THE FAMILY" and "THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW"- because several Jewish and Catholic groups objected to the idea of a mixed marriage portayed on a weekly TV series (the same objections were leveled against an "ancestor" of the same idea, the Broadway/movie/radio show, "Abie's Irish Rose"). Enough letters from "outraged" viewers were enough for CBS to cancel the show in 1973.
fromthesidelines 1 year ago
@fromthesidelines I have NEVER seen this show before AT ALL,.. not even in syndication ( which is how I see many tv shows from this same era, being too young, in most cases, to remember their prime time network runs ). So then, was this show also BANNED after being canceld ?
spyroxxm 1 year ago
Wow she was so pretty.
vanessafabulay 1 year ago
God, Meredith Baxter was so GORGEOUS...David Birney was one lucky guy to snag her.
dumont1957 1 year ago
@dumont1957 It's not like he's such a bad looking guy himself.
spyroxxm 1 year ago
@dumont1957 Actuallhy, David Birney, was pretty damn hot, himself!! Anytime and anywhere!
eveville1 1 year ago
I loved this show I wonder if they would release it on DVD?
Robert4770 1 year ago
@Robert4770: Sony Pictures ALMOST did, but then they stopped doing so.
Neville6000 7 months ago
Now THAT is a pretty girl
level242 1 year ago
@CenturianRule Are you a drug addict? You ask questions that only someone totally stoned would ask. Try AAA , and realize the question I asked was 2 yrs. ago. The response came later, I am sure you do not get it.... Maybe before you try to throw such harsh criticism, you need to go to college and earn a couple of Philosophy of Doctorates (Ph.D's) in trying to be smart. I, along with others may understand your version of ignorance, only you could own it.
mmemmorry 1 year ago
Meredith Baxter looks soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo incredibly YOUNG--this was back when she was still a heterosexual.
markedwardindc 1 year ago
markedwardindc, actually you're wrong. This was back when she was a lesbian in denial as many are who come out later in life. If she were a heterosexual here she would still be a heterosexual now.
lasktguy 1 year ago
I wonder is Bernie knew he was in love with a Lesbian!
schs1977 1 year ago
I love the bubble umbrellas
angeliquecollins70 1 year ago
angeliquecollins70, I remember my sister had one of those umbrellas. They were hysterical. They kept your hairdo and face dry but the rest of you got soaked.
lasktguy 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
angeliquecollins70, I remember my sister had one of those umbrellas. They were hysterical. They kept your hairdo and face dry but the rest of you got soaked.
lasktguy 1 year ago
Brigitte loves Bernie, isn't she in the ghost whisperer?
jsilence418 1 year ago
divorced around 1997 he they both live in Santa Monica a few mile apart--she in the bigger home--he in a lovely smaller condo near Ocean Park, Still Jogs and looks absolutely fantastic. Great man great guy love him to death and love seeing him still running around. God Bless them both
demming27 1 year ago
great show and ground breaking for its day !!!!
RLP1972 1 year ago
Gee whiz Is this the opening that was shown every week? It must hold the record for longest in history.
RandyAKing 1 year ago
The bit at the end is prob the reg opening credits but the first part was just for this episode
foxvermont 1 year ago
That's Paul Sands dude.
inspectors71 1 year ago
inspectors71, Paul Sands? Yeah, I dated him for a short period back in the 90's
lasktguy 1 year ago
How lovely to see this again after all these years! I used to rush back from school to watch this on telly
vbeboy 2 years ago
' I think the main controversy over this show was the stereotypes portrayed by the actors playing the Jewish and catholic characters.'
Exactly!
Neville6000 2 years ago
The show's the property of Screen Gems/Sony Pictures Television, actually, not CBS.
Neville6000 2 years ago
Homosexuals are cool!
TheWorldFarOff 2 years ago
"Actress" Meredith Baxter: Her run as a lesbian will confirm her failure as a long-haul trucker.
TheWorldFarOff 2 years ago
He's a lesbian, yet he's married to Iman.
TheWorldFarOff 2 years ago
This show takes me back to a simpler time, when all the world really asked of me was to try hard in school and stay out of trouble. This was a good show; although it is now mostly long forgotten. It was right in the middle of the great, great CBS lineup on Saturday night with All in the Family, Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart and Mash. There will never be another night of TV like there was on CBS on Saturday nights in the early 1970's.
TheTweeter53 2 years ago 2
I agree. The Jeffersons, The Carol Burnett Show, All In The Family, Mary Tyler Moore and Bob Newhart. THOSE WERE THE DAYS!!!!
frankd1965 1 year ago
remember this show when i was a kid. alng with the tv movie, cat creature from around the same period. odd as cat creature had david hedison, whose daughter is lesbian and directed by curtis harrington, gay.
as far as being born a way or societal factors. i'm bisexual, but i dont really care WHY i am. i just go with it, cause its how i am, and dont really debate or care why.
merzbaujr 2 years ago
I LOVED this show as a kid. I had a BIG crush on Bridget (Meredith Baxter)... and so glad she finally found her true self. We are born that way, folks. It is the way god made us.
And, the irony on why it was cancelled, her coming out, the racial/religious issues of today - awesome!
imoutru2 2 years ago
I don't question that SOME are born that way, but a woman who has lived as a hetrosexual for nearly 60 years (she's 62 and said she's been a lesbian for 7) found 3 men to fall in love with and marry and given birth to 5 children... wasn't born that way. Obviously there are some very grey areas in our sexuality.
MsJCBurke 2 years ago
If you listen to what she was saying when being interviewed about this, it sounds like she never experienced real passion with men. But she didn't know any differently so just accepted it.
vidayverdad2 1 year ago
I liked this show as a kid, I had a BIG crush on Bernie..... and she picks a woman over him??? And a couple of other husbands... yikes. I think men-0-pause is worse than we know.. LOL
wlparadise 2 years ago
I'd get in his cab any day
studebaker62 2 years ago
Wow. What a different world we live in today. A Catholic or Jewish person would not hesitate to date because of what religion they are. If they wanted to get married, they could have a priest AND rabbi marry them.
ladylike1980 2 years ago
How different are we, think about if a Catholic boy brought home a Muslim woman?????
mare1369 2 years ago
I definitely remember this show. I was not yet 15 when this first came in.
Very sadly, it got yanked off the air after only one season because it offended a lot of religious groups.
nanlisa 2 years ago
And they were married in real life for 16 years and had 3 children.
ethicomm 2 years ago
Yes...and now she discovers that she's really a 'lady lover'. Go figure...
KDub1963 2 years ago
I loved this show!!!
tubelover12 2 years ago
Wasn't this show an early gentile-meets-and-marries-Jew plot?
swami1 2 years ago
Oh, heck, yeah. No subtlety here. Bernie's family runs a kosher deli. Bridget's brother is a priest. Misunderstandings and hilarity ensue.
Akitrom 2 years ago 2
Oy vey!!!
lembillings 2 years ago
@swami1: No, the basic setup/idea was introduced in the play 'Abie's Irish Rose', in which a wealthy Jewish man meets and fall in love with a Irish woman. And that play was in the 1920's/1930's.
Neville6000 7 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
Don't know if anyone knows this or not, but Meredith Baxter is the daughter of Whitney Blake, the beautiful blonde actress from the 60's T.V. series, "Hazel". Also, Meredith Baxter later married David Birney and became Meredith Baxter Birney. They obviously divorced later on since she went back to her maiden name of Baxter.
winscott9601 2 years ago
Comment removed
winscott9601 2 years ago
I love the music and openings of these late 1960's early 1970's shows! Groovy!
ra86226 2 years ago 6
@ra86226 There is not a show today that compares those shows or the theme songs. Makes you want to go back to the good old days.
8283doc 9 months ago
Man. I had completely forgotton just how pretty Meredith was when she was young. Stirikingly gorgeous woman.
1MikeMcHugh 2 years ago
Yes and shes a progressive too. She has the full package.
misplacednewyawker 2 years ago
I can't believe the violence starting at 1:06 -forcing her into his cab at gunpoint then violently smacking her in the head with a white hunk of metal at 1:12....Forcing her to walk across that bridge at 1:16 while he had a gun jammed in her gut....It was shocking at 1:23 to see the way he violently ran her down and what he did to that poor girl in the back of his "rape cab" is unmentionable.
MightySaturn5 2 years ago
MightySaturn5, I love how you just made your own show., LMAO! I think David Birney would have been awesome in the part you describe. Maybe there's still hope to find such a gem? :-)
IndiumBlue 2 years ago
lol..sorry, I was bored at the time
MightySaturn5 2 years ago
handsome doesnt even begin to describe what a babe this guy was.
rainydaywoman1957 3 years ago
my sister just saw David Birney in Egypt - accidentally. TWICE. She said she could overhear him talking to a tour guide two different times (incidents were miles apart from each other). She and he were not on the same tours together. That both times he acted like an a-hole. And looks horrible.
MorganHillChristine 3 years ago
I love Paul Sand!!!!! Can't believe anyone else remembers him (sorry, Paul). And what about Steve Landesburg???
MorganHillChristine 3 years ago
i loved this show! wish i could find all the episodes?
dotcomguy79 3 years ago
Bridget...Theresa...Mary...Colleen...Fitzgerald!
krumlee 3 years ago
David Bernie was so handsome.
rickhatch1 3 years ago
The highest rated TV show ever cancelled! It ranked #5 in the ratings.
yep11111111 3 years ago
when i worked at paramount pictures, i told ms. baxter that i watched this show as a child in chicago. she told me i should have been studying. i reminded her the show aired in primetime on saturday nights. she's extremely nice.
sibphu 3 years ago
Actually untrue. Maybe you meant highest at that time? The Crow ranked even higher and was also canceled after 1 season due to selling Polygram to Universal.
Really too bad that David Birney never attained the fame he deserved. Great actor!
IndiumBlue 2 years ago
Where did you find this? I remember when it premiered ('72?) it was considered very controversial, I think it got cancelled after one season. The show was on Saturday nights, after All In the Family & before MTM & that spot became very hard to fill for a long time, Paul Sand tried with "Friends & Lovers," also cancelled. Saturday night & CBS reigned in the early 1970s, then ABC took over with Happy Days plus Laverne & Shirley. NBC was alwys at the bottom.
wlhardy 3 years ago
What year did this show air and what network? I know it was in the seventies.
mmemmorry 3 years ago
Goodness me this REALLY takes me back. notg sure about in the US but I reckon it came to England sometime between 1973 and 1975
DixyPots 3 years ago
Fall of 1972 on CBS.
tvrewind 3 years ago
I remember this program. The problem with it was that there simply wasn't more than one season's worth of material that could be squeezed out of the whole "Jewish guy marries Catholic Girl" premise. That would be a fairly humdrum plotline for only one episode of any other sitcom, let alone an entire series that revolves around it.
IDLERACER 3 years ago 2
These two, actually did get married-in real life!
Jiltedin2007 3 years ago
And divorced.
tvrewind 3 years ago
When did they get Married? And when did they get Divorced, out of Curiosity? That's Celebrity Marriages for you. They never last.
Jiltedin2007 3 years ago
Meredith was married to Robert Bush from 1966 until 1971, then to David 1974-1990, and then to Michael Blodgett 1995-2000. All marriages ended in divorce.
tvrewind 3 years ago
@Jiltedin2007 And then Meredith declares her lesbianism. I wonder how long THAT will last.
mikey42 1 year ago
@mikey42: A pretty long time,I'd say. I only wish she'd have been able to come out when she was in her 20s and 30s.
Neville6000 7 months ago
This was back when they knew how to open a TV show--theme music, animation, live shots. If only TV were like that today. Thanks for posting this!
cag1970 3 years ago 2
Good example of a nice leisurely opening that allowed time for the family to gather around the TV and become part of the atmosphere of the program. Most sitcoms have replaced these types of openings with credits over the opening gag and no one has time to adjust. This opening was a little mushy for me (as a kid) but ROOM 222 is another (less mushy) opening worth checking out.
rhsjb 3 years ago
@rhsjb: Bullshit. If you can't figure out what a show is in a couple of minutes, then your reading comprehension's off, or something else.
Neville6000 7 months ago