Mrs. G. Goes to College

Having previously starred in the long-running radio and television series The Goldbergs, Gertrude Berg returned to episodic television as Sarah Green, a 62-year-old widow who enters college. The character of Sarah Green (very similar to "Molly Goldberg") had been previously introduced to viewers as "Aunt Sarah" on Jackie Cooper's Hennesey sitcom on CBS earlier in 1961. English actor Cedric Hardwicke played Professor Crayton, and popular character actress Mary Wickes portrayed landlady Winona Maxfield.

Skip Ward was cast as fellow student Joe Caldwell, and Marion Ross appeared in five episodes as Berg's daughter, Susan Green. Aneta Corsaut (the future Helen Crump on The Andy Griffith Show) appeared in 13 episodes as Irma Howell, a professor's wife. Karyn Kupcinet played a young fellow student of Sarah Green. Her role is very small, and she is heard saying very little dialogue.

The plot centers around Sarah Green, a widow in her early sixties, who decides to acquire higher education, matriculates in her hometown college and interacts with, among others, her Cambridge University exchange professor (Cedric Hardwicke) and next-door neighbor George Howell Paul Smith, a character analogous to Smith's Roy Norris from Fibber McGee and Molly, complete with a no-nonsense wife (Aneta Corsaut).

The series aired during the 9:30 Eastern slot on Wednesdays, under the sponsorship of General Foods, following CBS's Checkmate. Mrs. G. Goes to College aired during the second half of ABC's Hawaiian Eye and NBC's Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall.[1] Nielsen ratings were mediocre. After thirteen episodes, a midseason move from Wednesday to Thursday night, along with a title change designed to emphasize Berg's name, The Gertrude Berg Show, did not improve the Nielsen ratings for the remaining thirteen episodes. CBS abruptly cancelled the series in April 1962 without showing any repeats.[2]

Beginning on March 20, 2017, the series is being shown on get TV. From April 2018 the show began to air in the UK on Talking Pictures TV.

Mrs. G. Goes to College was released by Dick Powell's Four Star Television.[3] The series was produced by Hy Averback, the music was by Herschel Burke Gilbert.

Co-star Cedric Hardwicke, in a 1962 TV Guide article that focused on his work in the series, and references him as "Sir Cedric," is quoted as commenting, "If you're going to work in rubbish, you might as well get paid for it."[4]

The show received two Emmy nominations, Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Series (Lead) for Gertrude Berg and Outstanding Performance in a Supporting Role by an Actress for Mary Wickes.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mrs. G. Goes to College.

• Mrs. G. Goes to College at IMDb
• Mrs. G. Goes to College at TV.com
• Lackmabb, Ron (2003). The Encyclopedia of 20th-Century American Television. Checkmark Books. p. 132. ISBN 0-8160-4555-0.