Sit, Ubu, Sit

October 15, 2007
Goldberg, a TV scriptwriter and producer, fondly recalls his rocky, improbable route to Hollywood success, including the people who helped him along the way. Funny, dry and self-deprecating, Goldberg cuts swiftly through the years, from the mid-1950s growing up in a loving extended Jewish family in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, to his scruffy vagabonding in 1972 in Europe with his pregnant girlfriend, Diana, and their canny Labrador dog, Ubu. He sold his first scripts to TV shows in the 1970s, prompting his move from New York to California with Diana, who opened a day-care center. Goldberg took a class with scriptwriter Nate Monaster, who motivated him and helped submit his work to Los Angeles producers. Soon enough, Goldberg’s scripts for the Bob Newhart Show
, the Tony Randall Show
and the MTM empire gave him the clout to start his own company, UBU (named for the beloved dog he eventually gave away, by the by), launching such pilots as Family Ties
for the networks. Indeed, Goldberg’s memoir is a kind of love letter to longtime partner Diana as well as to Michael J. Fox, with whom he later worked on Spin City
. His professed guilt for making fistfuls of money while making people laugh renders this work effortlessly likable.

November 15, 2007
Goldberg used to write for television (from "The Bob Newhart Show "o "M*A*S*H", and it shows. His memoir is not unlike a typical sitcom, oscillating between funny and annoying. At its best, it's a well-written, touching, and humorous reflection on a meandering life that suddenly found direction, but at its worst, it's a cloying showbiz memoir full of name-dropping and anecdotes about apartments on Central Park West and private booths at restaurants in Los Angeles. The book is chronologically all over the place, with consecutive chapters taking place decades apart, only to have later chapters come back to the time in between. This makes for a compelling contrast between the different stages of Goldberg's life, but it can be disorienting and downright frustrating if you just want to know what happens next. On the whole, though, Goldberg (also credited as the creator of "Family Ties"and "Spin City" delivers, and his book will be checked out by readers who enjoy witty, light memoirs that feature a few celebrity cameos. Recommended for public libraries.John Helling, Bloomfield-Eastern Greene Cty. P.L., IN

Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.