Week of March 23-30: A Woman Called Golda

A genuine treat was released on DVD last week: "A Woman Called Golda."

The two-part miniseries about the life of Israel's first female prime minister was originally broadcast by Operation Prime Time in 1981. It starred Ingrid Bergman, in her last role, as Golda Meir. It also featured Australian actress Judy Davis as the young Golda; Leonard Nimoy as Morris Meyerson, Golda's husband; Ned Beatty as a U.S. senator dealing with Meir as prime minister; Anne Jackson as Lou Kaddar, Golda's assistant; Franklin Cover ("The Jeffersons") as U.S. Vice President Hubert Humphrey and Robert Loggia as Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.

Jackson, as Kaddar, narrates the story, which begins with Golda's visit to her old grammar school in Milwaukee. (The real visit took place in 1969; for the miniseries, it was pushed to 1977 to tie in to Sadat's visit to Israel.) The story makes for mesmerizing viewing. Both the miniseries and Bergman won Emmies. Bergman's Emmy was awarded after her death; her oldest daughter, New York television reporter Pia Lindstrom, accepted on her behalf.

There had been a long wait for DVD release; previously, the miniseries was available on a very expensive two-part videocassette collection. Kudos to CBS/Paramount for finally releasing it. (I suspect they might have anticipated a real-life tie-in if Tzipi Livni had become Israel's second female prime minister; that is on hold for the time being.)

Incidentally, at the time of the original miniseries, there was a companion book by Michael Avallone, who often wrote book tie-ins to popular television shows in the 1960s and 1970s. That is available at Amazon.com.

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I will be away from this blog for most of April. Happy Holidays to all, and Happy Viewing!