The program was devised by writer Gertrude Berg in 1928 and sold to the NBC radio network the following year. It was a domestic comedy featuring the home life of a Jewish family in New York City; in addition to writing the scripts Berg starred in the series.
The show began as a weekly 15 minute program called The Rise of the Goldbergs on November 20, 1929. In 1931 became a daily serial called The Goldbergs.