Here’s what Marion Ross liked best about Brooklyn Bridge
Most people know Marion Ross for her famous role as Mrs. Marion Cunningham on the ABC series Happy Days. There, she played a kind, down-to-earth family woman living in the 1950s. She portrayed the role so well that she later took on a similar character in Brooklyn Bridge.
In Brooklyn Bridge, Ross played Sophie Berger, a warm, traditional Jewish grandmother helping raise her grandchildren in Brooklyn. The series was set in 1956—a year Ross once described as one of her favorites.
According to a 1991 interview with the Albert Lea Tribune, she loved the decade because it emphasized family values, something reflected in Happy Days and other family-based shows of the era.
"There was a different aura in the air about the importance of family, the family unit, and strong family ties," Ross said.
Those were values she shared with her characters—both on-screen and in her own life.
"It's the era I know best," Ross told the Tribune. "I knew a lot of people just like the ones on the program. Families were closer then. Right now, I'm really busy with this series; the series is your life. I think it's a wonderful program, and I feel we've hit the jackpot."
Ross explained that she and her own family were very close while she was growing up. And while she wasn’t a child of the ’50s, she did have her own children during that decade. In addition to her many on-screen children, Ross had two children of her own. See Also
In another 1991 interview with the Times and Democrat, Ross described her Brooklyn Bridge character and what she liked best about her.
"She’s all the old values—family values and character values," Ross said. "I can be as strong as I really am. I don’t have to pretend."
Even though she wasn’t Jewish in real life, Ross said playing Sophie was no problem. She related to her character’s core values and felt a genuine affection for her, something that came through on screen.
She also had great respect for the show’s writing and found the scripts very funny.
Still, despite how well everything seemed to be going, Ross was hesitant to put her full confidence in the show’s success. She loved it but worried the general public might not embrace it as much as she had.
"We have to wait to see what these 13 weeks blossom into," Ross said. "In Happy Days, after about five years, we still had these funny little dressing rooms on the set with no pictures up or anything. Somebody came one day and said, 'Well, how long have you all been here?' I said, 'Five years now.' And he said, 'Well, when are you going to move in?' You’re very cautious, because it could get pulled away from you at any minute."