WEEKEND AT BIRNEY’S
Actor David Birney has died aged shortly after his 83rd birthday after suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. A regular US TV presence in the 70s, his title role in Bridget Loves Bernie was his most prominent. The show featured the husband-and-wife duo of Birney’s Jewish cab driver and Meredith Baxter’s Catholic teacher, and was destined for ratings success almost by default as it was sandwiched between All in the Family and The Mary Tyler Moore Show on the CBS schedule. It was cancelled after one season due to Orthodox Jewish groups kvetching about the show’s accepting attitude towards interfaith marriage, to the point of the cast and crew receiving death threats. Another one-season role of Birney’s is why you’re reading this obit – medical Casanova Dr. Ben Samuels in the early episodes of St. Elsewhere, the basis for theme team Saints Elsewhere.
David Birney
23 April 1939 – 29 April 2022, aged 83
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