Big-hearted, well-meaning matriarch figure Sarah Green (Gertrude Berg, radio star of "The Goldbergs") is a 62-year-old widow who has enrolled as a college freshman. The series follows her adjustments to a youth cultural gap while interacting with her classmates, Professor Crayton (English character actor Sir Cedric Hardwicke), and fellow tenants at the campus boarding house, including her landlady Maxie (familiar character actress Mary Wickes). The show was nominated for two Emmys for the acting of Berg and Wickes, respectively. "Mrs. G Goes to College", later renamed "The Gertrude Berg Show", ran for 26 episodes during the 1961-62 season.
In the first episode we are welcomed into the life of Sarah Green. At the opening day of classes, mothers and daughters are saying their goodbyes and pinning on a freshman badge. In the case of Sarah Green, it is her daughter Susan, "Suzy", (Marion Ross, "Happy Days") pining the badge on her mother. Suzy is worried, but her mother reassures her that education is essential. "A person is only half a person without it." She's spent 12 years of night school obtaining the necessary credits, as work was fit in with taking care of her family. Suzy wants her widowed mother to remarry, but her mother quips, "I think a person should finish school before they get married." Ms. Green says her goodbyes and very happily walks into the classroom building. She takes a seat in the classroom and introduces herself as Sarah, but is quickly questioned by her classmates about her being there, as she is nearly three times their age. Soon walks in the stone-faced, serious demeanor of their new exchange professor from Cambridge, W. W. Crayton. While Sarah has begun assimilating among her classmates, she isn't able to break the facade of Professor Crayton after a one-on-one conversation. She arrives at the campus boarding house and meets the landlady Maxie, who she is happy to befriend, being of similar age. Sarah meets the other freshman residents there who are in shock that Sarah is a freshman. Joe Caldwell (Skip Ward) calls out the laughter in defense of Sarah on different occasions. Sarah is mistaken for a babysitter by married students George (Paul Smith, "The Doris Day Show", "Mr. Terrific") and Irma Howell (Aneta Corsaut, Helen from "The Andy Griffith Show"). The events of the day over her age pile on to make Sarah dejected and question her place on campus, and prompt another conversation with Professor Crayton.