Bernie and Phyl Heading Toward Sunset
Bernie and Phyl Rubin are like air—you don’t notice them until they’re not there. A few weeks ago, we realized the duo was fading into the background of the Bernie and Phyl’s Furniture ads while their sons, Rob and Larry Rubin, do most of the talking. Fearing that our favorite married couple would be furnishing a house in Florida, we called Bernie to find out what’s going on.
Bernie says he and his wife will be “semi-retired.” Over the next year or so, the couple will appear in fewer advertisements as customers grow accustomed to seeing their sons. While his children still consult with him on a daily basis, Bernie sees leaving his television career as good for the family business.
“I have to realize, I’m not as young as I used to be,” Bernie said . “My wife and I might not relate to our typical customer. We’re their parents. So now we’re bringing the next generation in who may relate to them.”
Larry and Rob are the third generation of Rubin men in the business. Bernie’s father trucked furniture, and Bernie started working with his dad at age 14. Bernie and Phyl used his contacts in the furniture business to open their first store in 1983. The company now has six locations throughout New England, but Bernie emphasizes it’s still a family business.
“Rob came in directly out of college, and Larry graduated college as an electrical engineer, but he decided he wanted to be in the family business,” Bernie said. “Both have been in it for most of their adult life. I’m probably the most fortunate guy in the world, to have my children working with me.”
While Bernie and Phyl’s may not have the huge promotions or flashy showrooms like its competitors, Bernie sees the company as a last bastion of family-owned business in the area.
“We are the largest privately-held company. Jordan’s is owned by Berkshire Hathaway. That’s corporate America. We’re in a family-business league. People around Boston know that we’re a family-oriented business and that it will be continued on from generation to generation and when corporate America moves on to other things, we’ll still be there. Maybe not me personally, but that’s why we’re moving to another generation.”
We’ll miss the couple, who will split their time between New England and Florida. (Yes, their homes are furnished by the same companies sold in their stores.) But at least we’ll always have the jingle to remind us of the good old days.
December 4th, 2007 at 7:46 pm
I have been watching the Bernie and Phyl commercials for years. I noticed lately that Phyll seems to have a parkinson like tremor. Is she okay?? It will be sad to see them fade off…they have become Icons of the furniture world. I wish them well.
A loyal viewer…
Pat McDonald
December 8th, 2007 at 10:58 am
I have too noticed parkinson like tremors… I can’t seem to find anything that confirms this though.
March 2nd, 2008 at 5:37 pm
Bernie and Phyl are just pathetic. Phyl evidently has some kind of palsy that makes her head shake uncontrollably like a dash board bobble head doll on a bumpy road. But never mind, Bernie drags her out in front of the camera anyway like Jerry Lewis used to drag out a kid in leg braces during the Muscular Dystrophy telethon. Neither of them appear to have actual lips.
Their vacuous theme song pervades their commercials. Their two glassy eyed, doughy, thirty-something community college educated sons, being otherwise unemployable, have latched onto the family business. They stare blankly into the camera looking like perfect clones of their parents. They mumble through their lipless mouths in their heavy Boston accents something about their great deals, as I the viewer wonder why Bernie and Phyl never practiced safe sex.
June 4th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
Wow, drom, what nasty, miserable comments. At a time when there are so many truly evil things happening in the world, why such venom toward a family that earns an honest living selling furniture and donates part of their earnings to charity? Maybe it’s time you rethought your priorities.