The actor left the ABC sitcom halfway through season 9 amid allegations about his conduct on set.
After Jeff Garlin departed The Goldbergs halfway through season 9, the ABC sitcom had to rely on body doubles and special effects to work around the actor’s absence as it wrapped up production on the remaining episodes. Moving forward, however, that won’t be an issue now that the showrunners have revealed that Garlin’s character, Murray Goldberg, will be killed off ahead of the series’ return with season 10.
“This is going to be a family that has not reconciled the fact that their father's gone but has sort of moved on and has dealt with a lot of that,” Alex Barnow tells Entertainment Weekly. “It's an opportunity for this interesting emotional basis for the way people are behaving.”
Not only that, but Chris Bishop said the new episodes, which kick off with the premiere on Sept. 21, will feel like a “huge reboot” for the series. “So, we have tons of momentum rolling into this new season,” he adds.
The decision to kill off the character comes after Garlin left the series in 2021 amid complaints about his behavior on set, resulting in HR investigations into various allegations about his conduct.
While season 9 attempted to move forward with Murray still on the series, viewers complained about how The Goldbergs handled Garlin’s character. “They should either cancel The Goldbergs or kill off Jeff Garlin’s character because the workarounds they’ve been using this season ain’t working," one fan wrote on Twitter, prompting star Wendi McLendon-Covey to clap back.
“This season threw us for a loop because a.) it's hard to incorporate someone who doesn't want to be there and wants to leave mid-scene, and b.) we weren't about to re-write the 2nd half of the season. We're doing our best,” she wrote at the time.
Garlin’s exit isn’t the only major change the series has had to deal with in recent seasons. In March 2021, the cast lost George Segal, who played the family's beloved grandfather, Albert Solomon, for eight seasons, with the series paying tribute to the late star during season 9.
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