‘The Goldbergs’ Killing Off Jeff Garlin’s Murray in Season 10 — Here’s How
Jeff Garlin is officially out of The Goldbergs. The showrunners announced Tuesday, August 30 that when The Goldbergs Season 10 begins on September 21, Garlin’s Murray Goldberg will already have been dead for 10 months.
With Garlin having officially left the series in 2021 following complaints about his on-set behavior, Murray’s fate was up in the air. He was largely absent from The Goldbergs Season 9 as a result, his only appearance in the finale being a brief, brief shot of him attending Adam’s (Sean Giambrone) high school graduation. Showrunners Chris Bishop and Alex Barnow explained their plan to kill off Murray to EW.
The season will kick off with a time jump that lands at newlyweds Erica (Hayley Orrantia) and Geoff (Sam Lerner) welcoming their first child.
“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,” Barnow said. “So we’re starting with optimism about a baby coming and looking forward to the future. It’s an opportunity for this interesting emotional basis for the way people are behaving.”
“It honestly feels like a huge reboot for us. So we have tons of momentum rolling into this new season,” added Bishop.
Wendi McLendon-Covey‘s Beverly Goldberg and Erica will butt heads both during her pregnancy and after the baby arrives, and Season 10 will also include a guest star appearance from David Hasselhoff, appearing as himself from the 1980s. And Murray’s death will bring the family closer together, the showrunners said, which will also prompt more appearances from his father, Pop-Pop (Judd Hirsch).
“[Garlin is] not going to be on the season, obviously. [Murray] will have passed, and we are sort of starting from a place of multiple months removed from his death,” Barnow said. “The family has already grieved, unlike Pops [George Segal] and the premiere of Season 9 where they’re dealing with it sort of very freshly… but Jeff won’t be in the series this year, and so far the stories have been largely about looking forward rather than looking back.”
Barnow also confirmed he had a conversation with Garlin to tell him he was not being replaced in the cast, but added, “I don’t know if he knows what his fate is, but I’m assuming he knows, would be the answer to that question. We haven’t had a subsequent conversation since the beginning of writing that he would have any specific clarity on that.”
Explaining how Season 10 feels like a reboot, Barnow explained, “Well, some new cast dynamics, obviously, and we’re going to have a baby on the show, which will bring both the sense of joy to the show and shift dynamics and shift relationships. And putting Beverly in a position as a grandma is something that’s obviously a fun and natural fit. So it’s been a joy to break new stories of new dynamics amongst our characters.”
ABC/Art Streiber
Other Season 10 plot details: Adam deferred his acceptance to NYU for a year to stay home and care for his mom, but he’s still pursuing a film career. Photos from the new season show Adam on a set with Hasselhoff, who will appear in a handful of episodes. “We got the Hoff, so we’re very pumped about that,” Bishop said. Barry will be back at home because he was late to file housing paperwork without Murray there to pester him about it. Geoff and Erica come back home to save money and get baby help. And Beverly, Bishop said, is “going to be that overbearing smother turned into an overbearing grandsmother.” Hirsch will provide “that curmudgeonly feeling” Murray gave to the show.
As for Hasselhoff’s presence, Barnow said, “The family drives him crazy until Adam gets a job. And then in a very surprise twist, he ends up giving the commencement address and a makeshift graduation for Erica, who’s raced to graduate so she can have a diploma before she has a baby. So we’re utilizing him a lot. It’s awesome to have him. You believe it in this world because Beverly Goldberg would do anything for kids, including getting Adam a job working on a movie with David Hasselhoff. He just looks so authentic in this time and space.”
The Goldbergs, Season 10 Premiere, September 21, 8:30/7:30c, ABC
