‘The Goldbergs’: Wendi McLendon-Covey on Bev’s New Political Aspirations
Preview
Opportunity knocks — literally — on October 28 for feisty ’80s matriarch Beverly Goldberg (Wendi McLendon-Covey). Jenkintown’s incumbent comptroller, Dodd Wembley (Adhir Kalyan, the actress’ former costar on the CBS sitcom Rules of Engagement), stops by to ask if he can count on her vote.
“She’s like, ‘Oh, if you’re running unopposed, I’m going to run against you!'” McLendon-Covey says. Now that Bev’s three kids, Barry (Troy Gentile), Erica (Hayley Orrantia) and Adam (Sean Giambrone), are in high school and college, she’s done smothering and “looking for her new situation.”
The ambitious matriarch doesn’t even need to know what a comptroller does. “She does know she just wants to win this election and crush it,” McLendon-Covey says. Step No. 1: Dominate the debate. She researches Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter in action and even steals some of their verbiage. Step No. 2: Secure the youth vote. After seeing the flashy video for Janet Jackson’s “Control,” she gets Adam to shoot her own 17-minute re-creation.
(Credit: ABC/Andrew Eccles)
“She wants to be the one in ‘Comptrol,'” McLendon-Covey says. “Guess what? It doesn’t stimulate the youth vote in any way, shape or form. And MTV doesn’t want to run that video.”
Still, the actress got to be lowered from the rafters on a swing to mimic the original’s opening, and she also attempted Jackson’s complicated dance moves. The result, McLendon-Covey says, is “very dynamic!”
The Goldbergs, 8/7c, ABC
