‘The Goldbergs’ to Kill off Jeff Garlin’s Monstrous, Bizarre CGI Hybrid Creation in Season 10

The Goldbergs is cutting ties with Jeff Garlin in a brutal chop, killing off his character ahead of Season 10. The ABC comedy is preparing to roll out a Garlin-less fall premiere in which his character, Murray Goldberg, will have been dead for months, TV Line reports.

It’s a pretty definitive goodbye to Garlin, who left The Goldbergs last season after the show launched an HR investigation into his behavior on set. Looks like ABC is sending a message, too, and actually taking action by sending Murray to the grave.

Thankfully, this means we’ll be spared the clunky stand-in The Goldbergs used for Garlin last season, when they attempted to make up for the actor’s absence by using CGI and pre-recorded footage to keep him on the show after he’d left.

Showrunner Alex Barnow dropped the news to Entertainment Weekly, explaining that the titular family at the center of The Goldbergs “has not reconciled the fact that their father’s gone but has sort of moved on and has dealt with a lot of that,” in Season 10.

Barnow added, “We’re starting with optimism about [Erica’s] baby coming and looking forward to the future. It’s an opportunity for this interesting emotional basis for the way people are behaving.”

It also sounds like The Goldbergs is ready to get over this whole mess and shift to a sunnier story, especially after co-showrunner Chris Bishop called the upcoming season “a huge reboot for us,” with new storylines giving the show “tons of momentum.”

As for Garlin, Barnow said the actor is “aware that he’s not being replaced,” which sounds like another way of saying he might not know he’s dead…yet. Barnow added, “I don’t know if he knows what his fate is, but I’m assuming he knows.”

Garlin departed The Goldbergs in December 2021 in what was described at the time as a mutual decision between the actor and the show. Vanity Fair reported that sources said the actor had “allegedly engaged in a pattern of verbal and physical conduct on set that made people uncomfortable” and “would touch or hug people whether or not they were comfortable with that contact.”

In a lengthy interview with the outlet, Garlin responded to the claims and told Vanity Fair he was not fired from The Goldbergs and denied any physical incidents while brushing off the “verbal conduct” as a misunderstood joke.