Wendi McLendon-Covey says Jeff Garlin’s ‘Goldbergs’ exit ‘was a long time coming’
Wendi McLendon-Covey shared her thoughts Tuesday on her TV husband, Jeff Garlin, exiting “The Goldbergs” after an investigation into his behavior on set.
In a radio interview with Andy Cohen, the sitcom actor remarked that her co-star’s departure from the ABC series “was a long time coming.” “The Goldbergs” showrunners Chris Bishop and Alex Barnow killed off Garlin’s character after he left the program more than a year ago.
Garlin and McLendon-Covey portrayed parents Murray Goldberg and Beverly Goldberg, respectively, in the period comedy.
Jeff Garlin, who played patriarch Murray Goldberg on ‘The Goldbergs,’ departed the family sitcom last year following a human-resources investigation.
When Garlin’s exit “finally happened, it was like ... ‘finally someone is listening to us,’” McLendon-Covey told Cohen. She added, however, that Murray’s death in the show was “tough” because they had just lost her onscreen father, George Segal, in the series and in real life.
“To have to go through another loss on a sitcom — you can’t keep asking your audience to mourn people,” McLendon-Covey said.
When Cohen continued to ask McLendon-Covey about “the Jeff Garlin thing,” she declined to discuss it further.
Jeff Garlin and Sony, which produces ABC’s “The Goldbergs,” came to a mutual agreement about the stand-up comedian leaving the family comedy.
“I am exhausted by that topic and the PTSD of it all,” she said, adding, “The less people know about that the better.”
In December 2021, Garlin and Sony Pictures Television reached a mutual agreement to end his run on “The Goldbergs.” Garlin’s departure was preceded by multiple internal complaints about his conduct behind the scenes of the feel-good show.
Vanity Fair reported in December 2021 that Garlin exhibited verbal and physical behavior that made some of his co-workers uncomfortable on set. According to Vanity Fair, Garlin allegedly acted in a way that was demeaning or unprofessional. Some of that behavior allegedly involved unwelcome physical contact and the use of language that was offensive to women.
Jeff Garlin left the ABC comedy “The Goldbergs” in 2021 amid an HR investigation into his alleged behavior toward co-workers on the show.
In a separate interview with Vanity Fair, Garlin described his behavior as “silliness” and chalked the investigation up to “a difference of opinion” between him and Sony. He added that he can be “a loose cannon” at work.
“I have my process about how I’m funny, in terms of the scene and what I have to do. They feel that it makes for a quote ‘unsafe’ workspace,” Garlin said.
“I have never physically come at anyone, for any reason, so that I find terribly confusing and untrue.”
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