This Confirms What We Suspected All Along About The Jeff Garlin Drama
Turns out Jeff Garlin's rough and grumble character on ABC's "The Goldbergs" isn't just an act. The actor and standup comic spoke to Vanity Fair's Maureen Ryan on December 3 about allegations of his bad behavior on the set of the family sitcom — though they didn't discuss many specifics. Now on December 15, a situation he denied in the interview was confirmed by Deadline: Garlin will no longer appear on the series.
Garlin plays patriarch Murray Goldberg on the semi-autobiographical sitcom set in the 1980s, based on creator Adam F. Goldberg's childhood. Garlin, one of the show's original cast members, had been filming the current 18-episode ninth season, and apparently had only one day remaining on set. Whether there will be a tenth season remains to be seen, though it's a hit for the network and for Sony, which owns the sitcom; Season 9 was even extended to 22 episodes, per Deadline. Garlin had told VF that he didn't want to return for Season 9 — primarily because he was "bored," but also due to "frustrat[ion] with the parameters that were being put on me by Sony" — but he agreed to it because they shortened his schedule. Now, in a mutual agreement between Garlin and Sony, it looks like he is out for good.
While Garlin was clearly on the defensive in his interview, despite saying "I'm not going to be Baron Von Defending Myself," the interview didn't discuss the specific incident at heart. We now know more about what happened.
The last straw was an incident between Jeff Garlin and a stand-in
At the center of the allegations is an incident that happened with a female stand-in and her husband, though Jeff Garlin is accused of several examples of poor "verbal and physical conduct," according to Vanity Fair. In fact, he told Maureen Ryan, "HR has come to me three years in a row for my behavior on set." Clearly, there was some buildup here.
Ryan doesn't specifically discuss the incident, but Deadline explains that Garlin yelled at a female stand-in saying "Why are you always in my way? Get the f**k out of my way," according to a source who witnessed it. When the woman seemed confused, Garlin said to her husband, "Tell your wife to get the f**k out of my way." The witness called it "the grossest abuse of power" and "the straw that broke the camel's back."
In his VF interview, Garlin responded to the incident by denying anything physical and saying "the verbal part was a joke that was completely missed — because I like this guy. I like his wife. I've worked with them for years. ... I will say the joke was missed and I apologize to him." However, based on what the witness said, Garlin didn't seem to be joking, and tellingly, it sounds more like the woman deserves the apology.
When executives told the crew about Garlin's departure, a source said "several people cheered." Maybe that Maya Angelou quote is worth considering: "when someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time."