Jeff Garlin’s exit from The Goldbergs in 2021 surprised many, but one of his co-stars feels differently.
Wendi McLendon-Covey, who plays Beverly on the hit ABC comedy, is opening up about the departure.
“That was a long time coming,” she said in a Sirius XM interview with Andy Cohen this week.
“it was like, ‘OK, OK, someone’s finally listening to us,'” she recalled feeling when the comedian exited.
While Andy wondered if her co-star’s exit resulted from many complaints, the actress nodded and then asked if they could move on from the topic.
She said, “exhausted by that topic and the PTSD of it all… I just feel like the less people know about that, the better.”
“No one benefits from knowing anything.”
McLendon-Covey said that the series had already navigated the loss of George Segal, who died, and then the show had to write out Garlin’s character.
“We had lost George Segal in real like, and then to have to go through another loss on a sitcom, you can’t keep asking your audience to mourn people… That’s not why they tune in,” she added.
News of Garlin’s exit broke in December 2021, shortly after a Vanity Fair report into his behavior on the set went public.
“There has been an HR investigation on me the past three years. HR has come to me three years in a row for my behavior on set,” Garlin told Vanity Fair.
“[A]s a comedian, if somebody is offended by what I say I, all I can say is, I’m sorry. Okay? I have never physically come at anyone, for any reason, so that I find terribly confusing and untrue,” Garlin added.
ABC announced in early 2023 that The Goldbergs would wrap with its current 10th season.
In addition to McLendon-Covey, the series also stars Sean Giambrone (as Adam), Troy Gentile (as Barry), Hayley Orrantia (as Erica), and Sam Lerner (as Erica’s husband, Geoff).
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Paul Dailly is the Associate Editor for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.