One of Jeff Garlin’s co-stars on The Goldbergs has opened up about his messy departure from the sitcom.
Wendi McLendon-Covey, who plays matriarch Beverly Goldberg, said on Tuesday’s episode of Andy Cohen Live that the actor’s exit, following a string of misconduct allegations and HR investigations, was “a long time coming.”
When Garlin was fired (and replaced by a CGI abomination), “it was like, ‘OK, finally someone is listening to us.’ But that was kind of hard,” she explained to host Andy Cohen. “We had lost George Segal [who played “Pops”] in real life, 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.”
When Cohen asked if Garlin’s exit from the series was the result of complaints made over a long period of time, McLendon-Covey responded, “Yes.”
“If we could not talk about that, that would be great,” she then politely requested. “I’m 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.”
The Goldbergs — which has survived Garlin’s firing, the departure of its creator, the death of Segal, and the real-life inspirations for the characters trashing the show — is currently in its 10th and final season.
(Via Variety)
