Jeff Garlin’s character Murray Goldberg has been killed off from ‘The Goldbergs’.
The 60-year-old actor left the programme last year amid accusations of his “inappropriate verbal and physical conduct” on set and show bosses have revealed that not only will his alter ego be absent from the next series, it will be set "multiple months" after the patriarch's off-screen passing, when his family have already "moved on".
Speaking to 'Entertainment Weekly', co-showrunner Alex Barnow said: “Well, [Jeff is] not going to be on the season, obviously.
“[Murray] will have passed, and we are sort of starting from a place of multiple months removed from his death.
“The family has already grieved, unlike Pops (played by George Segal) and the premiere of season nine where they’re dealing with it sort of very freshly.
“This is going to be a family that has not reconciled the fact that their father’s gone but has sort of moved on and has dealt with a lot of that.
“So we’re starting with optimism about a baby coming and looking forward to the future.
“It’s an opportunity for this interesting emotional basis for the way people are behaving.”
He went on: “But Jeff won't be in the series this year, and so far the stories have been largely about looking forward rather than looking back.”
Barnow also admitted he was not certain Jeff was aware of his character's fate, though has been “assuming” the actor knew his character had died because he was told the role wouldn't be recast.
He added: “I’ve had a conversation with Jeff and he’s aware that he’s not being replaced. The truth is, I don’t know if he knows what his fate is, but I'm assuming he knows, would be the answer to that question.
“We haven’t had a subsequent conversation since the beginning of writing that he would have any specific clarity on that.”
The tenth season of ‘The Goldbergs’ will premiere on ABC on 21 September and comes almost a year after Jeff abruptly departed the popular series following a human resources investigation into his behaviour.
The actor came to a mutual agreement with Sony Pictures Television to leave the production immediately, Deadline reported in December.
The stand-up comic admitted in a long interview with Vanity Fair in December 2021 he had been investigated multiple times over complaints of inappropriate touching and bad language, but denied being intentionally offensive.
Jeff has insisted: “I am always a kind and thoughtful person. I make mistakes, sure. But my comedy is about easing people’s pain. Why would I ever want to cause pain in anybody for a laugh? That’s bullying. That’s just uncalled for.”
