The Goldbergs’ season 10 premiere began with Murray Goldberg’s devastated demise. How Exactly Did the ABC Comedy Deal with the Death of Jeff Garlin’s Quarrelsome Alter-Ego?
The Powers That Be could have gone in all sorts of directions. Murray could have pushed in front of a train in Paris and exploded like a balloon full of flesh. Or he could have succumbed to a previously unknown drug addiction. Hell, he could have been fired on a kung fu voucher – there’s a precedent!
But instead, the Goldbergs chose to sidestep the specifics of Murray’s death. The cold candor only revealed that Murray was no longer with us.
“A few months ago we lost my dad out of nowhere,” Adam said while the camera was trained on his dad’s beloved BarcaLounger. “We will always love you, dad. Always. And we will find a way to carry on together. After all, we are the Goldbergs.”
Mr. Chair emerged as the focal point of Wednesday’s season opener. Mom-to-be Erica suggested it was time for Beverly to clear out some of Murray’s belongings — including the closet in the hallway that served as a shrine to her late “Mur man.” But Bev took her schmoopie’s advice too far and got rid of his chair – a decision she immediately regretted. Luckily, Pop-Pop retrieved it from the curb before it was towed away. He even took it upon himself to convert it into a rocking chair for the nursery.
Adam, meanwhile, tried to draw older brother Barry into a field of dreams. But after misunderstanding the central premise of the Kevin Costner classic, Adam didn’t realize that he had convinced dimwitted Barry that he was going to play one last tag game with her dead father. In the end, Adam and Barry made up and played this tag game together.
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