‘Bipolar is a m***********’: Jeff Garlin says he's 'doing the best he can' after leaving ‘The Goldbergs’ over misconduct
Jeff Garlin, a former member of the cast of ‘The Goldbergs’, has disclosed that he has bipolar disorder, a mental illness that results in severe mood fluctuations that can cause rage and depression. The comedian actor's admission comes nine months after he abruptly left the ABC comedy due to allegations of improper "verbal and physical behavior" on the set.
“Bipolar is a motherf***er. Sometimes it’s just too much to deal with. I’m doing the best I can. This the first time that I’ve opened up about this,” Garlin said in an Instagram post with the hashtag bipolar.
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Following an HR inquiry into the allegations made against him, Garlin abruptly left 'The Goldbergs' about a year ago. According to a December 2021 article by Deadline, he and Sony Pictures Television reached an understanding that he would stop working on the project right away. Season 9 of the show, which debuted in September, reportedly only required one day of filming from Garlin. On September 21, ABC will air The Goldbergs' Season 10. According to Deadline, an HR probe led to Garlin's unexpected departure from The Goldbergs. Although he said at the time that he had not been dismissed, the stand-up comic acknowledged in a long interview with Vanity Fair earlier in December 2021 that he had been the subject of numerous HR investigations into claims of inappropriate touching and abusive language.
'The Goldbergs' showrunners revealed to Entertainment Weekly around the end of August 2022 that Murray Goldberg, played by Garlin, had been wiped off. “Well, [Garlin 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,” co-showrunner Alex Barnow said. The family has already grieved, unlike Pops [George Segal] and the premiere of season 9 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. 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.”
In addition, Barnow said that while he was "assuming" the comic book's creator was aware of his character's demise, he was not clear. “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,” Barrow said.
To finish the season, videos of Garlin that had already been filmed but never utilized were combined with his body duplicate. He played Murray Christian Goldberg, the husband of Beverly Goldberg, who was portrayed by Wendi McLendon-Covey in the series.