Where in the world is Murray Goldberg?
On Wednesday night Murray’s daughter, Erica, got married to Geoff. But the father of the bride was no there to give her away. Weeks ago, star Jeff Garlin, who plays Murray. left the series in its 9th and probably final season. There were still a lot of episodes yet to be shown.
For weeks, “The Goldbergs” have been pretending Murray is still around. They use stand ins, make oblique references, but Garlin’s face is long gone.
Last night, fans were howling on social media that Murray’s daughter got married and there was no sign of him. His whole family was present. At one point, the narrator referred to “my parents” and there was a shot of a stand in pretending to be Murray from behind, dancing with his wife.
The whole thing is very lame, and the fans know it. Only 3.3 million people watched “The Goldbergs” wedding. Since September the show has lost half a million viewers and dropped around 20% in the key age demo. It’s basically not worth watching without Garlin. If for some reason it’s renewed for a 10th season it’s because ABC has nothing to fill the time slot. (Murray could become what Lars was to “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.”
PS Can’t wait to see Garlin on the next season of “Curb Your Enthusiasm”!
