{"id":858495,"date":"2026-09-24T03:16:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T03:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/858495\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T03:16:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T03:16:08","slug":"wendi-mclendon-covey-and-jeff-garlin-still-arent-cool-over-his-goldbergs-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/858495\/","title":{"rendered":"Wendi McLendon-Covey and Jeff Garlin still aren’t cool over his Goldbergs exit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jeff Garlin\u2019s departure from ABC\u2019s\u00a0The Goldbergs\u00a0back in 2021<\/a> was presented, to the public, as a mutual decision. (Albeit, one that came after news broke<\/a> that Garlin had been the subject of multiple HR investigations on the show, over behavior he described as \u201csilliness,\u201d and which other people had reportedly said made them feel uncomfortable or unhappy while on the series\u2019 set.) And there the topic mostly sat, through Garlin\u2019s departure from the show, the awkward efforts to shoot around his absence in its ninth season, and then his character\u2019s death<\/a> at the start of its tenth and final run in 2022. Until this week, anyway, when Garlin gave an interview that kicked off a whole new back-and-forth with former co-star (and most vocal critic) Wendi McLendon-Covey.<\/p>\n

This is per\u00a0Variety<\/a>, which reports that Garlin was making an appearance on The Daily Beast\u2018s\u00a0Obsessed\u00a0podcast<\/a> when his departure from the series, and his conflicts with McLendon-Covey, came up. \u201cI actually empathize with her,\u201d Garlin said when asked about his co-star\u2019s comments, which included assertions in 2023 that his exit from the series had been \u201ca long time coming.\u201d Garlin asserts that he was in a rough place when he was getting hit with all these various HR complaints: \u201cAt the time, I was undiagnosed bipolar. I was miserable on the show, and I was miserable with my performance. And she was always trying to tell me, \u2018Hey, you\u2019re really great on the show.\u2019 I didn\u2019t believe her. I just got to the point where I had to quit, and she was very resentful.\u201d Garlin adds that his mood during this period shifted between \u201cone of three things: dark, dark, dark, dark, didn\u2019t talk and look at anyone; happy to the point of mania, never turning off my thing; or mean\u2014really, really mean.\u201d<\/p>\n

McLendon-Covey has not, however, let this be the final word on the topic. The\u00a0St. Denis Medical<\/a>\u00a0star appeared in the Instagram comments for the Garlin interview clip<\/a> with a flat, and clearly unimpressed, \u201cHuh.\u201d When asked to elaborate, McLendon-Covey noted that, \u201cLet\u2019s just say I remember things very differently, as does the crew, the other actors, the writers, and our executives.\u201d So, yeah: Any\u00a0Goldbergs\u00a0fans expecting a big, happy reunion a few more years down the line might want to temper those expectations, because these folks are still pretty clearly pretty raw about how Garlin\u2019s exit from the series did, or did not, shake out.<\/p>\n