windom

How they will handle Murray in season 10:

Count Dooku

Here's the EW interview about the upcoming season

https://ew.com/tv/the-goldbergs-seas...dead-new-baby/

It's really weird that the interviewer asks the producers if Jeff Garlin knows about Murray's fate.

Paff

Does that really have to be spoilerized? They're openly talking about it in all interviews, and we know Jeff Garlin is off the show so there's not too many ways to include that in the plot.

MrX

The shoehorning of old footage of him into episodes was the best part of last season.

Bandoman

Not to be "that guy", but my wife and I aren't watching this season. The show has definitely over-run its course.

movieguru

If this is in season 10 now, is it still 1980 something or are they eventually going to have to be in the 1990's? They seem to play very loose with real life references to the 1980's anyway. In the early seasons, they reference stuff from the late 80's and in later seasons have reference things as current that would have occurred in the early 80's, etc.

GuessWho

You're assuming 1 season = 1 year. That's not necessarily the case.

Time has never mattered on this show. That's why it takes pace in "nineteen eighty-something"

Coral

I'm in the same boat. The show had run it's course a while ago and I was sticking around for closure. But they already lost Pops, Erica is married, Barry is living in a dorm and now this new season has Adam going to NYU and Murray's dead. If that's not an indication that the show should end - I don't know what is.

Real life Murray died in 2008, so regardless if they stick to the 80s or move into the 90s - they've blown the association to real-life events by a mile now by killing off Murray.

flansered

I was already getting kind of tired with the shows formula and was only watching out of some sense of obligation, but after Garlin left I figured I would finish the last season and drop the show. It has really declined over the last couple of seasons, but it's one of ABC's highest rated comedies so I figured they will keep it around as long they can. I am glad that I got to see the way that they worked Murray into Erica's wedding, that was probably the funniest the show has been in years.

The Cow

Well they didn’t have a real-life sister either…

Coral

Right, but it's a smaller adjustment to reality (a girl instead of a boy) than killing off a main character after 9 seasons when that character should still be alive for close to 20 more years.

Count Dooku

There was a time when The Goldbergs was, in some way, always about the real Goldberg family. Now it is just about being a TV show.

movieguru

Possibly, but how many holidays (thanksgiving, x-mas, halloween) episodes have they had each season where it could actually track how many years should have passed from the first season up to the beginning of the tenth season? I suppose it has continuity like characters do in Marvel Comics where the timeline since Fantastic Four #1 (1961) to the current issues is only 10-12 years even though we've seen them have at least 40-50 x-mas holiday issues in different years during that time.

GuessWho

Q: How many Halloweens will Bart Simpson have as a 10 year old?

A: It's a tv show

Paff

If one season equaled one year, that would have meant Adam was a second grader in season 1.

GuessWho

Kiefer Sutherland had a show that could have 10 seasons only taking place in a week and a half.

movieguru

The Simpsons is a cartoon. No one is expecting cartoon or comic strip characters to age. A live action tv show is a bit different. Actors age in real life and that has generally been reflected onscreen. When the first started making movies with the TOS Star Trek characters, they realized they couldn't just keep Kirk and company in their id thirties. They had to acknowledge that the characters had aged as well.

Count Dooku

On Star Trek, they made up the transporter as a device to explain how they could get from ship to planet and back again, quickly and simply. If you watch Star Trek, and every time they use the transporter all you can think about is how impossible it is, then you need to stop watching Star Trek.

At some point, every TV show ends up establishing the rules for that TV show that exist to keep the situation at the heart of the show going. I can't think of a single sitcom that does not have some glaringly obvious piece of impossibility that is at the very core of what the show is about.

Barry was 16 in the first episode, when they got to Season 3 and he was still in high school, the show established its rule that the passage of time was not going to be taken seriously. So you either accepted that and kept watching, or you got out then.

windom

So they want us to accept the ridiculous timeline but they don't think we can accept Murray looking different by hiring a different actor for the part? I guess it make sense budget wise though.

Count Dooku

You are not supposed to think about the timeline. You watch the episode and accept that it is taking place in some nebulous concept of "The Eighties," and it means whatever the episode needs it to mean for that episode.

And the kids stay in high school way longer than they should because the school is one of the two major settings for the series. The truth is, when you think about it, the passage of time on sitcoms never really makes sense. You have an A-story taking place over one period of time and a B-story taking place over a completely different period of time, even though the episode presents it all as happening at the same time.

10 years in, and you hire a different actor to play Murray, and viewers will never think of anything else when he is on the screen, and it's not worth investing the time for them to get used to it.

And how many times in the history of sitcoms has a show recast a well-established every episode character anyways? Less than 10?

Paff

Hey, that could be a fun discussion. I'll start.
Darren on Bewitched
Becky on Roseanne
Anna-Kat on American Housewife

cartoons obviously shouldn't count, but Meg on Family Guy was a pretty big change.

Coral

Aunt Viv on Fresh Prince
Laurie on That 70's Show (well, she wasn't in every episode... but still big enough of a change)
2 of the daughters on Last Man Standing
Lionel on The Jeffersons
The mom on Family Matters

Count Dooku

All I had were Darren, Becky and
Aunt Viv on Fresh Prince
the changing daughters on Last Man Standing

Gizmo

This show is still ABCs #1 comedy (or #2 with Connors, depending on the week - which ABC also does not own at all) and its a syndication goldmine for Sony which has lost a ton of shows in the past years. It airs everywhere on cable, internationally and has a Hulu deal. Easily one of the biggest success stories over the past few decades. ABC was probably given a very good deal to bring this back (minus Jeffs salary which was probably the highest or at least #2) as they now have the pay nearly 100% of the costs for the show. It's going into its 10th season. Watch...don't watch...it really doesn't matter to ABC just like with The Blacklist for NBC (though they own part of the show in recent years). It's a 20 minute commitment and I still find laughs from it, even though its gotten progressively worse.

Sony is in danger of losing several shows next season - The Goldbergs, SWAT, The Blacklist...its going to be bad. They might just have The Good Doctor (and maybe its spinoff?) left on network TV unless I'm missing something. For cable, they just lost Better Call Saul. Cobra Kai is nearing its end and...The Boys? I think that's really it. Sony would love for this to get another season or two if the cast remains, but I have a feeling this is it.

My money is Sony is banging down CWs doors right now to sell their stuff since the other networks all have their own streaming services and...who even knows, they could rescue The Goldbergs next year. Imaging them launching a new comedy block with The Goldbergs as the lead-in? (remind me in May!)

movieguru

While not a sitcom, there's one show that's recast the same well-established, every episode character twelve times already..........Doctor Who.