Jeff Garlin, the former star of ABC’s The Goldbergs whose controversial real-life departure from the show saw his character killed off on the sitcom last night, says he suffers from bipolar disorder, a diagnosis he revealed for the first time in a brief Instagram post Wednesday.
“Bipolar is a motherf*cker,” Garlin writes. “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 left The Goldbergs in December following HR investigations into misconduct allegations. Although the killing off of his character Murray Goldberg was disclosed last month by showrunner Alex Barnow, the episode that included the explanation for Murray’s absence aired as the Season 10 premiere Wednesday night.
In the episode, the character Adam Goldberg said in an opening voice-over: “Just a few months ago, out of nowhere, we lost my dad. We will always love you, Dad. Always. And we will find a way to continue on together. Because, after all, we’re the Goldbergs.”
Garlin’s departure from the show followed a Vanity Fair report about the actor’s on-set behavior. A Goldbergs employee later told Deadline that Garlin “is extremely verbally and emotionally abusive.”
In the VF article, Garlin dismissed the accusations by saying that he is just being “silly” as part of his shtick as a comedian.
In Wednesday’s Instagram post, Garlin included a 1960s-vintage black-and-white photograph of Batman actor Stafford Repp in character as Police Chief O’Hara. The photo depicts Repp looking shocked as he reads a Mad magazine parody of the Batman series.
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