The Goldbergs (2013 TV series)

Premise

Cast and characters

Main cast

• Jeff Garlin as Murray Goldberg, the gruff, somewhat asocial patriarch of the Goldbergs. Unlike Beverly, he is realistic about his children's abilities and believes she smothers them too much. Despite his apathetic tendencies at home, he values hard work and has held various full-time positions since his teenage years. Though he does not always show affection for his children, calling them "morons" when they make mistakes or behave in silly ways, he truly cares about them and wants them to learn how to fend for themselves. He runs his father-in-law's furniture business, loves sports, and is often seen lounging in front of his TV in his white briefs.
• Wendi McLendon-Covey as Beverly Goldberg, the overprotective matriarch of the Goldbergs. She is often called their "smother" by the kids. She frequently injects herself into her children's lives, often to their embarrassment, and is supremely confident in their abilities.
• Sean Giambrone as Adam F. Goldberg, the pop-culture obsessed youngest child of the Goldbergs. Smart and geeky, he frequently films his family's activities on a VHS camcorder. He often ends up having to use his middle initial to distinguish himself from another Adam Goldberg who attends the same school and is also an aspiring filmmaker.
• * Patton Oswalt voices the adult Adam Goldberg, who narrates the show from the present day.
• Troy Gentile as Barry Norman Goldberg, the overconfident, slightly dim-witted middle child of the Goldbergs. Though perceived as goofy and seemingly untalented in many ways, he remains highly self-assured while trying to become popular in high school. He is determined to "dominate" everything he does, especially sports, but he only really excels at ice hockey and wrestling. Barry loves rap music, and is the leader of a crew called the Jenkintown Posse. In the fifth-season finale, he proposes to Lainey and she accepts, but they don't go through with a wedding. By this point, he decided to become a doctor. Barry graduates from high school in the sixth-season finale, and heads to college in season 7 along with his sister Erica. Barry is based on Adam's real-life brother of the same name.
• Hayley Orrantia as Erica Dorothy Goldberg, the sarcastic, somewhat bad-tempered oldest child of the Goldbergs. Smart and musically gifted but rebellious, she is popular in school and dominant over her younger brothers. In the fifth season, Erica left for college at D.C. School of the Arts, only to drop out at the end of the season to start a band with Lainey and Valley Erica. After her music aspirations end up going nowhere, Erica decides to head back to college to get her life back on track. "Erica" is based on Adam's real-life brother, Eric Goldberg.
• George Segal as Albert "Pops" Solomon, Beverly's laid-back widower father. Though an elderly man with a number of comic eccentricities, he acts much younger than his age and often gives sage advice to his grandchildren. Adam considers him his best friend and they often go on side adventures together. He once owned a successful furniture store called Ottoman Empire that allowed him to retire comfortably, and he now lets his son-in-law Murray run the business.
• AJ Michalka as Lainey Lewis, Erica's best friend and one of the most popular girls at school, whom Barry has had a lifelong crush on. Lainey is being raised by a single father, Bill, given that her alcoholic mother left them a few years prior to the series. To the surprise of many, Lainey kisses Barry at a party in the first-season finale, the two slowly grow closer together in season two, and eventually become an unlikely couple. Following the fourth season, she has gone to attend fashion school in Savannah, Georgia and ended her relationship with Barry. In season 5, she returns to Jenkintown after dropping out along with Erica to start a band. In the final seconds of the season finale she and Barry agree to wed. In the sixth season, Lainey not only ends the engagement but leaves for L.A. to pursue her dreams alone, but not before promising Barry that when they were ready, they'd be together. Lainey appears as a main character in the spin-off series, Schooled.
• Sam Lerner as "Madman" Geoff Schwartz, one of Barry's best friends, and a member of the "JTP". His nickname "Madman" is a form of ironic humor, given how well-behaved the character is, especially compared to Barry. He is infatuated with Erica and makes many futile attempts to win her affections. At the end of the third season, he begins dating Evelyn Silver just as Erica realizes she reciprocates Geoff's feelings. He later breaks up with Evey to be with Erica. As Erica prepares to return to college at the start of season 7, Geoff confides that he wants to stay home for a gap year. After months of following the Grateful Dead and starting a failed business venture, however, he decides to enroll in college full-time and moves into Erica's dorm room.

  Recurring cast

Extended family

• Judd Hirsch as Ben "Pop Pop" Goldberg, Murray's cantankerous, opinionated father. He frequently fights with Murray, with whom he has trouble communicating, and he views Pops as a rival.
• Dan Fogler as Marvin Goldberg, Murray's carefree, unreliable younger brother who is frequently involved in bizarre get-rich-quick schemes that always end up failing.
• Lucky: The Goldbergs' pet dog introduced in season 3. While the family originally got the dog based on Barry's insistence for one, Lucky develops a bond with Murray.

  Friends and classmates

• Natalie Alyn Lind as Dana Caldwell, Adam's classmate who becomes his girlfriend. In the season 2 finale, it is revealed Dana may be moving to Seattle. The season 3 premiere confirms she is now living in Seattle. Adam and Dana continue a long-distance relationship, but it ends when the two realize how different they have become. Dana returns to Jenkintown in season 7 after her grandmother in Seattle passes away, but makes it clear to Adam that she just wants to be friends. The real-life counterpart for "Dana" is named Amanda Caldwell; the first name was changed due to early legal concerns about the show's autobiographical nature.
• Kenny Ridwan as Dave Kim, an awkward classmate and friend of Adam's, who is always addressed by both his first and last names, even by his own mother. He shockingly begins dating troublemaker Carla Mann in season 6.
• Stephanie Katherine Grant as Emmy "Muscles" Mirsky, a girl in the neighborhood with whom Adam likes to spend time. Because they grew up together, she and Adam treat each other like siblings, and she behaves like "one of the guys" in the company of Adam and friends. In her sophomore year of high school, she wants Adam's help with meeting a guy she's interested in dating, and Adam initially has trouble seeing her that way.
• Rowan Blanchard, Alexis G. Zall as Jackie Geary, Adam's girlfriend who shares his love of science fiction. Jackie graduates from high school in Season 6, and neither makes an appearance nor gets mentioned throughout Season 7.
• Sam Kindseth as David Sirota, Adam's goofy friend and classmate. In the present he is an American political commentator and radio host.
• Nate Hartley as Dan, a nerdy punching bag, who is always in the wrong place at the wrong time.
• Jacob Hopkins as Chad Kremp, Virginia's youngest son and a close friend of Adam.
• Tyler Stokes as Drew Kremp, Chad's older brother and Erica's ex-boyfriend.
• :de:Jackson Odell|Jackson Odell as Ari Caldwell, a popular student, a friend of Lexie Bloom and Erica, and Dana's older brother.
• Cooper Roth and Zayne Emory as J. C. Spink, a bully who torments Adam. The original film producer who inspired the character portrays a school bus driver.
• Virginia Gardner as Lexie Bloom, a classmate of Barry's who he has a crush on for the first season.
• Joey Luthman as Roger McFadden, a nerdy classmate of Barry's.
• Mason Cook as Tyler Stansfield, a puny but fierce classmate of Adam.
• Allie Grant as Evelyn "Evey" Silver, a girl Beverly tries to set up Barry with. Erica is deeply disturbed by this, because Evey is eerily similar to Beverly. She later becomes Geoff Schwartz's girlfriend, albeit briefly.
• Niko Guardado as Rubén Amaro, Jr., a highly popular student and champion athlete. Like Dave Kim, he is always addressed by his full name. In adulthood, he will become a major league baseball player and General Manager of Philadelphia Phillies.
• Charlie DePew as Anthony Balsamo, a popular, good-looking student and Lainey's ex-boyfriend.
• Sean Marquette as Johnny Atkins, a ponytailed, saxophone-playing troublemaker who, much like Barry Goldberg, has a high opinion of himself. He is always seen wearing a Rush tour t-shirt. In addition to saxophone, he also plays the drums. Erica dated him briefly. In season 7, Adam mentions that Johnny is starting his "third senior year". In the spin-off series Schooled, Johnny is shown to be working at William Penn as a custodian.
• Shayne Topp as Matt Bradley; a punk rocker-turned-Deadhead who becomes the newest member of the "JTP", over Barry's initial objections. Adult Adam's voice-over later confides that Matt would become Barry's closest friend after high school.
• Noah Munck as 'Naked' Rob Smith, one of Barry's best friends and member of the "JTP" who goes shirtless at any opportunity.
• Matt Bush as 'Ladies' Man' Andy Cogan, one of Barry's best friends and a member of the "JTP" who is frequently teased for his short stature.
• Alex Jennings as Carla Mann, a popular student and friend of Erica and Lainey who is a bit of a troublemaker. She was an on-off girlfriend of Johnny Atkins, and started dating Dave Kim late in season 6. She is shown working as a pharmaceutical sales representative in the spinoff series.
• Froy Gutierrez as Benjamin "Handsome Ben" Bauman, a highly popular student whom Adam sees as his rival, though Ben is always friendly to him.
• Quincy Fouse as Taz Money, a popular friend of Adam.
• Nathan Gamble as Garry Ball, the Principal's rebellious son and Adam's only cool friend.
• Alison Rich as Erica "Valley Erica" Coolidge, Erica's Valley girl roommate at college; the two have the same first name, but decidedly different personalities. She dropped out of college with Erica and Lainey to play drums in their band, and lived with the Goldbergs in season 6.
• Kelli Berglund as Lauren, Erica's college friend who later dates Barry.
• Sadie Stanley as Brea Bee, the most popular girl in school who later becomes Adam's girlfriend after the two are partnered together for a lab assignment and discover they have a lot of mutual interests..

  William Penn faculty

• Stephen Tobolowsky as Principal Earl Ball, the principal of the Goldberg children's high school. Beverly frequently confronts him when she believes one of her children has been wronged during classes or school activities.
• Tim Meadows as Jonathan "Andre" Glascott, a disenchanted teacher who also delivers pizza and gives guitar lessons for extra money. He serves as the school's hapless guidance counselor. Glascott appears as the main protagonist of the spin-off series, which reveals he succeeded Earl Ball as principal. In that series, he reveals that he went by the name "Andre" early in his career because his master's diploma mistakenly has the first name of his college program's only other black graduate student, Andre Jones.
• Bryan Callen as Rick Mellor, the high school's no-nonsense gym teacher and coach. He has a habit of giving nicknames to the Goldberg kids as he constantly addresses Erica as "Girl Goldberg" and Adam as "Goldfarb". In the sixth season, Mellor left William Penn to train wrestlers, but not before making peace with Adam and leaving his position to his brother Nick. This was done so Bryan Callen could reprise his role in the spin-off series, which reveals he returned to his old job.
• Michaela Watkins as Ms. Taraborelli, a socially awkward Spanish and sex education teacher.
• Dan Bakkedahl as Mr. Woodburn, Adam's lonely and depressed science and history teacher.
• Ana Gasteyer as Susan Cinoman, a music and drama teacher at the Goldberg children's high school and love interest of Rick Mellor. She is shown to still be teaching at William Penn in the spinoff series.
• Bill Goldberg as Nick Mellor, Coach Mellor's brutish brother.
• Clancy Brown as Mr. Crosby, Adam's unenthusiastic shop teacher.
• Steve Guttenberg as Dr. Katman, a science teacher.

  Other

• Cedric Yarbrough as Vic, Murray's friend and co-worker from Canada.
• Troy Winbush as Puchinski, a police officer who sometimes runs afoul of the Goldbergs' craziness, and often sympathises with Beverly.
• Ben Zelevansky as Dale, the manager of the arcade frequented by Adam, Barry, and Pops.
• Kathryn Leigh Scott as Miriam Ferguson, one of Pops' lovers.
• Jennifer Irwin as Virginia Kremp, Chad's mother, neighbor to the Goldbergs.
• Barbara Alyn Woods as Mrs. Caldwell, Dana and Ari's mother. Woods is the real-life mother of Natalie Alyn Lind, who portrays Dana.
• Dustin Ybarra as Nitrous, a university student who occasionally interacts with Beverly. Usually Beverly has to make a demand of Nitrous, which he will agree to, but only after trying to coerce her into showing him her breasts or giving him $1 million.
• Suzy Nakamura as Mrs. Kim, Dave Kim's mother and the owner of a Chinese restaurant frequented by the Goldbergs.
• Rob Huebel as John Calabasas, an opportunistic businessman with several careers.
• David Koechner as Bill Lewis, Lainey's father who is raising her as a single parent. To Murray's dismay, Bill is a major fan of the Dallas Cowboys, starting a rivalry between the two. Bill and Murray eventually become good friends as they discover that, outside of football, they have a lot in common.
• Christopher Avila as Raji Mitra, an intelligent student Beverly hires to tutor Lainey.
• J. C. Spink as Joe the Bus Driver
• Ken Lerner as Lou Schwartz, Geoff's father. Lerner is the real-life father of Sam Lerner, who portrays Geoff.
• Mindy Sterling as Linda Schwartz, Geoff's mother.
• Stephanie Courtney as Essie Karp, one of Beverly's friends who is also good friends with Linda Schwartz and Virginia Kremp.
• Brec Bassinger as Zoe McIntosh, a girl Adam had a crush on.
• Uncle Louie as Uncle Louie, Valley Erica's Uncle Louie.
• Richard Kind as Michael "Formica Mike" Mikowitz, Murray's rival in the furniture business. Towards the end of season 7, Mike offers to buy the Ottoman Empire from Murray, but the two instead agree to a merger and become business partners.

  Guest cast

• Tom Cavanagh as Charles Kremp, Chad's father.
• Martin Starr as Andre, the local video store clerk who bans Murray after an excessively late rental.
• Thomas Lennon as Taun-Taun Todd, a Star Wars fan that Erica and Adam meet while waiting in line to see Return of the Jedi.
• David Spade as Gus, a sketchy manufacturer of fake IDs.
• Charlie Sheen as the man in the police station, reprising his role from Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
• Nick Swardson as Rick, a sketchy black market toy dealer.
• Chuck Norris as himself, who is heard from offscreen reading a letter to Barry.
• Weird Al Yankovic as himself.
• Chad Coleman as Leon, a manager of Spencer's Gifts store.
• Martin Kove as Master John, portraying the opposite of his role as Cobra Kai dojo sensei.
• Ilan Mitchell-Smith as Mr. Connelly, the science teacher in the fifth-season premiere episode "Weird Science". Mitchell-Smith portrayed Wyatt Donnelly in the film Weird Science.
• Mike Quick as Coach Fast, an assistant football coach at William Penn.
• Rick Moranis as Dark Helmet, reprising his role from Spaceballs.
• Rick Springfield as Gary, the owner of Gary-oke's Karaoke Bar where Erica works
• Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger, reprising his iconic role from A Nightmare on Elm Street.
• Jon Lovitz as Jimmie Moore, reprising his role from The Wedding Singer.
• Christie Brinkley reprising her role as the flirty woman in the car from National Lampoon's Vacation
• Anthony Michael Hall as Rusty, a Disneyland security guard who greets the Goldbergs when they arrive before the park opens. Hall also appears as Adam's new guidance counselor, Mr. Perott..
• Kirstie Alley as Janice Bartlett
• Rhea Perlman as Margot Letien
• John Ratzenberger as Digby Yates
• George Wendt as Ned Frank
• Tim Matheson and James Widdoes as Eric Stratton and Robert Hoover, reprising their Animal House characters who are now Delta House recruiters on the campus where Barry and Erica attend college.
• Hulk Hogan as himself
• Tommy Lee as Professor Lee
• Miranda Cosgrove as Elana Reed
• John Oates as John, a janitor who cleans up the TV studio right after Barry and Adam made a futile attempt at impersonating Hall & Oates for a telethon.

  Cameos from real-life counterparts

• Chad Kremp as a deli worker, and as Charles Kremp
• J.C. Spink as Joe the Bus Driver
• "Handsome" Ben Bauman and "Regular" Amy Gross as Double Dare producers
• Michael C. Levy and Michael Z. Levy as computer technicians
• Brea Bee as Mrs. Vanica
• R. D. Robb as Paul Sirochman, a photographer
• Jackie Geary as Lynn Geary
• Beverly Goldberg, Essie Karp, Virginia Kremp, and Linda Schwartz as a group of elderly friends that Beverly longs to be like
• Rubén Amaro Jr. as Rubén Amaro Sr.
• The real-life members of JTP all appear at the end of the episodes "Hail Barry" and "Colors".
• Eric Goldberg at the end of "MTV Spring Break" and in "Eight-Bit Goldbergs"
• Emmy Mirsky as Serry Mirsky, Emmy's mother in "Flashy Little Flashdancer" and "Hersheypark"
• Dave Kim appears as himself at the end of "Dave Kim's Party"

  Episodes

Production

Casting

Filming

Music

Reception

Critical reception

Nielsen ratings

Broadcast

Syndication

Spin-off