‘The Goldbergs’: Flashing Back to the ’80s on the Set of ABC’s Comedy

This story first appeared in a special Emmy issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.

For a Jewish family, they sure have a lot of Easter eggs. But everywhere you turn on the set of The Goldbergs, creator Adam F. Goldberg‘s autobiographical comedy about growing up in suburban Pennsylvania, there are hidden treasures.

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Look carefully, for instance, at the family photos in the living room. Tucked among real childhood pictures of the cast — Jeff Garlin plays gruff father Murray, Wendi McLendon-Covey is the show’s “smother mother” Beverly, Hayley Orrantia is oldest child Erica, Troy Gentile plays dim-bulb middle child Barry, Sean Giambrone is pop culture-obsessed youngest son Adam and George Segal is goofy but wise “Pops” — there are childhood photos of Goldberg himself.

Even the vintage toys scattered around have a backstory; they’re almost all the actual toys Goldberg played with as a kid (many now worth a small fortune).

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“One day I just started playing with them,” says Giambrone, now 16. “I tried transforming all the Transformers — couldn’t do it. They’re impossible. They’re poking your hands, and you get cuts.”

The episode filming today on the Sony lot in Culver City — the season two finale, which aired May 13 — shows various Goldberg family members learning to say the words “I love you.”For this particular clan, it’s more difficult than it sounds. 

“It’s a very relatable show,” says McLendon-Covey. “There are plenty of people out there who still don’t feel like they’ve gotten out of their awkward phase, so that strikes a chord.”

Ironically, the show’s ‘80s milieu is toughest on showbiz vet Segal, 81, one of the few on the set today who were full-grown adults during the decade. “The last thing I remember are the ‘70s,” he says. “It starts to get blurry around the ’80s and ’90s.”