This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
Actor Jeff Garlin, who left ABC’s “The Goldbergs” in 2021 amid misconduct allegations and an HR investigation, says he traveled to Cincinnati in the dead of winter to get treatment after planning to take his own life.
Garlin shared the account on SiriusXM’s “Where Everybody Knows Your Name,” describing a mental health crisis tied to turbulent final days on the sitcom and his struggles with bipolar disorder.
He said he reached a breaking point after a tense standoff with producers over a final scene that doubled as a Pizza Hut advertisement without his knowledge. “The last scene I ever filmed was me with Tim Meadows, Dave Koechner, and Troy Gentile, who played my son. And it essentially was a Pizza Hut commercial. No one told me,” Garlin said. He refused to appear in the ad portion of the scene and insisted his character be filmed leaving beforehand.
“I left, and I knew I’d never come back to that set again,” he said.
Garlin said a producer later came to his home to negotiate his return. He asked for a substantial raise and a schedule of just one workday a week, and producers agreed — an arrangement he said created resentment among some castmates. “I had resentment from my castmates, not as much the crew, but there was great resentment from some of them,” he said. “I didn’t know it at the time, though. I was naive.”
Amid the fallout, Garlin said he had a nervous breakdown and planned to end his life, telling a loved one named Susie a specific time he intended to die. “I hate when people don’t reach out, but at noon today I will be dead. I’m letting you know I will be dead,” he recalled telling her. Susie then contacted his ex-wife Marla and girlfriend Sari, who reached his friend Brad Morris. “He watched me while they were looking for a place for me to go,” Garlin said.
That search led him to Cincinnati, where he underwent dialectical behavior therapy. “I went to Cincinnati because I was serious,” Garlin said. “I’m not going to some rehab in Beverly Hills. F— that, man.”
Garlin credited the treatment with helping pull him back from suicidal thoughts, and said he has continued working on his recovery through Alcoholics Anonymous, ongoing counseling, boxing, fitness and creative projects.
“And I’m just now, this is from five years ago, whatever,” he said. “I’m just now feeling really good. Just now.”
Looking back on his time on the sitcom, Garlin said he didn’t always understand how his bipolar disorder was affecting those around him. “I used to, over the years, wonder why people would avoid me when I was manic,” he said. “Most of the crew enjoyed me being funny, but there were some I could see, like, ‘What’s their hesitation? That’s so weird.'” He described days of feeling inexplicably apologetic followed by periods of emotional numbness. “It was blackness around me, even if I drove home in the afternoon,” he said.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login