Watch My Show: The Goldbergs' Adam F. Goldberg Answers Our Showrunner Survey

Writer-producer Adam F. Goldberg has tried for years to turn his vivid memories of growing up with his loud, crazy family into a sitcom. With ABC's freshman comedy The Goldbergs(Tuesdays, 9/8c, ABC), he finally gets his chance. Set in the 1980s, The Goldbergs stars Sean Giambrone as 11-year-old Adam, with Curb Your Enthusiasm's Jeff Garlin and Bridemaids' Wendi McLendon-Covey playing his TV parents, Murray and Beverly. George Segal also stars as the family's eccentric grandpa. Goldberg took our TV Guide Magazine showrunner survey to explain why we should take his, like, totally awesome trip back to the '80s.

TV Guide Magazine: I've got room in my life to watch just one more show. Tell me why it should be yours.
Adam F. Goldberg: Wait, you have room for one show? Yeah, watch Breaking Bad.

TV Guide Magazine: Who should be watching The Goldbergs?
Goldberg: Anyone who has a dad who would drop his pants while coming through the front door or a mom who would hide in her closet and sniff her [kid's old] baby blankets like a crack addict. 

TV Guide Magazine: Give us an equation for your show.
Goldberg: The Wonder Years times the kid from Jerry McGuire plus the funny guy from Curb Your Enthusiasm divided by my actual family minus the Goldbergs TV show from the '50s.

TV Guide Magazine: What's the best thing anyone has said or written about your show?
Goldberg: A 12-year-old tweeted me that even though they never knew the '80s, the show was awesome.

TV Guide Magazine: What's the worst thing?
Goldberg: That Murray and Beverly are broad, unbelievable "characters." Oh, they're real all right.

TV Guide Magazine: Who was right?
Goldberg: Me. The real Beverly Goldberg can call them if they don't believe me.

TV Guide Magazine: What's an alternate title for your show?
Goldberg: How the F**k Am I Normal? The original title that I sold to ABC.

TV Guide Magazine: What credit of yours would you prefer we forget?
Goldberg: My turn as Jury Member #4 in the 1997 movie Trial and Error starring Michael Richards.

TV Guide Magazine: What personal 1980s memory would you most like to forget?
Goldberg: The time I scored a goal in ice hockey. On my own goal. And I looked up in the stands where my dad (Murray) was sitting shaking his head in shame.

TV Guide Magazine: Favorite 1980s song/movie/videogame/TV show.
Goldberg: Toto's "Africa" / The Goonies / Atari Pitfall!/ Quantum Leap (1989, but it still counts!)

TV Guide Magazine: Let's scare the network. Tell us an idea that didn't make it to the screen.
Goldberg: Adam saves up all his money to buy a Nintendo Power Glove. It's his prized possession... until he discovers that Barry's girlfriend was wearing it when she did "hand stuff" to him.

TV Guide Magazine: Finish this sentence: "If you like _______, you'll love our show."
Goldberg: The Wonder Years, Modern Family, Freaks and Geeks, The Cosby Show.

TV Guide Magazine: Tell us something we don't know about your cast.
Goldberg: One of Jeff Garlin's earliest TV appearances was in Baywatch where he ran in slow-motion towards Pamela Anderson.

TV Guide Magazine: Pick another show and start a fake feud.
Goldberg: Game of Thrones. Bring it on. On second thought, is Hot in Cleveland available?

TV Guide Magazine: With what show would you like to do a crossover episode, and how would it go?  
Goldberg: The Americans. It's also set in the '80s but it's a serious drama about undercover KGB agents. The Goldbergs could get embroiled in some espionage — and be the loudest spies on television.

TV Guide Magazine: Come up with a premise for a spin-off to The Goldbergs.
Goldberg: Patton Oswalt (the voice over narrator) plays an adult Adam married to a therapist who plays referee between me and my mom. So, my life now.

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