Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Should ‘The Goldbergs’ Be More Jewish?

Paul Lee, ABC’s group president of entertainment, met with reporters this morning during the Television Critics Association semi-annual meeting in Hollywood. Not unexpectedly, the subject of “The Goldbergs” came up.

Lee,who recently renewed his own contract with the network (though ABC has languished in fourth place for the last four years), recently renewed the Jewish-themed comedy for a second season. It joins black, Hispanic and Asian-themed comedies that the Hollywood Reporter said “ambitiously mine cultural and ethnic diversity.”

Lee, who is a British Jew, was asked if “The Goldbergs” needed to become more specifically Jewish. He responded that what aired was the vision of its creator, Adam Goldberg. “It’s Adam’s show. I’m not going to sit there and say, ‘From one Jew to another, I want a bar mitzvah.’”

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.