Adam F. Goldberg

Not to be confused with Adam Goldberg or Adam Goldberg (American football).

Adam F. Goldberg
Goldberg at the 2022 New York Comic Con
Born
Adam Frederick Goldberg

(1976-04-02) April 2, 1976 (age 48)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Occupations
  • Television producer
  • film producer
  • writer
SpouseSara Goldberg
ChildrenNone

Adam Frederick Goldberg (born April 2, 1976)[1][2] is an American television and film producer, and writer. Goldberg is best known as the creator and showrunner of The Goldbergs, a television sitcom based on his childhood in which he is portrayed by Sean Giambrone with Patton Oswalt taking on the role of narrating the show. He also created and led the sitcoms Breaking In, Imaginary Mary, and Schooled, a spin-off of The Goldbergs.

Early life and work

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Goldberg was born to a Jewish family[3] in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and lived in nearby Jenkintown.[4] His parents are Beverly Goldberg (née Solomon) (born October 8, 1943) and Murray Goldberg (September 25, 1940 – February 1, 2008);[4] he is the youngest of three sons, with brothers Eric (born August 18, 1967) and Barry (born October 15, 1969).[5] He produced his first play, Dr. Pickup, in 1992 at the age of 15, and won the Philadelphia Young Playwrights Festival.[6]

His plays were performed in venues such as the Sundance Playwrights Lab,[7] the Illusion Theater, The Greenwich Street Theater, The Saint Marks Theatre, The Tada! Theater, The Walnut Street Theater and the Joseph Papp Theater.[8]

He was a finalist for the American Theater Critics Association's 1997 Osborn Award for his full-length play, One on One.[9]

His dramedy The Purple Heart was produced by the Institute for Arts and Education at the Annenberg Theater and also won first place in The Very Special Arts Playwriting Award and was produced at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.[10][11][12]

Career

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Screenwriting

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Goldberg's first comedy-writing job began in 2003 for the sitcom Still Standing, where he worked for four years and finished as a co-producer. After his first year on Still Standing, he teamed up with Picture Machine, Trigger Street Productions, and college friend Kyle Newman to develop the screenplay for Fanboys. After a year, they sold it to The Weinstein Company. The screenplay ended up seventh on the 2005 Black List for most popular unproduced scripts of the year.[13]

After the success of Fanboys, Goldberg was hired to write the screenplays for The Jetsons; a 2007 remake of Revenge of the Nerds (1984) starring Adam Brody, which was cancelled after three weeks of filming; Aliens in the Attic; and The Muppets' Wizard of Oz.[14] He also spent a year writing on DreamWorks Animation's How to Train Your Dragon, before moving over to write Monsters vs. Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space as well as the 2011 How to Train Your Dragon Christmas special, Gift of the Night Fury.[15] He is currently adapting the graphic novel Seal Team 7 for director Shawn Levy, and bringing the book Simon Bloom: Gravity Keeper to the screen for Walden Media.[16] Goldberg has also produced several movies, including The Comebacks, Daddy Day Camp, Bobism, Jeff the Immortal, and a remake of Night of the Living Dorks.[17][18]

Television

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On the television side, Goldberg teamed up with Adam Sandler's production company Happy Madison to write four pilots for various networks. In 2010, Happy Madison introduced him to King of Kong director Seth Gordon and together they created the 2011 Fox comedy series Breaking In. The show was pitched as "The Office meets The A-Team" and, after a year of development, was picked up to series.[19] Before Breaking In, Goldberg also wrote on the shows Aliens in America, Secret Girlfriend, Voltron Force, WordGirl and Kevin Williamson's Glory Days.

In 2011, Goldberg signed a three-year overall deal with Sony Pictures TV.[13] During this time, Goldberg was a producer on NBC's Community while developing new projects. In 2012, Goldberg got a pilot commitment to shoot an autobiographical show about his family titled How the F--- Am I Normal?,[20] and also reunited with Fox on a pilot starring AJ Michalka and Sean Giambrone. The autobiographical show was picked up by ABC with a title change to The Goldbergs and ran through ten seasons before ending in 2023. He also co-created Imaginary Mary and The Goldbergs' spinoff series Schooled for the network.

Goldberg also co-developed and produced The Muppets Mayhem, a Muppets spinoff series starring The Electric Mayhem, which streamed on Disney Plus in 2023.

Other projects

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On July 22, 2020, Goldberg, along with Uncle Louie, launched challenge coins with the Garbage Pail Kids. They were licensed by Topps and sold out in minutes.[21] On January 26, 2024, Goldberg was announced to be co-writing the Marvel Comics series Aliens: What If…? with Brian Volk-Weiss, Hans Rodionoff, and Leon and Paul Reiser, to be illustrated by Guiu Vilanova.[22]

References

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  1. ^ Clute, Emily (January 5, 2022). "Everything The Goldbergs Changes From The Real-Life Events". Screen Rant. Retrieved May 22, 2022.
  2. ^ "Adam F. Goldberg". TV Insider. October 10, 2017. Retrieved May 22, 2022.
  3. ^ Times of Israel: "TV Land’s favorite Jewish family gears up for third season" BY LISA KLUG September 18, 2015
  4. ^ a b "Dr. Murray Goldberg Obituary". Philly.com. February 2, 2008. Retrieved April 5, 2017.
  5. ^ THE GOLDBERGS (2013-) February 1, 2018
  6. ^ "Wordplay August 2009". Issuu.com. August 31, 2009. Retrieved June 14, 2013.
  7. ^ "National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts Playwrights | Archives | Sundance Institute". History.sundance.org. 1995. Retrieved June 14, 2013.
  8. ^ Greenberg, Wendy (June 17, 2010). "A Jenkintown Student Is Serious About His Plays Adam Goldberg's Dramas Win Awards And Are Being Performed Around The Country. He Can Act, Too". Philadelphia Inquirer. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved June 14, 2013.
  9. ^ Lefkowitz, David (May 2, 1997). "Keith Glover Wins Critics' Osborn Award, May 2". Playbill. Archived from the original on October 21, 2012. Retrieved January 11, 2022.
  10. ^ "Ellen Gray: Jenkintown native's show premieres on Fox tonight". Philadelphia Inquirer. April 6, 2011. Retrieved June 14, 2013.
  11. ^ Keating, Douglas J. (April 12, 1996). "Presenting 3 Winners By Local High School Students". Philadelphia Inquirer. Archived from the original on May 9, 2012. Retrieved June 14, 2013.
  12. ^ Michnewicz, Paul-Douglas; Widder, Elena (1994). "Playwright Discovery Program: Resource Guide for Teachers" (PDF) (2002 ed.). VSA arts. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 26, 2011. Retrieved April 5, 2017.
  13. ^ a b Andreeva, Nellie (March 1, 2011). "'Breaking In' Co-Creator Adam Goldberg Signs Overall Deal With Sony Pictures TV". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved June 14, 2013.
  14. ^ Franklin, Garth. "The Jetsons Finally Takes Off". Dark Horizons. Archived from the original on July 27, 2012. Retrieved June 14, 2013.
  15. ^ "How To Train Your Dragon – Film Reel Reviews". The Film Reel. March 27, 2010. Archived from the original on August 3, 2013. Retrieved June 14, 2013.
  16. ^ Fleming, Mike (January 14, 2011). "Walden Media Acquires Young Adult Series 'Simon Bloom: Gravity Keeper'". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved June 14, 2013.
  17. ^ Topel, Fred (August 4, 2015). "Adam-F.-Goldberg | /Film". Slashfilm.com. Retrieved June 14, 2013.
  18. ^ Woo, Kelly (September 19, 2007). "The Write Stuff: Interview with Screenwriter Adam F. Goldberg". The Moviefone Blog. Archived from the original on June 12, 2012. Retrieved June 14, 2013.
  19. ^ "'Breaking In' is 'Office meets A-Team'". Digital Spy. April 7, 2011. Retrieved June 14, 2013.
  20. ^ Andreeva, Nellie (September 7, 2012). "Adam F. Goldberg – 'How The F- Am I Normal Moves To ABC". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved June 14, 2013.
  21. ^ Association (July 20, 2020). "Garbage Pail Kids". gpknews.com/. Retrieved July 26, 2020.
  22. ^ Marvel (January 26, 2024). "Marvel Comics Brings What If...? Storytelling to the 'Alien' Universe". Marvel.com. Retrieved January 26, 2024.
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