The Goldbergs – 8-bit Goldbergs

By: Ariba Bhuvad

The 80s were all about floppy disks and video games (who else remembers Oregon Trail?) and Adam (Sean Giambrone) was all about them. In fact, he was so obsessed that he decides to go hunting for games in the black market, which turns out Johnny Atkins (Sean Marquette) runs for video games. Just like every other teenage kid Adam wants to get his hands on a game called Leisure Suit Larry. Everyone is excited to play it for its adult-themed scenarios and, luckily for Adam, Johnny has a bootleg copy of it.

Back at Adam’s house Chad Kremp (Jacob Hopkins), Dave Kim (Kenny Ridwan) and Adam start playing the game but are disappointed when it doesn’t live up to the hype. However, he’s able to continue being in the world of computers through the computer programming class at school, which has a fun project for the students to do. They have to come up with their own program and as Adam sits and ponders about what his game will be about a stroke of genius happens. He realizes that everyone in his family is goofy and silly and would make the perfect focus for his game. The game is basically writing itself as he sees Murray (Jeff Garlin) come home and take off his pants before heading to his favorite recliner.

And while Adam was deep in game mode, Pops (George Segal) was busy trying to gamble in Atlantic City. Beverly (Wendi McLendon-Covey) isn’t too happy about his gambling addiction and is worried it’s going to be very bad for him if he keeps it up. Since Murray won’t go with her, she decides to take Bill (David Koechner) to Atlantic City to spy on Pops and see what he does. It turns out that Pops isn’t exactly rolling in the dough which worries Beverly even more.

In his programming class Adam reveals The Goldbergs game and explains that each of the characters represents his family. Adam doesn’t seem too worried about how his family will react to it because he’s been filming them his whole life. However, it turns out that Barry is annoyed when he sees the game and says Adam should have gotten consent. He tries to get Murray on his side, but he doesn’t really seem to care as both his computer version and himself calls Barry “a moron.” The game even has an Erica (Hayley Orrantia) in it who lays around being lazy and sings. When Erica sees her character in the game she’s annoyed and says that he needs to take her out of it. So, Adam simply changes the name from Erica to Eric. Barry’s complaints continue as he points out that the computer game Barry doesn’t run like him at all (he definitely does).

After seeing Pops in Atlantic City it seems Beverly wants to ban Pops from betting. She plans to trick by having Bill take bets from Pops but not placing them so she can teach him a lesson. As Pops begins to place bets Bill pretends to call them in. Meanwhile, Adam is still getting harassed by his family to make changes to the game. Barry wants Adam to add Geoff (Sam Lerner), Rob (Noah Munck) and Andy (Matt Bush) to the game, but wants him to keep Matt (Shayne Topp) out of it because he’s trying to send him a message. This is super annoying for Adam because the game is his and he doesn’t want to keep changing things around. However, Barry points out that Adam has made his character in the game unlike him and he should accurately represent himself. After talking to his “creative team,” Adam ends up having to change the character and is not happy about it at all. Out of frustration he breaks the floppy disc for the game because it’s not like he wanted. Little does he know that Johnny Atkins has already made bootleg copies of it and everyone at school is playing it.

Pops’ gambling continues to get worse, but he is blessed with a lucky bet when the pregnant horse he bet on ends up winning. Unfortunately, the bet was never placed but he has no idea that Beverly did that and is asking Bill to give him his winnings. As the popularity of Adam’s game skyrockets Erica gets mad at him for not putting her in the game. He reminds her that she is the one that wanted to be taken out of it and Geoff points out that she is in the game still and that Eric is still just like Erica. Fed up with all of it Adam says he will never make anything about the family again because of how they’ve been acting.

Bill and Beverly have to figure out a way to tell Pops about the fake bets because he has been asking for the money and Bill has been avoiding him. And while they figure that out, Adam has an inspiring conversation with Murray while he gets annoyed at Erica and Barry. Murray likes Adam’s game because its made out of love and he doesn’t know why everyone is being so sensitive about it. He wants Adam to keep making things like this because he’s so good at it (he sure is!).

To celebrate his “winnings” Pops decides to take Beverly out for a fancy dinner where she finally comes clean about all the lying. It turns out Pops wanted to try and fix this problem himself because that’s what he has always done. He’s never been the problem and feels useless because of it. But Beverly tells him she wants to help out so they decide to cut up his casino membership card together.

Barry and Erica finally come around to Adam’s game after hearing what Murray had to say about it and appreciate what Adam was trying to do. This calls for a Goldbergs’ family hug! At the end of the episode Hayley Orrantia interviews the real Adam Goldberg’s other brother Eric, who was replaced by the character of Erica on the show (very much like the game).