The Goldbergs – Food in a Geoffy

By: Ariba Bhuvad

Beverly Goldberg (Wendi McLendon-Covey) has always been an invader of personal space, especially when it comes to her kids. And with Erica (Hayley Orrantia) and Barry (Troy Gentile) out of the house, she’s become even clingier with Adam (Sean Giambrone). She’s infamously known for her snuggles and “nom-nom-nom” Eskimo kisses, so Adam decides to cut her off cold turkey. As a result, Beverly decides that Adam pushing her away means that he’s ready for his college phase. That means Beverly is going to be on him night and day to make sure he gets into the best college and that they will be study buddies. 

At school Dana (Natalie Alyn Lind) tells Adam that perhaps Beverly needs a hobby to distract her, but it appears she’s already part of a bowling league. Considering Erica and Barry just moved out of the house, Dana says that Beverly likely just needs time to adjust to it. Enter Beverly who starts singing “U-C-L-A” to the beat of “Y-M-C-A” when she shows up at school to say that Adam is going to Hollywood because he’s a big movie geek. 

Meanwhile, Erica is trying super hard to focus on college this time around. However, with Geoff (Sam Lerner) taking off a year to find himself, it’s not exactly going well. He’s been hanging around her dorm room catering to her every need but it’s a huge distraction. Erica decides to drop Geoff off with the JTP–Barry, Rob (Noah Munck), Andy (Matt Bush) and Matt (Shayne Topp). She’s hoping they can help him through this slump while she focuses on college. 

The JTP doesn’t always have the greatest ideas, but this time around they may have come up with their most interesting one yet. After accidentally attending an economics class, Barry now believes he knows everything about starting a business and supply and “da-man.” Instead of demand he thinks it is “da-man,” which means asking what the man wants and supplying it. Geoff comes up with the idea to start a business that delivers any type of food to your house. People will call him, he’ll place the order, pick it up and then deliver it. The person most excited about this business venture is Murray (Jeff Garlin), who can now get his favorite food without ever leaving the house. The boys of JTP offer to be Geoff’s drivers while Barry says he will be the CEO. Geoff quickly comes up with a name for the business “Food in a Geoffy,” despite Barry having other ideas. 

In school Adam is lost in history class after being assigned to do a thousand word paper on Sandra Day O’Connor. He hasn’t written a paper in three years as he has always been allowed to do videos instead. But this time around he’s not allowed to do so and has to do some writing. Adam gets the bright idea of enlisting Beverly to help him out by appealing to her desire to be as close to him as possible. She essentially ends up writing the paper for him while Adam just hangs around doing nothing. Even Pops (George Segal) pointing out that it’s wrong to con his mother doesn’t rattle Adam. 

Instead of decreasing his stress, Geoff’s business stresses him out more than ever. That’s a result of the JTP eating the food before they deliver it. Not to mention Barry keeps spending money with the “company funds” and assures Geoff that they have to spend money to make money. Erica walks into the house to learn about Geoff’s new business and witnesses firsthand just how stressed out is her boyfriend. But, hey, at least Murray is their biggest customer! 

Adam gets his paper back with a grade of C, which rattles Beverly so much that she goes to talk to Mr. Woodburn (Dan Bakkedahl) about it. Unfortunately, she makes matters worse when she reveals that she wrote the paper for Adam, which prompts Mr. Woodburn to change the letter to an F because of cheating. Beverly then decides to talk to Principal Ball (Stephen Tobolowsky) who ends up suspending Adam for two weeks over this whole ordeal. The only other punishment option is for Adam to take the colonial punishment of being shunned while sitting on the bench outside his office where people walking by can ridicule him. Naturally, Beverly won’t stand for that and opts to take the two-week suspension for Adam instead, against his wishes. 

With Food in a Geoffy bringing Geoff more stress than ever Erica decides to take him out to the movies. The moment doesn’t last very long as Barry shows up to say they’re having a big customer problem. It turns out that Murray got the wrong order – a salad instead of his cheesesteak. Geoff and Murray end up going on a sandwich hunt by visiting recent customers to see who got the wrong order. Four cast members from the show “Cheers” appear as customers Janice Bartlett (Kirstie Alley), Margot Letien (Rhea Perlman), Digby Yates (John Ratzenberger) and Ned Frank (George Wendt). Sadly for Murray, Janice ate his sandwich.  

At home Beverly comes up with an intense schedule to teach Adam during his suspension, which includes an hour-long snuggle break. This pisses Adam off and he tells Beverly that he should have never pretended to ask for her help and they’re not “study buds.” All he wanted was for her to write his paper for him and she couldn’t even do that so now he’s stuck with her. Naturally, Beverly is upset by this reveal and says that she is sorry for wanting to be a part of his life.

Adam opts to take the rest of his punishment on the shunning bench where everyone stops by to insult him, including Beverly whom Adam just wanted to direct her crazy energy into something else other than him. Mother and son come to an understanding and apologize to one another. They end up deciding that Adam will come to Beverly when he needs a break from studying. 

Given how stressed Geoff has been, Erica shuts down Food in a Geoffy and says she will take care of him just like he took care of her last year. She wants Geoff to take his time rather than stressing himself out the way he has been. 

Reminiscent of a scene from “Cheers” shows Janice, Digby and Margot all over for beer at the Goldbergs’ to accept Beverly’s apology on behalf of Murray’s sandwich hunt. Ned shows up to learn that all the beer is gone so they decide to go to the bar across the street–where everyone probably knows their name.