We’ve been eagerly awaiting “The Goldbergs” Halloween special featuring Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger, the horror icon he made famous. With only days away until its airing, you may be wondering just how Freddy’s cameo came to be.
Adam F. Goldberg the executive producer of The Goldbergs, which airs on ABC-TV on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. (EST) had the same reoccurring dream for the past four years – “How can I get Robert Englund to recreate his Freddy Krueger character for an episode of The Goldbergs?”
After a four-year pursuit, Goldberg finally convinced Englund to recreate the character and appear in the upcoming episode entitled, “Mister Knifey Hands,” airing on ABC-TV on Wednesday, October 24th at 8 p.m. EST / 7 p.m. CST.
Convincing Robert Englund to come out of retirement to play Freddy Krueger one last time is a true bucket-list moment for me as a writer,” said Goldberg. “I’ve been a longtime obsessive fan, collecting Freddy artwork and action figures. It took me months to convince Robert to revisit the character. Luckily, his manager Joe Rice is a big Goldbergs fan and helped me convince Robert that the world needed to see Freddy one last time.”
“The moment Robert read the scene, I envisioned he recognized that I was a true fan who knew the voice of Freddy,” said Goldberg. “On our first call when we went over the script, I told him ‘of course I knew how to write lines for Freddy. He traumatized me as a child and is burned into my brain!’”
“Watching Robert spend four hours getting back into makeup and bringing our script to life was a true dream and by far a highlight of the show for our cast and crew,” added Goldberg. “The story in this episode is actually true — after I saw Elm Street 3, I didn’t sleep for a week and my mom was beside herself and desperate to fix the problem.”
“The Golbergs” Halloween special marks the first time since 2003’s Freddy vs. Jason that Englund appeared as Freddy Krueger on camera.
“The Goldbergs” is an autobiography of Goldberg’s experiences of growing up in a Philadelphia-suburban family in the 1980s. Goldberg often inserts recreations of his personal life into the show, including actual videos from his youth.
In “Mister Knifey Hands,” despite the wishes of Beverly Goldberg (Wendy McLendon-Covey), Jackie (Alexis Zall)’s parents allow Adam Goldberg (Sean Giambrone) to watch A Nightmare on Elm Street and a disagreement between the families ensues. Beverly dreams of going toe to toe with Freddy, which teaches her an important lesson about her son’s relationship with Jackie.
Adam F. Goldberg and Doug Robinson are executive producers. The episode is produced by Adam F. Goldberg Productions, Doug Robinson Productions, and Happy Madison in association with Sony Pictures Television.
For more information about “The Goldbergs,” visit abc.com/TheGoldbergs.
