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The Big Picture

• Robert Englund's last time playing Freddy Krueger wasn't in a horror movie, but in the sitcom The Goldbergs .
• The show's creator, Adam F. Goldberg, had been trying to get Englund on the show since it began.
• Englund agreed to do the episode because it touched him emotionally and captured the authentic nostalgia of A Nightmare on Elm Street .

When you think of the horror genre, one of the first things to pop into your head is likely the villains that have become synonymous with the genre. Whether it be Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, Ghostface, or Freddy Krueger. Each one has played a pivotal role in making the horror genre what it is today, and are some of pop culture’s most recognizable figures. Most are played by various actors throughout their respective franchises, but a lucky few have one consistent actor portraying them throughout their various sequels. Roger L. Jackson is the voice of Ghostface in Scream, Brad Dourif is the voice of Chucky, and perhaps most famously is Robert Englund who has portrayed Freddy Krueger in every A Nightmare on Elm Street film aside from the 2010 remake. When a character is played so well, it’s hard to see the role get passed on to someone else, which is why it’s such a treat that Robert Englund stuck around for all eight movies in the franchise. But eventually, the hat – or in this case, sweater – needs to be hung up, and though many may remember Freddy vs. Jason as Englund’s final Freddy Krueger performance, that’s actually not the case. In fact, the last time Robert Englund portrayed the dream demon wasn’t in horror at all.

It's always exciting to see horror legends in other roles and see the full extent of their acting capabilities. Robert Englund is no exception. He's been in many other horror projects since he last starred in a Nightmare on Elm Street movies, such as Urban Legend, Lake Placid vs. Anaconda, and Stranger Things Season 4. So it may be surprising to learn that the last time he played Krueger wasn't in a horror movie at all, and was actually quite wholesome, which is the complete opposite of what his character stands for.

The Goldbergs

This ABC show takes place in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania in the 1980s and follows the lives of a family named The Goldbergs. 

When Was the Last Time Robert Englund Played Freddy Krueger?

In all eight movies (nine if you count the remake) in the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, Robert Englund portrayed the knife-handed, dream demon Freddy Krueger. Starting all the way back in 1984, the last Nightmare movie starring Englund in the Freddy role was 2003’s Freddy vs. Jason. The long-awaited film came nine years after the last A Nightmare on Elm Street movie, Wes Craven’s New Nightmare. Freddy vs. Jason serves as the much-anticipated showdown between Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees. The showdown had been long talked about and was teased at the end of 1993’s Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, when Krueger’s famous knife hand shot out from the dirt and pulled Jason’s mask into hell with him. And though that may have been the last time Robert Englund portrayed Freddy in the Nightmare continuity, it wasn’t the last time he’d find himself playing Freddy Krueger again.

Cut to 2018 – The Goldbergs is in its sixth season and thriving. And like with each previous season, the showrunners have to decide what to do with their Halloween episode for the season. When series creator Adam F. Goldberg once again suggests they do something themed around A Nightmare on Elm Street and try to get Robert Englund on board. And it worked. Thus, the Season 6 episode “Mister Knifey-Hands” was born. At first, it just seems like any other episode of the sitcom. It begins with Adam (Sean Giambrone) and Jackie (Alexis G. Zall) watching A Nightmare on Elm Street against his mom Beverly’s (Wendi McLendon-Covey) wishes.

Though he at first believes he is old enough to handle the scary movie, he’s soon proven wrong and finds himself unable to sleep without being haunted by visions of Freddy Krueger’s knife-hand. Later, Adam’s parents get into an argument with Jackie’s parents for letting the kids watch the movie, which leads to a heated argument between Adam and Beverly, in which he tells her he wishes she wasn’t his mom. This leads Beverly into a nightmare of her own. Torn up about what Adam said, she dreams of Freddy Krueger, and through the nightmare somehow manages to a) make it out alive, and b) admit that she was wrong in how she treated Jackie’s parents. Everyone makes up by the episode's end, and Freddy doesn’t claim any victims, so all is well. But how exactly did the show manage to land Robert Englund in the first place?

How Did ‘The Goldbergs’ Pull Off a Freddy Krueger Return?

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the cast and crew of The Goldbergs discussed the episode and how they managed to pull off such a huge cameo. Series creator Adam F. Goldberg – whose childhood the show is based on – revealed that he had wanted to do this since the show began.

"This movie was the first place I go to when I think of my childhood and Halloween.” Goldberg began, “I told Robert Englund when I saw this movie I went home and I threw up all night. I didn’t sleep all week. It was so real to me, and my mom was freaking out and was trying everything — baths, the whole thing. That was a traumatic experience for me. So every year I say to the writers, 'Let’s take the shot and try and get Robert to be Freddy,' and everyone said, 'Let’s do something we could actually make — we’ll do Poltergeist instead.' So this year I took the shot. It’s just one of those bucket list things to try and do this Freddy episode. It took quite a bit of convincing — I first approached Robert’s manager, who knew the show, he related to the show, he knew we would treat it with respect, we would treat it real, and I get why that’s a hard sell, to have Freddy Krueger on The Goldbergs . I wrote from my heart, I said, 'This character is in my DNA, starting with the trauma, then turning it into something with my friends' — this was our bonding thing, making these horror movies — 'this is why I do what I do now,' and Robert responded and said, 'I trust you.'"

Robert Englund himself chimed in on the making of the episode, saying,

"The serendipity for me was not only wanting to work with Wendi, but also...the last 10 or 15 years, people have approached me and told me these family stories about watching A Nightmare on Elm Street in the exact same period as The Goldbergs . The generation from the '80s that saw it, Adam’s generation, remember it now as a family-shared experience — getting to go to the mom and dad video store to rent it, pre-Blockbuster, pay-per-view, see it on whatever cable existed back then, a marathon for Halloween...and I get this response from people who’ve lost a parent now or an older brother that went to Iraq or somewhere, and they have this memory of a family being scared together and being alive together and eating pizza together and cracking open a brew together in the living room of the family home somewhere in America the first time new movies were brought home for a whole new generation. It's something I never, ever imagined, that you’d consider Nightmare on Elm Street to have any contribution to the American family. I was ostracized as being this purveyor of violence and gore and bad for the culture, and I was very defensive of that because prior to Freddy I had been a very successful, mainstream, almost A-list actor and television star, but now I’ve been getting this new feedback, and when I saw Adam’s first draft, it just touched me so much...that’s really when I had to say yes — when I saw the words, the script, the story, and how sweet and how absolutely true and authentic it is."

The entire pitch of having Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger join The Goldbergs very easily could have gone south. Things very easily could have gotten too campy, but the showrunners managed to find a perfect balance of nostalgia and humor, and somehow made it quite hearty at the same time. So, not only was the last time Robert Englund played Freddy Krueger not within the A Nightmare on Elm Street continuity, but it was also strangely wholesome. Who knew?

The Goldbergs is available to stream on HULU in the U.S.

WATCH ON HULU

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