My friend Phiam was good enough to promote The Goode Family on his Facebook profile (yay social media!), otherwise I would have missed what is the best animated series ever delivered by Mike Judge. I was never a fan of Beavis and Butt-head and I rarely watched King of the Hill, but I couldn’t get enough of The Goode Family which showed on ABC Family. If you never heard about this show, allow me to quickly bring you up to speed.
Pic via Big Hollywood
Mike Goode, his wife Helen, their daughter Bliss and their adopted son Ubuntu are the Goode family, a progressive liberal family living in Greenville, Illinois. Bliss seeks to distance herself from her embarrassing parents; Ubuntu struggles to balance a progressive liberal attitude with being a teenager in high school; Helen desperately covets the Greenville social circles occupied by her nemesis Margo who latches onto progressive issues as the latest fad; and Mike believes in the doing the right (read: left) thing through open dialogue and processing. There is also the family dog Che that is kept on a vegan diet at home but manages to always sneak in a meal of neighborhood animals.
I can’t tell you how many times I snorted my coffee as I watched this show, laughing at the Goode family. Yes, you read that correctly: at. How are they to refer to their neighbor Ray who is black—is he black or African-American? How can the family show their open acceptance of gays to an affluent lesbian couple that recently moved into Greenville? How can Helen and Mike turn city youth away from gang activity through the power of art and photography? The comedy genius of this show is due to the Goode’s intentions as they strive to be shining beacons of progressive values in an otherwise everyday Americana town.
ABC Family decided to cancel The Goode Family due to “poor ratings”, however TV Squad puts the blame squarely on the network, unable to deal with the show’s politics whilst shuffling the show several times to different time slots. I don’t know what qualifies as “poor ratings” but I enjoyed watching every episode. The show’s writers may have intentionally sought to poke fun at progressive liberals, but it was those same progressive liberal actions of the Goode family that made the show so enjoyable to watch. This family could power household electronics solely from the self-worth achieved by their doing the right thing.
I’m shocked that ABC Family wasn’t appreciative of The Goode Family, considering one of its other shows The Secret Life of the American Teenager addresses teenage pregnancy—one episode included a discussion about abortion. While teenage pregnancies may be an unfortunate cultural norm in America, I don’t think a satire of Whole Foods in a cartoon is taking things too far.
But good news! On the facebook profile (social media to the rescue!) for the show, the creators had this to share with fans:
That was our first season. We will let all of you know as soon as we have our new network and time slot. A lot of people have asked how they can see episodes they missed and we will try and find an answer. This show has been the most creatively satisfying thing we have ever done and we look forward to continuing it.
I would be surprised if Fox or Comedy Central weren’t already reaching out to the producers of the show with offers. But why couldn’t CBS pick up the show? Its sitcoms are definitely not of the Murder, She Wrote variety. Also, I’m sure Tom Bosley would laugh quite a lot at the show.
You can watch clips of The Goode Family on ABC.com but you’ll need to go elsewhere for full episodes. Don’t ask me where, you’re an adult and you know how to use Google. Make sure you keep beverages away from your computer unless you are certain that you can spray away from your monitor.