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If you feel like doing the right thing for our planet but don’t quite have the motivation to leave your couch, it may be a “Goode” time to just sit back and watch some tube. Television’s ABC is announcing its newest show, The Goode Family, to premier on Wednesday, May 27, 2009. The new sitcom is produced by Mike Judge of the famed Beavis and Butthead and King of the Hill, as well as John Altschuler, and Dave Krinsky.
The Goodes are a vegan family of four who are aptly named for always trying to do the “right” thing. The father, Gerald Goode (Mike Judge), is an administrator at a community college who comes from a family of “over-educated academic liberals”; the mother, Helen (Nancy Walls), is a local activist who dreams of becoming a large-scale one. Together they have a biological daughter named Bliss (Linda Cardellini), who often criticizes her parents’ motives. As the Goodes are concerned about global overpopulation, they adopt a South African boy named Ubuntu (David Herman). Ubuntu is white-skinned, however, and so the Goodes are always trying to explain to people that they had wanted a black kid, a theme that finds them in many awkward but comical racial predicaments with their African American neighbor. The family is so concerned with living a green lifestyle that they even make the dog, Che, keep a vegan diet; in effect, he craves meat so much that he chases and often tries to eat the neighborhood pets and animals.
The destitution the dog faces by having to eat a vegan diet is a theme more universal to the entire show. The Goode family tries to do it all: they use reusable shopping bags, drive a hybrid, feel guilty about consuming too much, and their environmental awareness pressures them into reducing their carbon footprint as much as they can. As they discover, though, it’s not easy being green and even their best intentions go amiss.
The writers aim to offer both comic relief to tight times and a truth about how difficult it is to be a “Goode” citizen. Parents and children alike will be able to relate to the issues in the show involving social pressure to eat, wear, and buy the right things. ABC hopes that Judge’s show will bring a new audience and perspective to the station; if you happen to catch the premier next Wednesday just be sure to turn off your television when it’s over.
