FOX recently canceled (my favorite animated show) King of the Hill after a great run of episodes, and it would seem like out of spite, the creators got together and decided “oh hey, what if the likes of Hank and Peggy and Bobby were actually a Vegan family living in a different town with a Vegan dog, and 2 kids instead of one, and it was less funny?” What came out of that brainstorm session with Mike Judge and other co-creators, you ask? ABC’s The Goode Family, airing at 9PM Wednesday.
Gerald and Helen Goode (Mike Judge and Nancy Carell aka Walls), the heads of The Goode Family that just wants to buy organic apples and call minorities by their right names. With a motto of WWAGD (What Would Al Gore Do?), the set out to live the best life they can, for the earth. They have a slightly rebellious daughter named Bliss (voiced by Linda Cardellini), and an adopted South African son named Ubuntu (David Herman, more annoying than Seth Green’s Chris Griffin on Family Guy). Helen’s dad (Brian Doyle-Murray from Grounded for Life) is the lone member of The Goode Family who isn’t trying to do well by Earth, and he does his best to frustrate the family each day.
Episodes 2 and 3 are funnier than the pilot, but this isn’t a show I’m going to go out of my way to watch, by any means. As with King of the Hill, there will be super fans, and there will be people who just don’t get it. I don’t expect it to last too long on ABC, but we’ll see!
