We’ve all been there: Paper or plastic? Organic or local? Hybrid or diesel? In these confusing times, Joe Everyman is caught in the crosshairs of consumer responsibility. It’s not enough to be good, you have to decide which good is best! Such is the premise behind ABC’s new toon sitcom from John Altschuler, Dave Krinsky and Mike Judge about a family of wannabe world changers, The Goode Family.
The show’s titular characters, the Goodes, are a middle class family trying to stay ahead of constantly shifting politically correct tides’and not quite succeeding. They’re all vegan’including their dog, who resorts to chowing on suburban fauna’and though they adopted an African orphan, turns out little Ubuntu is a white-as-snow Afrikaaner with apartheid running through his veins.
Premiering Wednesday, May 27th at 9 p.m., The Goode Family offers fans familiary Judge-style comedy with an interesting look: ‘One thing that was important to us was the animation’ We were all fans of ’70s underground comics ‘ they’re very colorful, very cheerful, yet there’s this shading that makes you feel like there’s something else going on,’ explains Altschuler. However, this complex, hippie-era style was full of complicated lines and proved a challenge. Luckily the talented team at Starz’s Film Roman studio was available to churn out the digital hand-drawn animation for 13 hilarious episodes!
Despite what Krinsky describes as ‘the day to day hardness of animation,’ both producers feel that it’s been worth the struggle. And rest assured, granola munchers, they’re not just taking the mick: ‘One of the important aspects is that we’re not trying to make fun of people who are trying to do good,’ Altschuler explains, ‘We’re making fun of the opportunists who are doing things like selling an ‘eco watch’ that’s just a 100-year-old self-winding watch.’
Left to right: Dave Krinsky, John Altschuler, Mike Judge
Be sure to pick up the June/July issue of Animation Magazine for more of John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky’s thoughts on their latest project, The Goode Family, and catch a glimpse of the show below:
