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'The Goode Family,'
good enough

ABC animated series spoofs political correctness

By Tom Conroy
May 27, 2009

An animated series mocking a politically correct and environmentally conscious family might seem one-note, but “The Goode Family” succeeds by creating characters that are three-dimensional.

Executive producer Mike Judge has always tempered his satire with sympathy for his subjects, whether they’re the conservative middle-class Texans of “King of the Hill” or the two title sociopaths of “Beavis and Butt-head.”

The family members in this new series, premiering on ABC tonight at 9:01 p.m., are basically the Hill family flipped: The parents live by the “WWAGD” rule (“What would Al Gore do?”) and are even raising the dog as a vegan; the teenage girl is smart (if a little boy crazy); and the teenage son is obtuse but athletically gifted.

Created by Judge with two “King of the Hill” writer-producers, John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky, the series knows its subjects’ lifestyle and mind-set well: When the mother, Helen (voiced by Nancy Carell), shops at the One Earth supermarket, she’s confronted with a choice of apples: Conventionally Harvested ($3.99 a pound), Organic ($5.99), Sustainably Harvested Organic ($6.99), Locally Grown Sustainably Harvested Organic ($8.49) and Fair Trade Locally Grown Sustainably Harvested Certified Organic ($10.99).

At the same supermarket, when Helen realizes she’s forgotten her reusable shopping bag, she saves face by carrying out her groceries in her arms, claiming she’s heard that reusables are made in sweatshops.

Simply piling on details like that would get tiresome after a while, but the three episodes that ABC has made available for review suggest that the creators will keep inventing workable plots.

In one, a neighbor suggests that the son, Ubuntu (his parents wanted to adopt an African child but wound up with a white South African), try out for football. “ Tackle football?” says the dad, Gerald, played by Judge using the voice that fans may recognize as that of the touchy-feely teacher in “Beavis and Butt-head.”

In the premiere, the daughter, Bliss (Linda Cardellini), insists that Gerald take her to an abstinence-only dance. The fair-minded producers take their shots at both sides in the controversy over what to tell teenagers about sex, and Gerald sees some of the appeal in waiting till marriage. He panics, of course, when a documentary filmmaker shows up at the dance. “I cannot be seen in here,” he whispers. “I work in academia.”

Although a fair number of the jokes provoke only smiles of recognition rather than belly laughs, “The Goode Family” is an appealing alternative to all the recycled material that will dominate network programming till fall.

Tom Conroy is a Connecticut writer.	© 2009 Media Life Magazine

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