After Mike Judge dominated the animation world with his hit shows Beavis and Butthead and Kind of the Hill, he set out to deliver an all new series in 2009 called The Goode Family. The series followed more along the lines of King of the Hill about a family in a more realistic world instead of the zany over the top adult humor. The show aired on ABC for one season, but just didn’t grab the audience like his previous shows did.
The Goode Family follows a family struggling with the modern social and environmental responsibilities of being liberals, and the issues that arise for a working class family while trying to be politically correct all the time. Much like his other works, Judge tackles contemporary society from a comic approach. The animation is great and could have easily been a spin off series from King of the Hill in look and tone, but maintained its own over all vibe. The voice work is great featuring the talents of Mike Judge, Nancy Carell, David Herman, Linda Cardellini, Dee Bradley Baker, and Brian Doyle-Murray. While the family is a bit over the top in regards to the environment issues, it is the exact thing that makes the absurdity of the message work so well. This is one of those shows that didn’t get the chance it deserved. The humor is more highbrow than most animated series of its kind, but is still on par with the laughs of King if the Hill. No telling why it didn’t grab the audience it needed to keep it going, but it has all the ingredients to do so.
If you never got a chance to check out this series when it originally aired, have no fear as Shout Factory is bringing the complete series to DVD for the first time. This must have set for any Judge fan includes not only all 13 episodes of the series, but also audio commentaries, deleted scenes, unaired scripts and more.
The Goode Family is available now on DVD, so head over to www.shoutfactory.com to grab you a copy.
Comments