The Goode Family was an animated series that had a lot going for it but unfortunately two things wrong with it. 1) It was on ABC, a network that not until Modern Family, did anyone really watch for comedy. For years the network had made its name on terrible dramas like Lost or Grey’s Anatomy, and has only seen a resurgence in the laughs department within the last few years. 2) The Goode Family like Daria, were shows that had Mike Judge’s name associated with them that were cancelled probably because they were ahead of their time..
The Goode Family brought to light a family that lived and died from the teachings of Al Gore as they went to extreme measures to make sure their vegan/hippie lifestyle stayed intact no matter what the cost. Like most Mike Judge shows, he plays the main character Gerald Goode of whom is heavily inspired by the Beavis and Butthead character ‘David Van Driessen’ in a number of ways, the most prudent of which is their respected occupations in the public school system. That’s right, Gerald Goode was the Community before there was a Community. Gerald was pretty extreme in terms of his environmentally conscious lifestyle as he rode a bike everywhere and often admonished people and animals for effecting their home planet in any negative way. His wife, Helen, is played by Nancy Carrell of whom is constantly trying to make sure her family’s social status (or what’s left of it) is in good-standing. Before she was featured in shows like Gravity Falls or Out There, Linda Cardellini was Bliss Goode and she was usually 50/50 as to whether or not follow her parents’ tangents as often times she would challenge Gerald and Helen on their political views. Finally, the cast is rounded out by their South African-adopted son Ubuntu(Dave Herman) of whom shares a lot of personality traits of King of the Hill’s Bobby Hill, besides the fact that he plays football for his school. My personal favorite character was always the dog ‘che’ as he always hated the vegan dog food so he’d eat the neighborhood pets…my kind of dog!
The DVD release features the entire solidly written season filled with guest stars like Bob Odenkirk, Johnny Knoxville, and others plus additional features like deleted scenes and unaired scripts are nice, but kind of bland so what else does this disc have going for it?? Not much, unless if you are someone that has a great collection of canceled animated shows, this one might not do it for you and instead I advise if you want to check out the show that you do so on Netflix or something of that nature as I feel this one gets dusty in your collection after one full watch.